Oriental chicken breeds and housing

[Sylverfly]

I have heard that oriental chicken breeds like the Shamo, Asil, Malay, and so on are rather aggressive birds. If that's the case is their hen to rooster ratio different or can two roosters even be kept in the same space with hens present? Or can it be done with a higher then average hen ratio or are they just too territorial to share a coop with another roo? I'm the local go to crazy chicken lady here I guess and someone was asking about this and I really had no idea so I figured I'd ask.

 

[nok13]

the aggression has no connection to ratios. thai fighting chickens (the vietnamese, burmese and thai types i own) just have the genetic propensity for fighting. its like staffordishire bull terriers. its built in to the genetics . that doesnt make them aggressive towards people (the opposite, they are like dogs, with personalities , and are easy to work with, and handle, at least ours are like that, and all the ones i met in thai backyards in villages. the villagers handle theirs routinely, to shower the birds, clean out their crops (disgusting), etc)... ours at the moment have four hens, 2 of each are brooding together (their choice not ours); one blind hen that lays but doesnt brood, and she follows the lead roo; and four roosters. they killed a young male that my husband introduced, but the young male was already sexually mature i.e. a fully grown roo. howver, at present we have the four roos together, in a very large area, but they eat together, and walk together. there is the occasional skirmish but if we are there, hubby lets otu a yell (in thai) and they stop fighting right away.

they are tall leggy birds who need a lot of room to run/move. they absolutely hate being cooped up in small areas, and even those that live in those small round covered fence things in thailand get taken out to excercise often...
having said that, we have yet decided how we are going to introduce our 8 older chicks and then the remaining 12 chicks (or 14 ive lost count) of various ages when they get too big for living inside my house (or i get sick of them in my house, they are making my dogs nuts)... even in the house, they run to my husband when he calls them by name (yes the main ones ahve names)and he pets them and handles them, and they recognize us specifiically.

actually when my husband wants to encourage males when they start to go in to fighitng stance, he uses different vocals and words (in thai) so basically, they are getting certain behaviors reinforced///

in small areas, definately you would have to keep an eye out, and separation would probably be best. dont forget, these chickens were never bred to be in coops of any sort. villager who rasised these birds in thailand dont coop their chickens (well, ,the big breeders do but those birds have runs, and running /track machines etc), the chickens go up in trees, are down on the ground, eat what they find or are thrown (table scraps no matter what, fish, peppers, beef, veggies, and they have to compete with the dogs), and they have lots of area to move

our babies at almost two months are flapping around in their room, climbing the ladder to the gallery /loft area, grabbing rice and zooming around the room,
i have some pics in the gallery i think... i will upload more when i have some...

i dont know about shabos etc....

 

[theycallmevern]

My Asils are pretty good around the rest of my chickens. I have leghorns . The roosters will dance around , but never really went to fighting to much . Little smack talking but that's it.

 

[Sylverfly]

Ok, so they're kind of like jock chickens then, lol.

 

[neugene]

In my experience it depends on a number of factors. Do the birds come from a fighting or showing background. Often birds that were used for showing have lost there gameness and will tolerate other roosters. If the birds grew up together its possible that they have sorted out who is boss and who follows and then the amount of hens that you put with the Roos..

 

[Zarkotics]

Introducing and unfamiliar male is typically means fighting. What most people refer to as "breeding out the game" is a result of breeding dunghills (chickens that run from a fight, instead of fighting to the death) because they look closer to a show standard. This does not mean the roosters will not fight. They will fight, especially if the pecking order is disturbed by adding/removing birds. The aggressive tenancies of Orientals also varies by breed. Most people on BYC can't tell one oriental from the next, but there are substantial differences between their behaviors. In the way of giving advice, you would be a fool to tell someone they can go buy Oriental gamecocks and coop 'em up together, because if they bought some Shamo's from me the birds would massacre each other at 2 weeks old and cannibalize on males and females alike. Here are the temperaments of the breeds i have raised.

O Shamo: gentle giants with their handlers, very smart (litter-box trainable and everything), Males will fight to the death, hens will fight but not to death. 1 hen and 1 cock will get along fine, but try to put them in a small cage together and it turns into a bloodbath.

Saipan Jungle Fowl: They're big, arrogant, angry birds. They can get along fine with each other, especially if there's enough ladies to go around and they've been raised together. But the males have a reputation for being man-fighters. The hens are flighty but not aggressive. Once when i crouched down to collect eggs a rooster came up and pecked me in the face a bunch of times, and they're always going batshit on my pant legs.

Aseel (Asil): Never had an Aseel that wasn't friendly when handled regularly, if left to their own devices they can be flighty. There are so many varieties and strains of aseel that it's hard to sum up the behavioral patterns of all of them, but if you're buying them in the US then chances are they can be raised together without an issue (because they're probably dunghills). If the game blood in 'em is thick (which it should be if bred for preservation purposes) then they will start to fight as they mature. The Aseel biddies are fine with enough space/light/food/water/etc. but one day they're hormones will start kickin' and you'll walk outside to a see a cage covered in blood. I keep my Aseels separated from birth both to prevent injury and to increase gameness.

Malay: I've heard of man-fighting Malays before but mine are honestly pretty docile until someone starts holding them wrong. Pick 'em up by the legs, poke 'em with a stick, or something else stupid and a Malay is likely to draw some of your blood. I've never had a Malay that tolerated another male in his pen. Both hens and cocks are flighty, and aggressive towards other birds of the same sex. I highly recommend keeping them 1-to-1.


I know this thread is old, but it was a front page result on google and I didn't want any novices out there trying to turn mortal enemies into bunkmates.

 

[theycallmevern]

Would love to see some pics of your birds

 

[Bernie Bones]

Thai Aseel cross Brazilian Aseel