Show Off Your American Gamefowl and Chat Thread!!!

[JShubin]

This little guy has potential. will be a big boy if he follows in his parents image.

 

[B123]

Cocks we used to keep for generating broodpullets and kept in larger flypens with a broodhen after peak breedng season routinely would go broody.

When you say "go broody" do you mean will actually set on eggs, or mean will tend to chicks after hatching. I remember old pictures when capons were more common that they were used as broodies, but can't remember if they set on the eggs or just adopted the chicks...

 

[centrarchid]

Adoption after hatching. More typical investment involves simply rearing juveniles after hen weens them. I have no capon experience so would be interesting to look into. Adopting chicks (especially my American Dominiques) would have powerful advantages with respect to directing chicks to roosting areas and hawk management.

 

[sdm111]

Wow, I do not think I need them that well built...  No hurricanes to speak of in my area.  They look great!  I have the roofing and a friend offered me a bunch of salvaged oak 2x4's, so I will just need to buy some treated posts wire and hardware.  Now just need to find the time.

I tend to overengineer stuff anyway. If u have the roofing you're a good way there price wise. Like my above ground cages in hindsight I could have built it for probably a third of the cost. But oh well it sure isn't going anywhere

 

[sdm111]

This little guy has potential. will be a big boy if he follows in his parents image.

nice looking lil stag shubin he's a red

 

[JShubin]

nice looking lil stag shubin he's a red

yeah Red, but I think he'll have a bit of brown red when he gets older.

His dad is my free range brown red, and the mom has a touch of brown red also. Both on the large/heavy side.

 

[sdm111]

yeah Red, but I think he'll have a bit of brown red when he gets older. His dad is my free range brown red, and the mom has a touch of brown red also. Both on the large/heavy side.

that hen looks like a hennie cock

 

[MaycanGamefowl]

This is an action sequence that should not get anyone in trouble. Cock was demonstrating capacity for feeding his chicks. Not he did not feed hen. I could put him in a pen and place a pile of insects in the middle where hen and chicks could not get to them and he would then carry insects over to side of pen so chicks could take them to eat. Same cock would kill chicks not his. He is not special on this account.

[VIDEO]

He is the grandsire of stag above.

that's what you call a class rooster

 

[centrarchid]

that's what you call a class rooster

He took job seriously. When they do that they loose weight just like hens.

 

[centrarchid]

@jshubin,

Below is a video depicting hawking behavior. In this instance you can see quarry (craneflies). That level of foraging activity on the side of the bird can be sustained for over an hour. It is difficult for me to come up with a way to provide such conditioning via any other means. They will pursue June Beetles as well although those are slower and come in larger packages. We occasionally see moth hatches that get similar activity. Every once in a while grasshoppers provide similar opportunity as they seem to move in mass. With a typical hawking event, multiple birds will stake out areas in a line along edge / field border and run back and forth within their areas catching insects. Four other birds were doing the same to the right forming a line. No fighting evident. When this happens the chickens get search images like trout often do and start going after only what is most abundant. It takes very little time to achieve full crop filling.

[VIDEO]