Show Off Your Games!

[jockeyeba]

Yeah CFellows those are some good looking wheaten colored birds there.

and your s too aguilera I really like the BBR colored games too

I hope my little boy gets done with his molt soon. I'd like to get some recent pics of him on here for all to see to.

I got some stags coming but i don't even know what they look like yet they are still running around out in the woods. They are free, I figure that's a good thing right off the bat. LOL

Jeff

That's why there are 1/2 walls between my game pens. If there was just wire they'd hit it from both side all day long.

We had a hen with chicks in a pen & put another hen on eggs in the pen next to it (common wire wall between them). The next morning they were trying to kill each other through the wire. Their heads were covered in blood & my good hen had hurt one of her toes,she was limping for 2 weeks. I had to put a solid wall between them, that solved the problem.

 

[nicalandia]

Now, while I have you here, what about pea combs? I've read they are eastern influence? It seems the dominent trait in my yard now, which I'm fine with, I rather prefer the tighter comb look and would as soon breed straight combs out.....since I don't know how to dub...all the hens are peacomb. So would that trait be more dominent?

pea comb is dominant over single comb

 

[jockeyeba]

Well, I for one, appreciate the info. I started acquiring my games from an old timer here a few years ago and the color patterns have baffled me (still do!) For the most part I let them decide who mates with who and interestingly enough the grey/black hens stay with the grey rooster, the wheaten run with the golden duckwing....I just don't know. Was told I have Joe redman grey, maybe some hatch...it gets confusing because the colors don't really id the strain. After researching some I wouldn't be surprized if they have some traveler blood as well, but theres no way to know for certain now, I just call them Appalachian games. Ha. Ones thing from sure, the certainly are games. My only warning was, "they like to fight alot in spring" er, ah, yes they do, so now I am alittle better prepared.

You are where I am at when it comes to colors.  This why I claim ignorance.  Just about the time I think I got something nailed down, I find out I am totally wrong.  When I first started down this road, all I want a whole flock of Buttermilk hens just like the one I posted the picture of.  I did not even know what she was (she was given to me by someone who got here from someone else) to start off with and had to start a"What breed is this?" thread here on BYC to figure it out. In the end it was decided on that thread that she was an American Game of the Buttermilk color.  Then began my journey to find out how to reproduce her.  Until this day I have never found anyone that could give me any solid answer to that question.  The only thing that I could find was that I probably needed a Grey Stag.  Of course that led to me trying to figure what a Grey Stage is and boy is there a lot of different opinions about this subject.

I could go on and on about the twist and turns I have been through this last year but it would all be redundant.  Basically, IMHO, every breeder has their own set of standards for perfection when it comes to American Games.  In the end I decided to try the shotgun approach and breed everything I had and could get my hands on randomly and see if I could accidentely hit the formula that would produce my buttermilk hen. Now that my prize hen has died of old age, I have given up any hopes of reproducing her. But I did end up with some very beautiful birds as a result and I am glad about that.

The only thing that disturbs me is that after I raised this huge flock, I discovered that Games are really not that good of a meat bird.  I did not worry about how many birds I was raising because I just thought I would put the large majority of them in the freezer.  But after trying to eat three of my cockerels, my family made it very clear that I was alone when it came to eating them.  As a much traveled hunter, I have eaten just about every type of wild game bird from the Arctic to the Amazon.  I have to admit that these American Games are pretty low on the meat quality scale.  So now I have 22 beautiful Cockerels that I don't know what to do with.  Nobody in my area will touch them with a ten foot pole because of their bad rep and I just can't bring myself to kill them for no reason other then to just get rid of them.  But they eat a lot of food and in the spring all He-- is going to break loose. Sure wish I would have known all this before going down this road.

Your right about eating them but they're as good as any other if you put them in the crockpot

 

[jockeyeba]

If i may be bluntnt, JE' As a hunter I am surprized you don't find them a quality meat bird....I don't mean quanity, which is what most people expound on, as in - jee my bird was 10 pounds! But more as in, sure tastes like pheasant to me. I've found one bird more than enough for two people. However mine are naturally lean, and those legs are bigger than most regular chickens. But i prefer dark meat anyway. I've found they cook better if handled gently, as in lightly browned and simmered...or long and slow as in crockpot. Roasted, I cover with foil until the last 15 minutes as they are lean. My birds totally free range so those tendons are very tough, but I keep sharp knives and certainly you can trim your own meal. The other thing I've found is they don't gorge themselves on feed, but rather forage for their own, they always walk away from the table after 5 minutes or so, not the case in most breeds, so in that respect, they are so cheap. I get what you mean, most people seem hung up on the stygma of game birds...as difficult bloodthirsy critter, etc...and I don't believe they are good for the average Joe., mostly because I think they suffer from confinement. And no, you can't keep a ton of roosters in one yard...it gets messy. But you can't keep too many cocks of any breed together. You can't keep two stallions together, two bulls, two rams....on and on. Colors are important, but, I would not eliminate a physically better cock to replace it with one just because I like his color better. (I can still keep the feathers) where I live, alot of people keep games, because they are easy keepers. And they can be tamed up as well as the family dog, making them great pets. ( I should say, family parrot) eventually that stygma of pit fighting will be replaced....as it is illegal...so hopefully you can even talk about them without being censored. As in I let my stags naturally decide who is the fittest, strongest, without being cruel about it...meaning, I step in and remove who is loosing before he gets hurt badly. Shoot, even the hens fight. All chickens do. Who is dominent is who I want to breed. The colors they throw are just a fascinating aspect. If i didn't have games, I would probably choose buckeyes, but I've heard they can be even worse. I've never had a game cock try to flog me...never. sure I've had them bite me, if I snatch a wild one off his roost, but that is normal I would think. I guess I would like to convince you they are great dual purpose birds, but then, I eat squirrel too. Nice black walnut oil, little garlic...gently saute...yum!

Believe me when I say that your opinion and experience reflect my own to a T, but I am not the only one that is eating them, if you know what I mean? I do not intend to get rid of my Games at all. I love them and will continue to try to breed the colors I want (just not shotgun breeding, like I did this year). The the main complaint I got about the ones I tried to eat was not only that the meat was dark, but that it was very slimy. Things like this do not bother me as I have eaten everything from monkeys to electric eels while living with native tribes in the Amazon (now you know where the name Jungle Explorer came from). As far as squirrel goes, I consider it a delicacy! Going to eat some for lunch in about 10 minutes. Squirrel is one of the best tasting animals I know aside from the Aguti-Paca. But if you want to know what the best tasting wild game bird is, let me tell you. It is the Tinamou. And they lay the pretties eggs you have ever seen. I use to raise them in the Amazon. Tinamou eggs

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Well! There's a good thing then...all the hens are pea comb. Only a few offspring have full combs, all of them stags that I don't intend to breed next spring. So my chances of eliminating full combs quickly is good. Not that straight combs are bad, I just think free ranging pea combs would be better. I did have a straight comb rooster (where some of this years came from) who was dubbed by a predator. One less thing to grab a hold of. I don't know that is something I would try on my own, even though pictures and instructions make it look easy....know the way that goes. Yeah he made it back home, covered in blood, wobbly from loss of blood I guess...in three days he was fine...only one problem, he still had his wattles. Unfortunately he didn't learn from his previous mistake.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Really sad day for me. I left my farm for the weekend to visit my 82 year old grandfather for his birthday. Got a call from my son this morning that a chocolate lab was killing my chickens. In his hurry to get a gun my son tripped and broke two toes. By time he got out and shot at the dog it had killed thirteen of my chickens. He only wounded the dog and it got away. I had to drive 150 mile to get home and see what was the total damage. I lost 5 Rhode Island Red hens, 4 BBR Game Roosters, 2 Barred Cochin Bantams, 1 White Leghorn/Cochin rooster and 1 of my Wheaten Game Hens. It's days like this that I almost want to give up raising chickens here in Texas.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Man, that is tough. Domestic dog attack..do you have any left? This year was the worst for me with predators, if they went down over the north side, they were gone...no feathers, nothing...except an occasional scream. Every week two or three missing, I finally cleared a logging road on that side and started touring the dogs there...a few weeks ago Max took off after a bear...one who was coming up pretty close to the house but just not close enough. The only good thing about it was I don't have too many to feed through the winter...except I did loose my favorites....needless to say, now I always carry, even in the yard..esp in the yard.

 

[jockeyeba]

 Really sad day for me.  I left my farm for the weekend to visit my 82 year old grandfather for his birthday.  Got a call from my son this morning that a chocolate lab was killing my chickens.  In his hurry to get a gun my son tripped and broke two toes. By time he got out and shot at the dog it had killed thirteen of my chickens.  He only wounded the dog and it got away. I had to drive 150 mile to get home and see what was the total damage. I lost 5 Rhode Island Red hens, 4 BBR Game Roosters, 2 Barred Cochin Bantams, 1 White Leghorn/Cochin rooster and 1 of my Wheaten Game Hens. It's days like this that I almost want to give up raising chickens here in Texas. 

Sorry to hear that, we've lost several too but always to raccoons (trapped 7 in 3 days earlier this year)

 

[jockeyeba]

Man, that is tough. Domestic dog attack..do you have any left? This year was the worst for me with predators, if they went down over the north side, they were gone...no feathers, nothing...except an occasional scream. Every week two or three missing, I finally cleared a logging road on that side and started touring the dogs there...a few weeks ago Max took off after a bear...one who was coming up pretty close to the house but just not close enough. The only good thing about it was I don't have too many to feed through the winter...except I did loose my favorites....needless to say, now I always carry, even in the yard..esp in the yard.

If you've got bears around I'd "carry" too

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Yeah, ESP if they are looking for food....there is a mountain lion, and wolves too. Typically you never see them, seldom leave tracks. Very wily. Bear is afraid of people, I know the wolf is not, it will come close too. I need big fence.