Show Off Your American Gamefowl and Chat Thread!!!

[roosterhavoc]

Gamefowl look real good by the way.

 

[birdman55]

I'm probably between 500-750 right now. I just moved about 20 to the brooder....hatched two malay, one thai....lacy, and butchers....just started to lay in the pheasant coops....right now hatcher is full and two hundred eggs in the incubator and a second incubator with about 50 in it....ordering another 200 egg gqf incubator this week....going to need it once the guineafowl start laying and all the other pheasants as well....I hatch every egg that comes out of a bird.....I pick the best ones at the end of the year and we make meals out of the rest. I don't really sell anybirds...I think I may have sold a total of 20 birds over the last five years...that didn't go to freezer camp...I have spent a lot of time with the birds especially when it comes to breeding....nothing stays if there is any defects....for example I have a fibromelenistic bird the svart hona....I bought stock from the only two importers in the united states...one from Georgia and one from florida.....very expensive bird I believe you can still sell for over 500 for a pair....never sold one....I hatched close to 150 of them last year and less then 20 made it to breeding stock....out of all those birds only about 4 roosters I would say I'm comfortable with being breeders and those are the solid black ones on the deck the colored ones are paylay hmong chickens that came from cally..... the ornamentals I am raising for feathers for flytying.....if I get over 500 birds big stores like cabelas will buy them direct...I have looked at a lot of options as well like preserving the feathers with borax....I did this a couple of times last year just to see if it would work....it worked however you have to be really careful with the moisture levels...by the end of the season I should be between 1000-1500 birds....when I am done with a batch that I don't want....I make a phone call and a group of people come up and work we do....we did 250 birds in one day to freezer camp...they buy at wholesale and I don't have to do any cleaning...or catching....we have a complete cleaning station here with scalder, dipper, cones, stainless steel sinks, and a plucker that does quail all the way up to turkeys....the quails every now and then get stuck....anyways have a wonderful day guys.....keep up the good work. love the pics.

 

[birdman55]

someday ill get to the level where you guys are at breeding wise.....your stock is very nice...I am going to make some coops like you guys have but I have to make it with a 2x6 inch base, and it is going to be rectangle with a angled roof....I have to make it so it wont tip over in the super high winds that we have and am going to put on corregauted fiberglass around all enclosures...I cant wait.
the building on left has 4- 8x8' pens and the building on right which is not done has 2- 5x16' pens, and 4- 5x10' pens for gamefowl.

 

[birdman55]

the area where you see to 30' long fence that is just standing up randomly well that is going to be turned into a pond for exotic ducks hopefully this year...got a lot to do....the whole area right there measures 30x36'.....a lot of work but it is coming together for sure

 

[roosterhavoc]

What are you selling for fly tying? I tie thousands of flies every year. Seriously. I don't buy anything feather wise from cabelas. The quality sucks. I raised genetic roosters for the capes and the saddles. Believe me when I tell you the quality of biird you can get chicken wise sucks. I culled every rooster. Whiting farms is king and a few others. You won't get their stock either. You might get the cape feather down to real small sizes but the stiffness is lacking or the stem will twist which is most often the case. When the feather twists as you wrap it around the hook shank it's over.

 

[roosterhavoc]

If your talking game birds it's a different story. Golden pheasant crests, coturnix, ruffed grouse, etc... Hungarian partridge would be wise to raise if that's what your trying to do. Quality is everything though and unless you actually tie flies or hire someone to grade your feathers and skins who does you won't be able to judge the quality by look and feel alone.

 

[roosterhavoc]

I still have about 15 genetic hens for tying.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Whatever you do don't buy any of those birds listed as fly tie or any other similar bullsh*t. All they are are pheonix crosses or similar. Most of the feathers on those birds are far too soft (similar to a hen) to tie dry flies. A few feathers could be used to tie bass or pike flies but that's it.

 

[birdman55]

I raise the jumbo cortinux quail, I have plenty of ornamental pheasants., my friend has 500 Hungarians. And 500 guineas. Another friend has three acres of 50x150' pens of game bird pheasants such as ringnecks and multiple colors of ringnecks. I have a couple of people that I can ask and get just about any feather from tragopans, satrys, Palawan peacock pheasants, impians.,

Check out the link below about the mutations of the red golden and u can see some of the ties a friend makes. I would post pics but they are not mine to post.i would love to learn and actually do fly tying.

 

[Texicano]

Disclaimer: laced with RIR, modern etc.. not for true enthusiasts

for real....lol