Using american games for broodys?

[ericsplls]

I'm going to try to use american games to do my hatching next year. I know silkies are great but I want to let them grow in the pasture free ranging and that will not work with silkies. Are any lines more broody than others? Can I expect to raise two clutches a year per hen? I'll be hatching my own eggs so there shouldn't be a problem with having to order eggs and hope I have a broody when they get here.

 

[okiehen]

You cant go wrong with American Game hens.
I think any type (line) would be fine, and yes some will brood 2 times a year.

 

[MustLoveHens]

I agree with Okiehen. American Games are a very broody lot. American games brood once a year and can brood twice. It depends on where you are and how your seasons are. Americans and Gamefowl in general are seasonal layers. They lay (and brood) in spring and summer, then stop when they enter molt. If your summers are longish and falls mild, they might start up again after molt and go until winter. They will stop laying in fall/winter and start again in spring. When they enter molt, again depends on where you live. I bred and showed American Games when I lived in So. Cal and my hens brooded once a year and sometines twice. Mine entered their molt (around end of Sept/Oct) and stopped laying and did not start again till spring.
American Game hens mix well in a flock, but they will be dominant. They are super smart, and as with any breed of chicken, if you hand raise and handle them, Americans make super awsome pets. They take pasture well but if there are trees vs. a coop they usually will sleep in the trees-the higher the better. That is not to say they will not go into a coop, but they prefer trees. Aleast all of my free roamers did! They tend to be flighty as in flying-not mentally! They tend to have "wild" temperment if not handled or tamed down.
They make the BEST mothers, they are wonderfully fierce mothers and will do their best to kill or seriously maim anthying attempting to harm the babies. I had a gamehen kill a hawk while protecting her brood. Bear in mind, a gamehen will brood in unexpected and very very well hidden places. In your case, since you are providing her with ferile eggs, you will want to monitor her setting, hatching and such so you will need to be observant to her inital "going broody" signs, grap her and confine her to your designated escape proof broody pen. A "drop cage" or "fly pen" set up to prevent escaping babies works like a charm.

 

[ericsplls]

Thanks I may just get a few to try now. I would like to use them to raise 50-100 a year but don't want to manage ten more hens and a cock to do the job.

 

[mystus808]

My gamebird likes to nest in natural places will bushes all around it. Once I let it out to free range and couldn't find it for 2 days. Then she finally appeared and was starving I fed her and then followed her back to her clutch which was well hidden in some bushes. I locked her in her pen the next time i saw her and she was not happy at all. But this time im ready she is just about broody and i have given her 4 eggs to hatch/