Show Off Your American Gamefowl and Chat Thread!!!

[roosterhavoc]

She's pretty as hell Havoc. Do you have any Pumkin Cocks?

I have an older bullstag and a few stags from this year. Two are penned, the third is less than 100%. I've posted pics awhile back at some point.

 

[Texicano]

@roosterhavoc Yes! That's exactly what I had been doing with my stags. Let one be king sh*t for a awhile, then pen him, and as soon as king sh*t gets put away, dominance scraps commence. It's a good thing my Radios are slow to grow their horns, slow to mature really, or else....y'all know what I mean. This upcoming season will be an interesting one as I'm going to be producing Pure Hatch, and Grey×Radios. I have a feeling I'm going to be learning a lot of lessons the hard way lol

 

[JShubin]

Pen one bird and the next falls right in line and so it goes. Every bird is an individual gotta watch em closely. I am trying to let each one be king for a few days at least before I pen them. It's going ok so far, a few minor setbacks here and there lol
For awhile the stags will run with a group of pullets and stay with them. As they all age though it changes. Gotta take it day by day and pay extremely close attention. I spend a lot of time watching from inside the house to see what they're doing when I'm not around. I've had just as many issues with pullets as stags.
All the other crosses were less than 5 months and the blues were all just about a week shy of 6 months. They don't give much warning though, one day they're good next day all h*ll breaks loose.

Exactly. Perfect way to let stags mature naturally.
I think this is the way he learns to court pullets/hens, without chasing them down like a jack. Also think he learns that he doesnt need to pen fight with every other rooster on the yard when given this opportunity.

 

[JShubin]

I just had a weird cyclic hierarchy going on with my last 3 stags... Where stag A dominated B, B dominated C, but C dominated A. So nobody was top dog.

Changed as soon as I penned up one of them.

 

[McGnugget]

Was the Grey the broodcock.

He sired the "ivory grey" hen in my photos. She's the bitty in the pen with mother hen. Unfortunately, dogs came through and took out those two original Greys, but I still have that little hen so at least I can keep the genes in my flock. The rooster was the first to go, but on that day the hen laid the egg that hatched my ivory grey. When "ivory" was old enough to roost in the trees, and while the mother hen was still around, I bought a brownred (not pictured) to fill the void so he's all I've got to breed these hens. The other three hens were acquired from someone else so I don't know anything about their origins other than the address where I picked them up. That guy was, however, the one who told me my original two birds were Greys. I'm guessing the blue hen might be a mug. She's got white legs with spurs and the only photos I've seen online that looked closest to her were some mug hens.

After learning lessons about predators the hard way I put these in a 10x10 chain link pen for the winter. I'll have another pen or two set up by the spring when it's time to start breeding, which leads me to ask a couple of questions.

Should I be prepared to separate any broody hens and new hatchlings from the rest? What are the chances that one of my four hens would turn on any new bitties, or even another hen's eggs? I'm thinking that I should probably be prepared for the worst just in case. lol

 

[roosterhavoc]

Yes for everything. Some hens will be fine with chicks with others around but most will lose their mind and attack anything within range. Rule of thumb would be to separate everything.

 

[roosterhavoc]

I just had a weird cyclic hierarchy going on with my last 3 stags... Where stag A dominated B, B dominated C, but C dominated A. So nobody was top dog. 

Changed as soon as I penned up one of them. 

How old are they?

 

[JShubin]

How old are they?

around 5 months. Im pretty sure my Modern cross was the odd ball, causing the cycle. I penned him up and now normal hierarchy exists among the remaining 2 stags and some younger ones (2-3months).

 

[JShubin]

I agree with Havoc... probably best to separate especially if multiple hens are brooding or having chicks...

This last year I let my black hen brood and raise chicks in the avairy, but she was the only one with chicks, so I didnt have to worry about her killing other chicks. And the black hen was dominant so none of the other hens messed with her or her chicks... if she wasnt dominant then I would have let her out to care for them without being bothered by other hens.

 

[redfield]

not 100% sure but I'm thinking American Game