I have to AGREE with everything Jungle has to say... I also agree with CUDA regarding breeding specifically for gameness (thanks to human selection).
But where I disagree with CUDA is that, to be called gamefowl you dont need extreme gameness or be pure breeds.
For Example... For the most part I follow a natural selection with some human intervention with my gamefowl. I keep all my birds free range, they sleep in the trees and roam the neighborhood. Some get eaten by coyotes, dogs, racoons and hawks. Some get killed by other roosters or mother hens... and eventually you get hardy birds that survive all this. What I found is the extreme game ones end up dying out (for example they try to fight the older roosters when they are too young, or just pick fights they cant win.) What I ended up with is survivors, but extremely tough survivors. My main brood rooster, Fabio, took over dominance after a "natural" battle with his father Frenchy. Fabio wasnt extreme game, but he waited until he was old enough and tough enough to win (Frenchy used to chance him around the yard like a madman)..
Trust me, any person who sees this rooster or his offspring would call them game. He was the naturally dominant bird and proved himself to be so. I didnt breed him specifically for gameness, he was the result of tough brood stock. This is how I let things happen over the past 8-9 years I have been doing this, and almost every year a new dominant rooster arose. None of mine are pure breeds, they are mixed Greys, Green leg hatch and leiper hatch (and now Warhorse and spanish game because inbreeding became a problem). The roosters picked which hens to mate with and the hens who were the broodiest and toughest had the most chicks survive, and natural selection endured. All my hens are super broody and are most are double spurred, traits that seemed to ensure survival. My roosters also got bigger over time, because bigger birds had the strength to dominate, but they didnt loose any agility or speed, because they still needed to evade predators. Fabio can still fly across the yard almost as well as my crow, despite his size.
My fowl are extremely tough but smart. Anyone would call them game.. but they dont nessecarily possess extreme gameness nor are they pure bred.
With that said I now have changed all that because I favored certain chickens that I had personal relationships with (My kids and I hand raised them). So now I keep them in seperate changes, but if I let any of them out they would without a doubt fight until one died (because they all think they are dominant when they are in their own cages)... I dont let this happen now, because of my soft heart and my kids like them.
But where I disagree with CUDA is that, to be called gamefowl you dont need extreme gameness or be pure breeds.
For Example... For the most part I follow a natural selection with some human intervention with my gamefowl. I keep all my birds free range, they sleep in the trees and roam the neighborhood. Some get eaten by coyotes, dogs, racoons and hawks. Some get killed by other roosters or mother hens... and eventually you get hardy birds that survive all this. What I found is the extreme game ones end up dying out (for example they try to fight the older roosters when they are too young, or just pick fights they cant win.) What I ended up with is survivors, but extremely tough survivors. My main brood rooster, Fabio, took over dominance after a "natural" battle with his father Frenchy. Fabio wasnt extreme game, but he waited until he was old enough and tough enough to win (Frenchy used to chance him around the yard like a madman)..
Trust me, any person who sees this rooster or his offspring would call them game. He was the naturally dominant bird and proved himself to be so. I didnt breed him specifically for gameness, he was the result of tough brood stock. This is how I let things happen over the past 8-9 years I have been doing this, and almost every year a new dominant rooster arose. None of mine are pure breeds, they are mixed Greys, Green leg hatch and leiper hatch (and now Warhorse and spanish game because inbreeding became a problem). The roosters picked which hens to mate with and the hens who were the broodiest and toughest had the most chicks survive, and natural selection endured. All my hens are super broody and are most are double spurred, traits that seemed to ensure survival. My roosters also got bigger over time, because bigger birds had the strength to dominate, but they didnt loose any agility or speed, because they still needed to evade predators. Fabio can still fly across the yard almost as well as my crow, despite his size.
My fowl are extremely tough but smart. Anyone would call them game.. but they dont nessecarily possess extreme gameness nor are they pure bred.
With that said I now have changed all that because I favored certain chickens that I had personal relationships with (My kids and I hand raised them). So now I keep them in seperate changes, but if I let any of them out they would without a doubt fight until one died (because they all think they are dominant when they are in their own cages)... I dont let this happen now, because of my soft heart and my kids like them.