The REAL Chicken Thread RESURRECTED!!!!
Jul 15, 2023 17:11:09 GMT -5
drivinmike, conchydong, and 4 more like this
Post by bullfrog on Jul 15, 2023 17:11:09 GMT -5
Back from the dead...
This thread shall be a continuance of "The REAL Chicken Thread" from the old forum, a chronicle of my breeding efforts to create multiple bloodlines of survival-oriented chickens. I have more technical threads elsewhere (a chicken-oriented forum) that's been running for several years where I catalogue the projects in depth and some degree of scientific detail specifically for other chicken nerds like myself. This thread, as was the thread from the old forum, is more oriented towards lay people that don't necessarily know a lot of about chickens beyond the basics. And for the fun of sharing with the people here.
First, let me start by saying I completed my book a couple of months ago. It ended up being 100k words, although I am expecting my publisher to pair it down to around 60k-80k and likely leave some parts for an expanded edition later if it sells well. It's in the process of being edited.
When I left the old forum, I had 3 breeds of chickens I was working on, and I had either just split off a 4th or I did so shortly after leaving. I'm now at a point where 4 bloodlines is too much. I have over 12 coops, a free range flock at the homestead amongst the coops, and then a flock down in the woods that are supposed to live behind an electric fence (but they often come and go at will). I am downsizing my flocks over the next few weeks.
My first line are my Florida Cracker gamefowl, which are gamefowl/red junglefowl hybrids that represent a landrace of gamefowl that were commonly found on Florida backwoods homesteads through the mid 1900s, but have recently become hard to find.
The original Crackers I have raised on my farm for the last few years were smaller in body than the flock I grew up with, and as I line-bred them, they became less resilient to disease. The susceptibility to sickness is a trait of wild red junglefowl outside of their native Asian environment and is likely due to my flock having a higher degree of red junglefowl influence than normal. Therefore I undertook a project to locate and infuse fresher genetics into the flock that would increase their hardiness to disease and their size.
Now several years later, I think I'm close to perfecting the improved Cracker gamefowl. I've narrowed the improved Crackers to 4 individuals; two rooster and two hens. One set is 3/4 American gamefowl, 1/4 domesticated red junglefowl. The other set is 1/2 American gamefowl, 1/4 domesticated red junglefowl, and 1/4 Wahl sonatal aseel (a kind of oriental gamefowl).
The improved Crackers will have the same color as the original Crackers. They just haven't had an 18 month molt yet, which is starting right now. In the fall they should have their full adult plumage. Also, I haven't yet taken pictures of them with my professional camera. So far, both chicks and adults of the improved birds are far more resilient than the "pure" Crackers. They are more than twice the size of the original birds. They lay full sized eggs and have more aggression in them for dealing with hawks and other small predators. They're good flyers. Everything about them is better. I pretty much consider their genetics completed. I just need to make a lot of them now. I have a free range group of 6 growing out under the care of a hen and another 14 in a coop that represent each of the two groups of improved Crackers. I think the ones with 1/4 aseel in them are going to be superior. Most of my efforts are now into promoting the improved Crackers as my primary farm bird. I no longer breed the original Crackers on my farm. I have some flocks of pure Crackers spread around on other farms, but I really believe these improved Crackers are the better chickens.
The second bloodline was derived from Crackers being bred to Old English game bantams, then bred to the show standards of the American game bantam. This flock is my most prolific. They look like the Crackers except with a more gamefowl look in tail carriage and stance, and being smaller. They reproduce so much I'm constantly selling, trading, or giving them away. They're probably my most beautiful. They thrive both free range and in small coops. They're pretty much show quality, except that they have a streak of white on their ears that is supposed to be all red per the show standards. Over the last 6 months I've tried to breed several with just a red ear, but I've given up for the moment.
I am about to send the entire American game bantam flock to a family member. As beautiful as they are, they're the project I enjoy the least. All I'm doing is feeding them and rehoming globs of chicks every several weeks. The family member will take good care of them and if I ever need to tap into their genetics, they'll be available to me. Other than making the ears pure red, there isn't much else for me to do to them. Also, their small size makes them hawk bait. They can survive free range fine if treated as coop birds first that are occasionally turned out. But when left out for a year or more, the hens eventually get cleaned out by hawks. I have flocks of these spread around north Florida, and I am aware of one of my flocks at a local feed store than bred like rabbits for two years until the local hawks figured out how to catch the hens. After that, the flock just got reduced to the surviving brother roosters. I think they've ended up being what I originally bred them for. Show chickens that have a survival edge, but are ultimately coop chickens.
The third bloodline are my "teacup Crackers," which are actually my 4th line chronologically. These are derived from the American game bantams and bred back to pure Crackers. I found a certain rooster and hen combination that made abnormally small but healthy offspring. Much smaller than ever the original AGBs. They have strong red junglefowl traits and have the body size of doves. The roosters are also very gamey. So they're these perfectly miniature gamefowl. I enjoy these a lot and I'm going to keep breeding them for the foreseeable future. I may cross pure red junglefowl into them in the future. I have a friend who has a pure red junglefowl rooster that I may get offspring from to cross into these. If I do, I could probably breed these to the show standards of the extinct red junglefowl bantam and show them at poultry shows.
Finally, there are my "dinosaur" chickens, which I call my "terrorfowl" after the extinct family of predatory birds called terror birds. The base genome I'm using is that of the Belgian Liege fighter, a very rare kind of gamefowl from Central Europe. Pure Liege are huge birds, but they nearly went extinct in WWII and their modern form isn't very healthy due to severe inbreeding. Here is a pure Liege rooster I gave to a buddy (my buddy is holding him, my buddy is a little skinny but not otherwise too small of a fellow).
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Indo is my Gen 1 prototype. He's mature now. He's beat down predators and I generally have no predation events when he's on free range. He has a hard time keeping a full tail because he often gets his tail feathers pulled out in fights with predators. Last major run in was with an unknown predator at Christmas 2022 where he beat the predator down and got its blood all over his legs, but had his tail plucked clean in the process. I think it was a fox. He relishes mice and sickly chicks. He isn't near the size of a pure Liege, about only half the size, but with a lot more attitude.
Indo's son is my Gen 2, Azog the Defiler. I put more Liege back into him to try to increase the size. It moderately worked, but he still isn't as big as a pure Liege. He is also more laid back than Indo. He's highly gamey against other roosters, but his predator drive isn't as strong as Indo's. Which does make me trust him more on free range around my daughter. Currently Indo isn't allowed to free range around my daughter after biting her finger hard.
I have ran into two problems with the terrorfowl project. First, as stated, they don't like being as large as their Liege progenitors. I am coming to believe this is because the gigantism of the Liege is due in part to their tight inbreeding and that when their genes are freshened up, it makes them revert to a more natural size. Which up to this point, my terrorfowl have only been composed of two bloodlines. A thunderstorm is blowing up on me and I'm concerned about losing power, so I'm going to post this and continue in a new reply in case the power goes out.