Show Off Your American Gamefowl and Chat Thread!!!

[JShubin]

All seriousness shubin culling is necessary to improve gamefowl as a whole. It sucks to do it and I will put it off until I have to. Inferior birds should be culled regardless not given away as cheap stags. I'd give my best away. They may be somebody else's mediocre birds who knows. If I am second guessing anything about them they won't leave here.

I am not questioning your methods, because they do work (if you are culling the right birds., which I think you do to the best of your ability).

But this is what I think about hard culling... Of course some are better than others... Not everyone can be #1. But if you take that method too literal you would be obligated to breed only one best rooster to the best hen... Leading to a dead end in genetics.

Having multiple gamefowl of varying degrees is important in my mind.... For example... what the Kelso might lack, the Miner blues have, and/or vice versa.

Sure my Spanish dont stand a chance against my larger Americans, but that doesnt mean they are no good. They have other things my Americans dont, which when bred could provide some advantages...

As I mentioned I dont cull, but nature culls for me and pretty heavy. Not just predators, but natural fights, hens killing chicks, sickness, etc.. I tend to think some of these lacked something to a slight degree. some of it just bad luck.

 

[JShubin]

Look at these awesome brood fowl. Haha
Sorry about the fuzzy pic, doesn't do these amazing birds justice

I didnt know you had any greys, excpet that one silver/greyish looking one.

Two legs colors, not full brothers?

 

[roosterhavoc]

Dogs aren't natural culling, neither is hens killing chicks it's a problem with management. I've had hens kill chicks, my fault. Don't let Mother Nature cull too many just cause you aren't willing to, you may lose some good ones.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Pullet flying off the roof. Guess what her natural skills weren't enough to keep her from getting smoked by a Cooper's hawk

 

[JShubin]

Dogs aren't natural culling, neither is hens killing chicks it's a problem with management. I've had hens kill chicks, my fault. Don't let Mother Nature cull too many just cause you aren't willing to, you may lose some good ones.

for sure I lose some good ones to bad luck... happens in the sport too I am sure. (especially LK)

But a chick not paying attention to surroundings or too weak to follow, ends up dead.

I see my faults when I have water dish that drowned dozen chicks trying to drink. Or leaving shed door open to incubated chicks for dogs to "play" with.

 

[JShubin]

Pullet flying off the roof. Guess what her natural skills weren't enough to keep her from getting smoked by a Cooper's hawk

Surpised a cooper hawk got her, never had pullet or stag taken by raptor. Only chicks.

 

[roosterhavoc]

I have woods all around. They sit a few yards in and divebomb them. The hawks don't have many hiding places at your property. Sitting on a fence or a roof he's easily seen. What they do is fly into the woods from the fields surround my house and work their way up to my yard, usually they get spotted in the process but not always. This time of year is tough since there's no leaves on the trees the birds have very little protection. Don't worry though I'll take care of the problem

 

[roosterhavoc]

May wanna reread your posts and re edit, not sure why u added that in there

 

[roosterhavoc]

I also find it odd that for someone who won't cull a bird makes an awful lot of references

 

[sdm111]

Yeah they don't need to be game for L/K its just simply usually over too quick before gameness needs to set in. Anywho

About this freerange natural selection, some would say the strongest survive whereas I say the weakest survive, why? Think of it like this what are the brave and strong gonna do, stand their ground whether other chicken, dog, hawk whatever. And what are the weak cowards gonna do? Run, hide and survive. So in my hypothesis the strong will be killed and the weak will survive to multiply