Recreating the American Game Bantam

[Florida Bullfrog]

They're coming along. The darker, broader one is probably going to be the stag I advance with. The thinner, lighter colored, stag is handsome but he may not make weight. He's about 1.5lbs now. He's still a handsome bantam in his own right. But he has a white ear and I think his chest won't have the broadness the standard calls for.

I'm not going to cull either until they mature. They're both starting to spar aggressively in the brood pen. The lighter one is about 3 weeks older so so far he's the dominant rooster. But where he has the flawed ear and the lighter build I'll probably pull him out and let the dark stag stay in. The pullets are starting to lay. I've got two eggs off of them the past 2 days.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

The two little stags have some spunk. They’ve been going at it and unfortunately, the larger stag lost his sickle feathers in a scuffle. I pulled put the light built stag and for now I will just proceed with the darker stag. Hopefully his sickles will grow back without him having to molt. Now I need to start being selective with hens. I’m going to let them mature a few more weeks then I’ll pick one or two of the best to leave in with the stag.

 

[TomNY]

The 2001 APA Yearbook has a very good article by S Robert Powell about the history of American Game Bantams. Some older issues are available from the APA but 2001 is not.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

So now I'm down to three, having weighed the pullets and determined that all but two are seriously too large for the project. The three left are pretty much spot on for cockerel and pullet weights. I've kept the cull stag and turned him out to free range, just in case I have to use him as a backup. I also have some grown jungle fowl hybrid hens that are 18 months old and seem to generally conform to the standards in weight and build. So I may add them in the future.

 

[Amer]

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So now I'm down to three, having weighed the pullets and determined that all but two are seriously too large for the project. The three left are pretty much spot on for cockerel and pullet weights. I've kept the cull stag and turned him out to free range, just in case I have to use him as a backup. I also have some grown jungle fowl hybrid hens that are 18 months old and seem to generally conform to the standards in weight and build. So I may add them in the future.

I love the blue gold duckwing color! I can relate about the size thing. I only produced one bantam Buckeye cockerel this year that I actually like in terms of size. Is that a pure Junglefowl in the back?

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I love the blue gold duckwing color! I can relate about the size thing. I only produced one bantam Buckeye cockerel this year that I actually like in terms of size. Is that a pure Junglefowl in the back?

None of my junglefowl are pure. They’re all hybrids of some degree. The one in the back is Ragnar, who otherwise would be a great American game bantam but for his weight at 3lbs. I’ve already posted his pic in the thread but I’ll post it again.

Ragnar from several weeks ago. He is not related to the American game bantams above but looks just like them but larger. He’a still just a bull stag but far more along than he AGB stag. He was hatched December 25 2019.

I’m conforming a line of my junglefowl to the wild phenotype. These are unrelated gen 2s. Tail carriage and stance has been the hardest thing to get right because they generally want to throw stances and builds of American games.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Its hard getting good pictures of this stag now. He's too flighty. I'm going to have to get him calmed down.

His tail is filling in nicely.

 

[Kusanar]

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Its hard getting good pictures of this stag now. He's too flighty. I'm going to have to get him calmed down.

His tail is filling in nicely.

Gamecocks are absolutely beautiful, I love the colors

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

The F1s are still developing according to the breed standard and I now have 15 F2s to raise. 8 are being raised between the two F1 hens and 7 were incubator hatched and are being raised in a brooder. One F2 appears to be wheaten.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the genetics play out. The F2s are the product of breeding the F1s together, and I plan to line breed back the F2s to the F1s. Not only is this my first attempt at breeding to standards, this is also my first attempt at line breeding. I'm curious to see how many throwbacks I get in the F2s that harken back to the original parents that produced the F1s, namely the sire JF hybrid and dam OEGBs.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Watching .