What type of Gamefowl are my chickens?

[valleychicks]

Can someone look at pictures of our game chickens and see what you think? We rescued them when they were left behind by a neighbor. I just want to know what they are breed/class whatever you call it. We have had chickens for just a year so we are still learning.


This rooster is just coming into his spurs.


This rooster has gotten to be a bantam because he is about the size of our Silkie Roosters and he is full grown. He's had spurs for several months.



This rooster is the only one with what looks like a rose comb.

This is just a close up of the Rooster with the hen.

The close up shows his unusual feathers that stick up on his head.
It reminds me of how Polish chickens feathers stick up on their heads.

We have hens to but I will start with the roosters. Thanks for any help!

 

[gamebirdsonly]

The first Roo could be pure not sure which breed but the others look like mixes

 

[valleychicks]

The first Roo could be pure not sure which breed but the others look like mixes

Ok. Thanks. From pictures I've seen the first one looked like Kelso ?? The original owner raised American Game, Old English and something called Tophat (no idea what that is). He had several small pens that he would put a rooster in with a couple of hens that matched the rooster for fertile eggs. He had one of those incubators that held like 400 or more eggs. So I guess I just need to go with "they are game chickens" if anyone asks. I was hopeful that I would be able to find out exactly what they were and match the hens to the roosters to be able to get fertile eggs in the future. Oh well.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

1st looks to be a lovely Black Breasted Red OEGB

I think the 2nd is an OEGB too, and I think they were trying to go for Crele but the bird is not a good example of that.

3rd roo is hard for me to zoom into that comb...but that doesn't look to be a rose comb but more like a buttercup...does it have an indent in the center forming a crown? If so, that is a buttercup comb. It is the wrong color for any Sicilian Buttercup roo, and if that is a buttercup, it is not show quality. They might have been going for silver duckwing and missed....and the leg color is wrong for a Sicilian. I can't think off the top of my head what other buttercup breeds there may be, as I'm not familiar with the more exotic game....but my guess is this one is a mix too.

Top hat refers to a feather head crest and there are a number of birds who have "top hats" such as Polish, Sultans, and Spitzhaubens who all have the really crazy crests. Then there are those that have a more moderate crest like the Crested Legbar.

The 4th looks to be mix of something crested as it doesn't look true to any of the crested types I can think of...my guess would be Polish with OEGB or OEG depending on size. The hen looks over-mated, while she doesn't appear to have loss of feathers on her back, she is almost bald at the back of her neck where the roo may be grabbing hold...or she is being pecked by the other hens.

I suspicion they were left behind because they were not birds they desired to breed forward (????) as most of these roo's appear to have major coloration flaws if they indeed are pure bred....or mixed breed "oops."

That's the best I can do....hopefully someone else will have more ideas.

Lady of McCamley

Links for photos of colors I'm talking about
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/Games/BRKGames.html
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/Games/GameBantams/BRKOEGBantams.html

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/BCup/BRKButtercup.html

 

[sdm111]

No way to know for sure without the history the top hat u refer to is called toppie and is a type of grey game in regular chickens grey is silver duckwing. As far as Kelso, kelsos have distinguishing characteristics but to say it is from a pic u can't be for certain here is a Kelso

and a grey but not a toppie

this here is a Kelso hatch cross and but for a couple small things looks like his Kelso father which is pictured above

and his brother that looks almost exactly like a sweater.

point being without knowing the history u can't positively know what they are just by pics.

 

[sdm111]

And the " buttercup " comb if it came from a game it came from spanish gamefowl.

 

[sdm111]

Sweater

 

[sdm111]

Hatch. Another red fowl

 

[valleychicks]

1st looks to be a lovely Black Breasted Red OEGB

I think the 2nd is an OEGB too, and I think they were trying to go for Crele but the bird is not a good example of that.

3rd roo is hard for me to zoom into that comb...but that doesn't look to be a rose comb but more like a buttercup...does it have an indent in the center forming a crown? If so, that is a buttercup comb. It is the wrong color for any Sicilian Buttercup roo, and if that is a buttercup, it is not show quality. They might have been going for silver duckwing and missed....and the leg color is wrong for a Sicilian. I can't think off the top of my head what other buttercup breeds there may be, as I'm not familiar with the more exotic game....but my guess is this one is a mix too.

Top hat refers to a feather head crest and there are a number of birds who have "top hats" such as Polish, Sultans, and Spitzhaubens who all have the really crazy crests. Then there are those that have a more moderate crest like the Crested Legbar.

The 4th looks to be mix of something crested as it doesn't look true to any of the crested types I can think of...my guess would be Polish with OEGB or OEG depending on size. The hen looks over-mated, while she doesn't appear to have loss of feathers on her back, she is almost bald at the back of her neck where the roo may be grabbing hold...or she is being pecked by the other hens.

I suspicion they were left behind because they were not birds they desired to breed forward (????) as most of these roo's appear to have major coloration flaws if they indeed are pure bred....or mixed breed "oops."

That's the best I can do....hopefully someone else will have more ideas.

Lady of McCamley

Links for photos of colors I'm talking about
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/Games/BRKGames.html
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/Games/GameBantams/BRKOEGBantams.html

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/BCup/BRKButtercup.html

Thank you! That is a lot of help! The hen in the picture I should have explained about. When the neighbors moved out of their home they didn't sell, instead they left her grown brother behind to look after the home rent free. He had asked for some of the chickens so his brother in law gave him these and a couple others that wound up killed by dogs getting loose in the neighborhood and hawks. The little hen was attacked by a hawk or owl or something. The brother did not take care of them as in give them food and water. He let them free range 24/7 and had closed all of the coops up so they couldn't go back in for protection. (I found this out later) They would come over to our home on the outside of our fence line and I put them a water feeder out and some feed. One day I heard what sounded like an attack from the roosters and hens screaming and saw movement toward the coop area at the neighbors. The brother was never there so I went over and found the little hen up in a tree scared to death and bleeding from the back of her head. I constantly checked on her for the next few weeks bringing her food and water. She would not leave the area of the tree. One day I noticed the brother loading his truck up with furniture so I went to tell him about the hen and the others, that I had been feeding them and everything. He said I'm moving out so you can have them. The back of her head is badly scarred from whatever attacked her and she has damage to her comb but other than that she is ok now.


Here is a better picture of #3's comb (aka Nelson for Baby face Nelson) . By naming the chickens, my husband and I find it easier to point out certain chickens we are talking about to each other rather than saying "look at that black one, no the other black one". The first one I saved was #2 and my husband called him Pretty Boy to which I added Floyd. He had fallen or jumped from a tree and landed on some barb wire fence at the neighbors cutting one of his feet and legs. I caught him and cleaned and medicated him. He (Floyd) is fine now. #1 aka Clyde and a little brown hen (not pictured) were saved at 1:30 am just as a thunderstorm came rolling in. My husband discovered them hiding in a pile of old dead tree limbs on our land, they were about 6 weeks old and didn't have all their feathers yet. He named the couple Bonnie and Clyde. The rooster in pictures 4 and 5 I named Duke after John Wayne because his comb looks like a cowboy hat the way it sits forward on his head. I know we are weird and that's ok.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I don't see buttercups in the Spanish gamefowl...they look to have very large single combs that flop...but I'm no expert. The best you may be able to achieve is track down the other poster's Spanish gamefowl, Kelso, and toppie grey leads online to get more information, but I agree with that poster it may be very difficult to determine what you have from photos as there are a lot of different gamefowls, so it indeed may take some time to figure out what they may be if you want to breed them....and don't forget they could be mixes too which means they won't fit any category....and don't forget that a lot of the gamefowl roosters have dubbed (trimmed) combs so they won't necessarily fit comb profiles.

Shame on the brother for abusing them all because he didn't want to clean a coop. Glad you've gotten them. Poor hen...sounds like she was attacked by a hawk...incredible that she escaped.

Since I'm not much help, I'll give your research a start with a few more links.

No matter what they are, they have a happy home now.

Lady of McCamley
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/Games/SpanishG/BRKSpanishG.html

http://rollingrockgamefarm.webs.com/
http://westernheritagegamefowlranch.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=115939421
http://www.pinnonhatch.com/catalog1.html