Developing My Own Breed Of Large Gamefowl For Free Range Survival (Junglefowl x Liege)

[diriel]

Do you sell / ship hatchling chicks? I'm in Oklahoma, and would very much like to have a few highly resilient chickens. This project is fascinating.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

We’ll see how this batch of terrorfowl turns out being raised by a turkey.

 

[I Like Turkeys]

We’ll see how this batch of terrorfowl turns out being raised by a turkey.

Oh good luck! I’m especially interested in seeing how that works out. Is this her first time raising chicks?

 

[troyer]

That will be interesting! Hopefully she doesn't start roosting too high too soon.

 

[Molpet]

That will be interesting! Hopefully she doesn't start roosting too high too soon.

This has been a issue with some of my mixed families. The hen in the tree 10 ft above the crying chicks. I'm locking up coops with a light and hear them. Sometimes when I come over the hen comes down. Sometimes I have to knock her down with a pole.

Sometimes she's smart enough that there's bushes they can get up and work their way to her

 

[troyer]

This has been a issue with some of my mixed families. The hen in the tree 10 ft above the crying chicks. I'm locking up coops with a light and hear them. Sometimes when I come over the hen comes down. Sometimes I have to knock her down with a pole.

Sometimes she's smart enough that there's bushes they can get up and work their way to her

The biggest problem I noticed was with a hen brooding other breeds and not her own. Or a hen when bred to breed slower feathered than herself.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I may have made a mistake today. On a whim I turned out the big batch of terrorfowl chicks. Their coop is getting crowded and dirty and I saw that we aren’t due for rain in at least a week.

They immediately dove into the dog fennel and began mowing it down. All of my poultry eats it on free range but I hate to see them eat so much of it immediately. I am not sure if they did it because it was the first greenery they saw or because it has something their bodies need. In the past, new free rangers have ran to salt bush and gotten sick shortly thereafter.

I’ll probably lock them back up tonight and observe them to see if they develop any symptoms.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

For those who haven’t followed the thread through, dog fennel is toxic. It makes a natural pesticide that backwoodsmen used to take advantage of to treat their dogs for fleas and ticks, thus its name. The natives also used it to smoke on camp fires to repel mosquitoes. Per the literature, nothing eats it except a particular kind of caterpillar. However, in real life, local cattle often eats it to no ill effect and my free rangers relish it. I have wondered if some free range losses with chicks newly turned out was due to some of them having less tolerance for it than others.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

A turkey with special needs children.

I think they’ll keep up well. The terrorfowl have been the best chicks I’ve had for having strong scurrying instincts out the gate. If one gets out of a brooder, its a master at evading me even its first time out on the ground. You can see in the clip how quick they are.

I’m exited to see if these take on new sounds or habits separate from the other chickens.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Oh good luck! I’m especially interested in seeing how that works out. Is this her first time raising chicks?

Last year she had some turkey chicks from a wild gobbler that hatched in a heavy rain. Most died at hatching and 2 died a couple of days later.