Show Off Your American Gamefowl and Chat Thread!!!

[centrarchid]

These three stags are half-brothers to those scrapping above. They overlapped range wise with stags above but did not get involved as such scrapping only seems to play out withing a given brood for juveniles. They will still flip at some point so they will be penned soon too.

 

[roosterhavoc]

I apologize for posting pictures of games in this thread but my rifles are not a lot to brag about as most I have are close to twice my age.


Below is one of many hens that have little trouble working around. Another just coming off nest today is not so sweet as she switched back and forth from doing a Killdeer imitation and going for my face. Only difference is how those hens were handled as chicks.

Hen a bit dinged up because I failed to provide proper spacing between free-ranging hens in effort to conserve space around house.

no apology necessary. That's s shotgun I was referring to, not a rifle and it's about time you posted some pics. Good thing nobody was depending on you to keep this thread going. It would have been dead in the water a long time ago.

 

[sdm111]

That's ok centra some people get distracted from the focus of the thread we still like u. Anyway u formulating your requil seems like that bottom stag is close. P.s. u should brag with century old arms.

 

[roosterhavoc]

These three stags are half-brothers to those scrapping above. They overlapped range wise with stags above but did not get involved as such scrapping only seems to play out withing a given brood for juveniles. They will still flip at some point so they will be penned soon too.

good looking birds

 

[centrarchid]

We periodically have Great-horned Owls come into cockyard and even around house. Occasionally they have an interest in chickens but juvenile GHO's coming now are perching on pens to hunt the very abundant voles and even young Cotton-tailed Rabbits. Normally dogs push owls off pretty quick but birds still get very riled up. The GHO's are coming in for about 1 week each month when moon nearly full. Riled chickens produce a different alarm call and hold their bodies as shown except neck typically fully extended 45 degrees below horizontal. Turkeys do the same thing.

Image above old. New camera I have not figured out how to focus in dark.

 

[centrarchid]

This bullstag is the uncle (brother to their mothers) of the proceeding stags. He is the product of three generations of line-breeding back to a cock and he already looks just like that cock. The bullstag and two of his brothers serve as back up in the event the cock is lost. If all goes well then I will have about half a dozen stags and pullets from the fourth generation to choose from and attempt to reset line. Currently I have only a little over a dozen to pick from which is well below what I wanted by this time of year. Once I get pick out next round of stags for line setting efforts this guy will be gifted to my brother and extras diverted to dumplings.

He is housed in one of the pens with blow away covers (carpets) that come off when wind gets over 20 mph. He got doused pretty good with last rain since cover came off but otherwise did fine. Same rains killed all free-range chicks younger than 6 weeks at the time. Cocci had a role too.

 

[sdm111]

How many chicks u lost. And don't chicks get a resistance to cocci when hen raised. And isn't cocci just a problem With penned birds and yours are free range, no. But I'm just going on hearsay as u know all my stuffs penned so I'm used to dealing with it, which I give 2 rounds of corid at specific times to all chicks so none really ever come down with an overload

 

[centrarchid]

How many chicks u lost. And don't chicks get a resistance to cocci when hen raised. And isn't cocci just a problem With penned birds and yours are free range, no. But I'm just going on hearsay as u know all my stuffs penned so I'm used to dealing with it, which I give 2 rounds of corid at specific times to all chicks so none really ever come down with an overload

This year exceptional with regards to rainfall. Some chicks flat out suffered from exposure from being totally wet for days. Development of immunity relies upon slow exposure. Exposure in this instance was anything but slow. It is not a problem with just penned birds, especially with wet conditons although pens more problematic than free-range under drier conditions. Hen raised usually makes it easier to get chicks away from areas of protozoans concentrations associated with feces of penned birds. Part of my selection process is to build immunity to the local variety of coccis but complete loss stops that process. Lower levels of loss enable selection for resistance while no loss and complete loss do not.

I lost close to 80 chicks but will have about 60 replacements on ground within the next month.

 

[B123]

Centrarchid, how was the handling different when they were chicks? What age? I like the coloring on that hen, do you have any pics of your stags about a year of age?

 

[roosterhavoc]

Speaking of chicks!! I got a few.