Jungle Fowl

[JimArcher]

I lived in Peru for a while. My chickens were free ranging.and knew me. they kicked up a fuss when strangers approached. One day I had on a yellow rain slicker
and as soon as I approached the flock they went crazy and headed off in all directions cackling loudly. Flying and running.
I used to run a big provincial Ringneck Pheasant farm, The Brooks Wildlife Center in Brooks, Alberta, Canada. We were always on the lookout for nests of wild pheasant eggs. I hatched the chicks in Marsh incubators and then reared them separately, They were then mated together next season to produce the roosters for the next season. This definitely increased the wildness factor in our birds. Captive breeding reduces the wildness of birds as the tamer birds produce more offspring and suffer less mortality due to flying into netting, posts, etc.. It is simple natural selection for the environment they are in.

 

[JimArcher]

My hybrid RJF in Laos were not very wild. Easy to manage. When raising chicks; don't have them in a box or something where you loom over them when feeding or watering. Threats from above make them panic. Especially for RJFs.
If he is raising RJFs just as a hobby, then I suggest crossing the Cackle birds with Richardsons for at least two years- 3 or 4 would be better. Do not keep any Crossbred roosters. Try to keep Richardsons pure for a while until you have Cackle crosses that look more like Richardsons. Then cross the crosses (CackleXRichardson) that look most like Richardsons birds (maybe just hens at first) line into the Richardsons line. Select among the young ones for type. Continue to use only Richardsons roosters with the main Cackle/Richardsons line. After that you could decide if you want two or three flocks or just the one (CackleXRichardsons).
The crossbred birds mated into the Richardsons line could give that line a big boost in vigor and fertlity. You could then try to maintain that line as "Richardsons" (crossing pure birds (roosters) onto those with Cackle blood). You could maintain a small flock of pure Richardsons to produce roosters for crossing back to the crossbred line (if fertlility holds up). Or..Keep a few Richardsons roosters for a few years to use for backcrossing. With careful matings you could develop a line of fowl that look like pure Richardsons. The biggest problem will always be population size. If you have enough birds with some genetic variation among them, you might be able to maintain fertility. Otherwise, you might have to keep bringing in a fresh rooster or two. Select for fertility. Will require banding and careful record-keeping, but you might be able to determine which hens lay the best; which hens' eggs hatch the best; and maybe - which roosters produce the best hatchability - separate pens????
Or...After a few generations of crossing pure Richardsons roosters into the CackleXRichardsons line you could just combine the two flocks and periodically bring in fresh Richardsons birds from outside to maintain vigor, type, and fertility.If your breeding flock is big enough you could maybe maintain vigor and fertility without bringing in fresh blood.
All very complicated and maybe not what a hobbyist wants to do. In any case, if you cross Cackle with Richardsons you will likely get much tamer birds that will give you more pleasure than birds that fly frantically around the pen whenever they are approached.Just select (or cull) for type and fertility(and tameness?).
Sorry if this all sounds too complicated. If it is; just mate your new birds into the old flock from Cackle and breed them as a closed flock until you feel you need to bring in new blood. Just do not have 2 types of roosters in your flock when you introduce the new pure line roosters (or and hens) - use only the new roosters.

 

[centrarchid]

How would get some hatching eggs of the wilder Red Jungle Fowl. I would like to test my hand at taming to see if I can get them at least trained to come over when called.

 

[JimArcher]

When I lived in Laos I had some birds that were the descendants of a Black Rosecomb rooster that came in an egg from N. Am. I had no hens so I had to mate him to locally available Thai bantam hens (all with single combs). I then mated him back to his daughters. I got fairly decent combs, but the earlobes were never really good and white. The rooster passed on before I could continue the process. I got the idea to mate my best BR hen to my RJF cock as he had good white earlobes(see pictures I already posted-4). The result was 5 roosters. All black, but the earlobes were not much improved. What was interesting was to get one cockerel with a pea comb. He looked very much like a Black Sumatra. Quite a nice one too. He also had a black face.
It surprised me because I had never used a bird with a pea comb in my matings. I think it was passed down from the Rosecomb rooster 5 or 6 years earlier. The first chicks I got from the BR rooster with the Thai hens had herniated combs. The combs had part of the comb folded back into the main part - sort of like a dixie cup. I got rid of that through selection in later generations. I have read that the BR resulted from the use of Black Sumatras with other breeds. Any thoughts? Those roosters were lost to predators.
It could have been a walnut comb, but at the time it looked like a pea comb. Walnut is the expression of a bird carrying both the P and R comb genes. P is for pea comb and is a dominant, but R for Rose comb is also a dominant. The conflict produces a walnut comb.

 

[JimArcher]

I apologise - The Richardson RJFs are apparently the Indian subspecies - Gallus gallus murghi, and that is supposed to have the white earlobe as does the Gallus gallus gallus of SE Asia. Maybe the Cackle Hatchery birds are from India also as they are supposed to have a white earlobe. Or they could be from S.E. Asia - maybe Thailand. Maintaining the purity of a "subspecies" is not as important as maintaining the purity of Gallus gallus. If you have an excellent wild type of Gallus gallus, then what I have written about Richardsons and Cackle strains still holds. Even if they are are mainly of the same subspecies, the Richardsons birds are obviously closer to the original wild type. Whew... I should check things out better before I start babbling on.

 

[Ntsees]

It's fine. In the US, when you say richardson or indian, they both mean the same thing because there haven't been another import of g.g.m. in over 40 years.

About your suggested crossing with the richardsons, I would not recommend it. If the san diego strain was indeed a pure subspecies and there was only one specimen left, maybe crossing once only to get the other gender and then crossing back to the san diego parent will help preserve that strain. However, the san diego strain is far removed from a pure rjf and it can be called a chicken. I only suggested that whitemountainsranch pursue the richardsons because I saw the preservation dedication. After so many decades, the only reason why we still currently have g.g.murghi is because of dedicated preservationists. Such crossings, or any crossing for that matter, would be a disservice to the subspecies and to the breeders who worked so hard for so many years to keep them going (because keeping them isn't a walk in the park like keeping chickens).

 

[JimArcher]

I appreciate your concern for preserving the pure Richardsons. It just depends (for me) on what the hobbyist (White Mountains Ranch) wants to do. These Richardsons birds cannot be returned to the wild in India. They will just be kept pure for what purpose? Species change and the world moves on. People are concerned that the wild RJfs are being polluted by crossing with domestic birds.That has been going on for hundreds of years in Laos and other countries and will continue to take place until the agricultural practices of countries practicing swidden agriculture change to a more settled form of rice culture. Even those practicing simple paddy rice culture are often living on the margins of forested areas and their birds are crossing with wild populations. Handwringing will accomplish nothing. This will continue and the RJF populations will continue to exist in some form or another. Evolution. The efforts to preserve the Richardson strain are commendable, but only for those who want to do it. I appreciate the Richardson birds for their real wild-type phenotype, but I would not want to keep such wild birds that go bats when anyone approaches the pen. Save the phenotype, but a tamer bird would be nice. Gallus gallus is the dominant number in the world and it will change as it must. To each his own. People should do what makes them happy.
People talk about inbreeding bottlenecks. There was/is concern that the Whooping Crane would come to such a crisis point. Many people would rather see the species die out rather than insert some new blood into the population through the introduction of some (for example) Japanese Cranes. The initial hybrids could easily be produced in captivity, the F1s could be backcrossed to Whoopers in captivity and the resultant birds could be mated and their eggs placed under wild whoopers. The species would receive some much-needed fresh genetic material and the crossbreds effect on the appearance or integrity of the species would be quickly swamped by the more numerous pure whoopers. The Whooping Crane would be invigorated and continue as a species.
I wonder how the breeders of the pure Richardsons line hatch and rear their replacement birds. Incubators or hatched under Richardsons hens? If they are reared by their own mothers then wildness will be instilled in them by the hens which will be constantly giving alarm calls at every disturbance. The chicks will be raised in an atmosphere of constant "paranoia". A Silky foster mother would give out much different signals. I wonder what difference that would make. It certainly would not change the genotype of the chicks raised under the Silky hen.
Just sayin'. Your thoughts are valid and I really don't disagree with those who want to maintain the Richardson line. .
If they want to do that then more power to them.

 

[miguel antonio]

 buy eggs Grey Junglefowl (Gallus Sonneratii

 

[bronzefarmer]

hi guys was wondering if anyone has any grey jungle fowl chicks left or will be haveing any for sale soon.
-AUSTIN

 

[jacksonpham]

Dose anyone have grey junglefowl egg for sale?