Recreating the American Game Bantam

[Florida Bullfrog]

Update video that covers several projects, including the AGB line:

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I forgot to put commentary with the above pics. Those two are my best blue red F1s. I’m currently on the F3 generation, line breeding the F3s back to the F1s and also breeding one pair of an F2 back to an F1 to make a BBR line. Here is the BBR F2 cock:

This F2 BBR is becoming human aggressive, which annoys me. But I need him for the time being.

I got to get serious about getting the white ear off of them. I culled my one red eared F2 cock because I thought he was too large. In hindsight (and as was suggested to me and I ignored), I should have kept him and bred him to the teacup F3s and that might have given me a size in between that would have been just right.

I confess this project is grating on me a bit because of all of the coop space its taking up to line breed. I enjoy my teacups I’m producing and for my own pleasure I’d rather continue just with the teacup Crackers. But these AGBs are the only birds on my farm that can conform to a breed’s show standard. I’m going to stick with it so my daughter may have some unique show birds when she gets old enough to do 4H. I’ll take pride in knowing I crafted the breed from scratch over many years. It will be up to her to then perfect them for her purposes.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

They are beautiful

 

[Silkie Princess]

They are beautiful

X2

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

This is a flock of some of the F3s and F4s that live at my local feed and general store. The AGBs are so prolific I often find local people to give excess birds to. They breed like rabbits wherever they're at.

 

[Amer]

A blue golden duckwing American Game Bantam I drew. Thought you would enjoy it. So American that it is red white and blue.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I turned out all of my AGB hens and pullets to free range this evening. That spans F1, F2, F3, and F4 generations. I am retooling this project.

I am reasonably sure I stated previously that I made a mistake when I culled the red-eared F1 brood cock and replaced him with his white-eared brother. I did this because the white-eared brother (General Lee) otherwise mostly conforms to the standard while the red-eared cock was gorgeous but was too big. Yet I did not anticipate making as many undersized hens as I have. The red-eared cock to an undersized hen probably would have been workable.

I have instead been line breeding General Lee for multiple generations now and I am indeed making some beautiful birds that look like him. But it also means that I’m reinforcing the white earlobe. Although I’ve learned some valuable dos and don'ts for line breeding, I am failing insofar as I’m not moving the birds closer to the breed standard. Instead I’ve more made a line of miniature Tyrants (Tyrant was the golden-hackled Cracker brood cock that fathered all of my AGBs).

Therefore I’m going to partially start over. General Lee will be bred to select pure Cracker hens that come close to the breed standards with red earlobes, then the best F1 male and female of each pairing will be bred together and start new lines. I will only save red eared birds.

The best red-eared Cracker hen I know of is 20 feet up a tree. I’ll have to trap her tomorrow at daylight. I was able to catch a red-eared pullet in a fig tree tonight and I got her in with Lee.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

General Lee with his red eared Cracker hen tonight. I have not weighed her yet. She’s been living wild for a long time and I want her to settle in before I handle her again. She was not a happy camper when I caught her this morning.

I am going to guess 27oz. Most Cracker hens go that. About right for the AGB standard. I have considered, although there is no way to know, that my current Crackers were already AGBs. Some of my Crackers throw red ears and high tails and when they do they pretty much meet the breed standard already except that the roosters are almost always way too big, and a rooster than is the right size looks lanky and RJF like. The Crackers throw much larger roosters than hens most of the time.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

General Lee in his maturity.

I already have several chicks from him and the red-eared Cracker that I incubated. There are also several more due any day that the red-eared hen is sitting on herself.