Wild Jungle Fowl

[Jessgitalong]

Here’s a pic of my clever hen hanging with her flock.We rescued her from a cat’s mouth! Luckily, we had hatchlings her age and our brood hen accepted her. Her comb was ripped by our rooster at the time, and we had to help her out. Now she’s a leader in her own right!

The other pic is a jungle fowl wanting to get in and take over our flock. Our big rooster is no match for these little scrappers! They’re lean, quick, and ruthlessly agile!

 

[TwoCrows]

Nice flock, thanks for sharing!

 

[Jessgitalong]

My partner is afraid of eating our eggs after I treated the flock with Ivermectin. No problem! After looking at numerous hatcheries’ lack of stock, decided to throw a dozen into the incubator. That wild girl gets broody. Hoping to give her some chicks to raise.

I experimented with my last incubation batch by throwing one of hers in, and a big, healthy chick emerged from her little egg! Throwing 3 more of hers into this mix! Hope some wild stock will give me more brooders, as well as some vigor!

 

[Jessgitalong]

This one is a scary TOUGH guy! Sent my rooster, twice his size, cowering in the brush with a major eye injury. He was shot by an automatic BB gun at close range for eating someone’s banana patch and recovered enough to fly back up into the patch in a couple weeks! He has gained respect and is honored by everyone who knows him. Banana patch owner said he’s earned his right to share the fruit by defying what should have been certain death!

 

[ChookaPete]

Nice chickens!

 

[Jessgitalong]

UPDATE: Sadly, she is very protective of eggs to the point she kicked 5 chicks out from under her to “protect” the remaining eggs. I found 3 hatched, then were rejected, along with 2 others she initially took when they hatched from the incubator. They didn’t make it. I didn’t know what happened until I sat with her and her 2 remaining hatchlings. She began to kick them out, so I grabbed them and threw them under our brooder plate. I went back to grab the remaining egg, and she was off of it. Threw that into the incubator and giving it another day’s chance.

Jungle fowl, as it turns out, are not as reliable as domestic brooding hens. I guess I can take her genetic contribution, but that’s all.

It’s a sad day

 

[Jessgitalong]

Update: I figured out what happened. She was confused, I was confused, and no one is to blame. Jungle Fowl are not meant to brood in a coop with chickens around. They are meant to hunker down, undisturbed, in seclusion.

She was in grief yesterday, and I was being unfair. With the correct approach, I know she’ll succeed in hatching her own brood. We both just need some time to process and rest up.

The upside: I have 2 of the cutest chicks ever! Will post a photo.

 

[Jessgitalong]