red jungle fowl cold tolerance

[centrarchid]

I will be getting a few red jungle fowl chicks. How tolerant are they of cold temperatures as adults? I am in central Missouri and would like to have them free range.

 

[chicken brains]

You asked this several years ago and I had the same question. We're gonna start winter soon and I'm curious if there is anything I need to do to help mine make it through our winter. Did yours make it, did you have any problems? Thanks!

 

[Joe Keller]

I also am interested in raising red jungle fowl on a small scale in central Missouri. How did it go? What did you have to do, for them to be OK in a central Missouri winter?

 

[centrarchid]

This thread is very old in deed and was buried as well. I kept "Red Jungle Fowl" acquired from Cackle hatchery about time of initial post. They are likely pure although their physical and behavioral attributes were not consistent with any domestic breed I am familiar with. They were every bit as cold tolerant as American Dominiques and American Games which were larger and based on that likely to be more cold tolerant. Only physical limitation appeared to be related to the single comb of males. Mine made it through winter with several nights of -10 F and blizzard conditions with minimal protection other than direct wind. Despite their strong capacity for flight, they where extremely vulnerable to predation by red-tailed hawks. They were too easily flushed into open where hawk could fly them down. American games stood their ground in cover much better making so no losses with those despite loosing 1/2 dozen "red jungle fowl' cockerels.

Lots of other cool observations can be related.