Recreating the American Game Bantam

[MysteryChicken]

Loving your birds.

I wonder if my Red JungleFowl hybrids will help any with your project.
Here's one of them, but I fear they maybe to big.

She's with Jelly Bean, whose 90% OEGB, & 10% D'uccle.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Loving your birds.

I wonder if my Red JungleFowl hybrids will help any with your project.
Here's one of them, but I fear they maybe to big.

Timely that you should talk about size... because I weighed both my chosen brood stag tonight as well as the "cull" I turned out to free range...

The free range "cull" is 28.5ish ounces. About as perfect for the breed standard as I could hope for. His only glaring and obvious flaw is he has white on his ears.

My chosen stag is 35 ounces, way over the breed standard and enough so he'd be disqualified were he a show bird.

So I'm going to have to rethink my next step. My plan was to raise the F2s to breeding age, then select the best off of them and breed the daughters back to the F1 cock and the best son back to the F1 hens. However, now I'm going to consider crossing the F2 daughters to their uncle, the cull stag. If those don't come out well, I'll have to start over with the F1 cull to the F1 hens.

I'm also going to turn the F1 cock I bred off of out to free range to see if that lightens him up. He's spent his entire life in a coop so dodging the hawk may do him some good.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Timely that you should talk about size... because I weighed both my chosen brood stag tonight as well as the "cull" I turned out to free range...

View attachment 2415224

The free range "cull" is 28.5ish ounces. About as perfect for the breed standard as I could hope for. His only glaring and obvious flaw is he has white on his ears.

View attachment 2415226

My chosen stag is 35 ounces, way over the breed standard and enough so he'd be disqualified were he a show bird.

So I'm going to have to rethink my next step. My plan was to raise the F2s to breeding age, then select the best off of them and breed the daughters back to the F1 cock and the best son back to the F1 hens. However, now I'm going to consider crossing the F2 daughters to their uncle, the cull stag. If those don't come out well, I'll have to start over with the F1 cull to the F1 hens.

I'm also going to turn the F1 cock I bred off of out to free range to see if that lightens him up. He's spent his entire life in a coop so dodging the hawk may do him some good.

They're pretty though. Hopefully you get to your goal with your birds.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

They're pretty though. Hopefully you get to your goal with your birds.

They are. And it was for beauty's sake that I didn't actually "cull" the cull back when I turned him out to free range. I have a notion that the other rooster will loose weight when he's forced to live the life the "cull" lives. Just how much weight will be an interesting experiment.

 

[MysteryChicken]

They are. And it was for beauty's sake that I didn't actually "cull" the cull back when I turned him out to free range. I have a notion that the other rooster will loose weight when he's forced to live the life the "cull" lives. Just how much weight will be an interesting experiment.

That's is a good experiment. I did notice birds with less room to roam have more rounded breasts then those that are really active. I think it's because their bodies work harder, is why they're sometimes skinnier then the ones with less space.

 

[Amer]

They are. And it was for beauty's sake that I didn't actually "cull" the cull back when I turned him out to free range. I have a notion that the other rooster will loose weight when he's forced to live the life the "cull" lives. Just how much weight will be an interesting experiment.

My bantam Buckeye cock gained like five or so ounces and he was on grass. No he was still confined in 6 square feet of space because I didn’t want him running around picking fights and getting eaten by foxes, but it was relative neglect. He became an absolute brick, very muscular, way too heavy. A fair warning, your plan may backfire on you.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Pics up to date as of today. More and more I'm thinking that I'm going to breed the free ranger to the offspring of the cooped stag. The free ranger looks much more athletic than the cooped stag. I'll also turn the cooped stag out and let him get in shape. Even if he puts on muscle and thus more weight, he looks darn chunky as he is compared to the free ranger. The free ranger looks more like what a "game" should look like.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Time for an update. I culled the first rooster in the above post this past week. He ended up weighing 39oz with room to grow. Way to heavy for this project. He was a beautiful bird but I already have beautiful birds and don't have room to keep one cooped that isn't serving a purpose. I did attempt to let him free range with the Cracker gamefowl and that didn't turn out so pretty. He didn't make it past daylight before both his eyes had been spurred out by Ragnar. So that's the end of him.

Here's the cock I'm proceeding with. He's a perfect 29.8oz where the breed standard for a cock is 30oz. He's old enough now that I don't expect him to significantly fill out any further. His white ear is a flaw but he conforms in so many other areas I'm going to just deal with it.

I have two mature hens that I kept. They're 27oz, where the standard calls for 27oz for a hen, so again they're pretty much perfect for size. They'er stockier for their size than my Cracker hens. The two hens have already jointly raised a large batch of bitties off of themselves and their half brother the individual I recently culled.

Off that pretty cull rooster, I obtained 8 cockerels and 7 pullets. I turned all the cockerels out to free range except one I'm keeping back in its own coop to see if coop raising makes it heavier than the others, as their culled father was coop raised and the cock I'm keeping that's the right weight developed free range all summer. I am keeping all 7 pullets for the time being until they fill out. They'll be bred back to their uncle and, if I like how they come out, maybe their brothers as well.

 

[Amer]

Time for an update. I culled the first rooster in the above post this past week. He ended up weighing 39oz with room to grow. Way to heavy for this project. He was a beautiful bird but I already have beautiful birds and don't have room to keep one cooped that isn't serving a purpose. I did attempt to let him free range with the Cracker gamefowl and that didn't turn out so pretty. He didn't make it past daylight before both his eyes had been spurred out by Ragnar. So that's the end of him.

Here's the cock I'm proceeding with. He's a perfect 29.8oz where the breed standard for a cock is 30oz. He's old enough now that I don't expect him to significantly fill out any further. His white ear is a flaw but he conforms in so many other areas I'm going to just deal with it.

View attachment 2508832

View attachment 2508834

I have two mature hens that I kept. They're 27oz, where the standard calls for 27oz for a hen, so again they're pretty much perfect for size. They'er stockier for their size than my Cracker hens. The two hens have already jointly raised a large batch of bitties off of themselves and their half brother the individual I recently culled.

View attachment 2508850

Off that pretty cull rooster, I obtained 8 cockerels and 7 pullets. I turned all the cockerels out to free range except one I'm keeping back in its own coop to see if coop raising makes it heavier than the others, as their culled father was coop raised and the cock I'm keeping that's the right weight developed free range all summer. I am keeping all 7 pullets for the time being until they fill out. They'll be bred back to their uncle and, if I like how they come out, maybe their brothers as well.

Wow! That is a nice American Game cock there. Perfect cardioid curve on the tail. I’m glad you got breeding fowl down to size.
Great job!

 

[Silexian]

I’m starting this thread to document my attempt to make my own line of American game bantams in conformation to the ABA standards for the breed. This will be my first attempt at breeding a chicken to the standard. This will be a project for me, a hobby unto itself. I’m dedicated to see this thru until I succeed. This won’t be a passing fancy for me. I think I have the resources to do it. A 40 acre farm with plenty of room and many grow-out coups/runs to keep generations separate, access to additional family farms to send stock to if needbe, and what I believe to be some workable genetics to start with to get me where I need to be.

My base stock will be my red jungle fowl hybrids. These birds may or may not have game fowl in them, as I cannot vouch for what domestic blood they were crossed with to tame the RJF down. My hybrids are documented in the below linked thread and hensworth will be referred to as Florida “Cracker” bantams after the RJF-like, small, gamefowl or semi-feral bantams that used to be common on Florida Cracker backwoods homesteads.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ngle-fowl-in-the-american-deep-south.1309995/
My Cracker bantams are already near the size of an American game bantam and already have the slate colored legs. For starters, I need to get the white earlobe off of them and get their ears red. At this time I am only breeding for BBR and I want my birds to have as strong of a RJF look as possible while still conforming to the breed standard. I am planning to use OEGB as my other foundational stock and breeding them up with the Cracker bantams instead of breeding regular gamefowl down.

Is there any requirement that the American game bantam have a gamey disposition? I’ll be joining the ABA soon and will learn the details of the standard when I get their book. For now I just want to get the size and the overall look right, then I’ll focus on smaller details.