Show Off Your American Gamefowl and Chat Thread!!!

[roosterhavoc]

 

[roosterhavoc]

 

[sdm111]

Wow that's a lot of chicks to lose

 

[sdm111]

Pure blues havoc

 

[sdm111]

 

[roosterhavoc]

Pure blues havoc

Nope, rubles from the other pair i didn't breed in spring. These eggs are out of the Wheaton hen.

 

[sdm111]

Oh good Broody hen work.

 

[centrarchid]

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?

I feed mother hen of chicks to be reared as broodies by hand so they calm down and bring chicks to me. Once chicks start eating out of my hand on occasion they are well on their way to being tame as adults. Some mother hens complicate so if their genetics are important then I simply have a more gentle hen rear their offspring. You can get similar results with hand-reared from brooder chicks with that group getting to the point where they will bring entire broods up on your lap later. This process even works in the psycho hens that otherwise want to put it to your face or fly across pasture to avoid looking at you.

 

[centrarchid]

Wow that's a lot of chicks to lose

I know how to loose them as have lost many more chicks and other things in years past. It is part of risk / cost of rearing in loose confinement. Generally good years more than make up for it and this year flock still has a good chance of compensating. The local wild Bob White Quail and Turkeys will suffer a population decline this year for same reasons because they are not a flexible when it comes to re-nesting. My American Dominiques are largely pen reared during the vulnerable period like your games and with them I do employ more aggressive cocci management. They were not impacted by rains in the least but they would but perform as well as my games under conditions my games must persist. Selection for constitution, like selection for gameness, is not realized without some losses to not meeting demands of the selection pressure.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Oh good Broody hen work.

She's the mama of my blue stag from this year