Jungle Fowl Red

[animals1981]

What is it like keeping these? Can they be let out just like every other chicken breed?

Also I was wondering what chicken breeds do u guys say are most close to red jungle fowl gentics/looks wise? I was thinking oriental fowl are very much like them..

 

[animals1981]

ALso im trying to find information on their size

What breed would they be about the size of? Leghorns are larger aren't they?

 

[RhodeRunner]

Jungle Fowl are lovely chickens and unfortunately I only have two roosters at the moment (Red and Yellow). At one time I had a little flock of them but they started to travel. Next think I knew they were foraging across the street, and begging for potato chips at the next-door gas station. These birds are also excellent fliers. My yellow rooster Berry enjoys sleeping high up in the trees. So if you plan on keeping these birds fenced your going to need a roof.
The hens are poor layers of tiny cream-colored eggs. They do however make great mommies. Most of my hens would attempt to hatch out a batch of chicks every year. The hens are also fighters. They will shortly become the dominant birds in your flock. Most of my jungle fowl hens were shy of people, and rather noisy.
The roosters are known to be very pretty not to mention violent. My boys have always proven to be gorgeous. As for the fighting they do fight, but I really haven’t had that many problems. But, I am always there for introductions and fighting isn’t tolerated. I have had some very friendly roosters of this breed, but they were only fond of me. Everyone else they wouldn’t approach. These roosters do get frostbitten pretty easily so if it gets cold put some Vaseline on their combs/wattles. Also, I have noticed that when breed to other breeds the roosters that hatched became extremely violent towards people and other birds. I’m not sure why that happened.
As for size I never recorded it, but they should be around 1 ½ - 2 pounds, while a Leghorn should be 4-5 pounds.
Breeds sort of like them, Kraienkoppe, Orientails, Modern Game Fowl, Old English Bantams, and there are others as well.

Overall these birds have proven to be full of personality, good foragers, and very hardy.
Hope this helps,
Jamie

 

[animals1981]

thanks so much ! it is so hard to find people that are experienced with these beautiful birds!

Size wise how would you compare them to an OEGB? Must be around the same size my OEGB are just over a pound each

 

[RhodeRunner]

Happy to help

My Old English Bantams seem a lot smaller then my Jungle fowl but my Jungle fowl are not purebred and one of them seems larger then he should be. The other one, which is probably closer to purebred size, is just a little bit larger then my silkie rooster.
I keep a flock of many breeds and don’t really have any major problems. My Jungle fowl and Old English get along fine. The roosters will fight, but if you raise them together and introduce correctly they should be fine. (I had 2 Silkie, 4 Americana, 2 Jungle fowl, and 10 OEGB roosters in the same yard peacefully) I just got a new Jungle fowl rooster and he is a big time fighter, but he will learn. I teach my boys by first making sure they are friendly enough to be picked up. Then I allow them to free range. If they fight, both canadates get picked up and thrown into cages. Sometimes I will allow them to fight, but never past blood drawl.
Oh, and I have noticed over the years the dramatic effect on safety a good Jungle fowl rooster has on the flock. Many animals don’t want to mess with an angry Jungle fowl rooster.

 

[wclawrence]

True pure Red Junglefowl are very rare and expensive. There are four species of junglefowl: red, grey, ceylon, and green.
There are several subspecies of Red Junglefowl. It is getting harder and harder to find pure specimens of any of the subspecies.
What you see from the hatcheries are chickens of the same color. But not same type. I would venture to say that what most if not all hatcheries offer have less than 25% wild type red junglefowl

*disclaimer*
almost all chickens are descended primarily from red junglefowl, so technically you could say any chicken is a red junglefowl. WHat I am saying is that there is a difference in what hatcheries call Red Junglefowl and the real thing out there in the wilds of india and china and indonesia.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Here is a pic of my roo:

Now, whether or not he is a pure bred is unknown, however he is the BEST ROO i have ever had. He is very protective of his 3 wild hens. One is on 11 eggs as i type and he is running the other two into the horse barn where the broody is.

He is somewhat territorial, but does blend in with the other chickens well. Now, if a big roo comes down from the barn he does chase them off back up to the barn yard area. The house is his domain during the day, but I have NEVER had a problem with him roosting in the barn with the other roos at nite nite time.

The hens are very flighty and tend to stay away from the other chickens. They are GREAT moms and ok layers. Their eggs are not worth collecting though as they are fairly small.

Overall I LOVE my game birds and I am planning on expanding them in the flock. i am slowly losing my polish and silkies to predators and such. I will not get any more of these guys. I do howver like the polish roos as they are VERY hardy.

 

[wclawrence]

pretty bird (though the pic is at a funny angle)I couldn't start to guess about purity, but I can say that any rooster like you describe is good to have around.
Almost all game type birds are like that too. If you breed that rooster to some laying type hens you will get some really nice big pretty egg laying mama birds

 

[tiki244]

I bet if you crossed that with a lt brown leghorn youd get lots of eggs and same color. But then you wouldnt have the purity.

 

[Kev]

Quote:
Like others said, "true red jungle fowl" are very rare. For example, in the hatchery catalogs their RJF are not "true RJF" but mixes with more or less the same color as the originals, so to speak. Very pretty.. but.. it's like saying a grey colored domesticated dog is "pure wolf". A chicken analog would be like how the hatcheries still label their EE as "Araucanas".

The huge majority of birds labeled as RJF look like OEG mixes to me. Sometimes they're OEG bantam mixes. These will be an excellent choice if you would like something that looks like RJF and is very hardy.

Anything that is Light Brown, Red Duckwing, or Black Breasted Red has more or less the original RJF color genes. Light Brown Leghorns are colored very much like RJF, but with bigger combs and of course, much better egg production.

True or high percent RJF stock are pretty small, can be extremely nervous, may not have high resistance to common chicken diseases, and one very good clue is the rooster's tails- they should have very few sickles and hold the tail horizontally- indeed the longest sickles tend to be almost straight, and not strongly curved in most domestics.. if they hold the tail high, it's not wild stock RJF.