GTA
All Springer/NP/PCP Air Gun Discussion General => Back Room => Topic started by: Bullfrog on May 19, 2019, 01:37:37 AM
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Dead or alive Manny?
I’m studying the genetics of red jungle fowl and red jungle fowl traits in feral chicken populations. I’m curious to see what the Hawaii birds look like.
We have a couple of feral chicken populations in the SE. A big one in the Florida keys and another in Georgia. Lots of red jungle fowl traits.
Florida settlers used to free range a red jungle fowl-derived game chicken, as late as my lifetime. They never established feral populations to my knowledge though.
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Funny thing here is that you cannot shoot feral Chickens in the wild, but you can if they come in your yard,....I know, I know Hawai'i hunting regs :)
If you look in my page you should get a few threads with pictures of feral roosters and I think one with a Hen that my daughter shot.
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Dead or alive Manny?
I’m studying the genetics of red jungle fowl and red jungle fowl traits in feral chicken populations. I’m curious to see what the Hawaii birds look like.
We have a couple of feral chicken populations in the SE. A big one in the Florida keys and another in Georgia. Lots of red jungle fowl traits.
Florida settlers used to free range a red jungle fowl-derived game chicken, as late as my lifetime. They never established feral populations to my knowledge though.
Here is a pic of a Maui rooster that ran into a .30 cal FX Impact pellet:
(https://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f18/Cpeter2018/Rooster Pic_zpsjcl4crti.jpg?width=400&height=400&crop=1:1,smart)
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In roosters, is there much variation in color pattern from the one in Peter’s picture?
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in the swamps of south Lafourche parish La. ,
we have run across some feral rooster's that looked like that.
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In roosters, is there much variation in color pattern from the one in Peter’s picture?
That is the most common color pattern, you get some that have much more black and some that have real blond neck feathers, but yeah that is the more common
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One more question. Do you find the feral chickens to be significantly smaller than domestic chickens?
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Problem here,.... all chickens are feral :) :)
if someone has domestic chickens they are of various different breeds, we call them designer chickens here :) :)
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I don’t know about the feral chickens in Oahu but the ones on Kauai are pretty lean birds. The feral chickens that are well feed by locals/tourists fatten up pretty good IMO. They are either really nice looking rosters or just ole plain chickens 🐓.
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Do they stand significantly shorter than a domestic bird?
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Wow, now that is a hard question to answer. I love my chicks, but those chicks breed with the sexiest Cock around. Just plain ole Kauai Feral Chickens are a serious mix of breeds. I would say ave 12" to 18" tall, most Cocks are taller than the chicks (AKA) hens.
https://vacations.hawaiilife.com/blog/kauai/kauais-feral-chickens-where-did-they-come
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Reason I’m asking all of these questions is that I’ve spent over a year tracking down the traditional chickens that Florida homesteaders used to raise. I grew up with a flock of these chickens but I didn’t know anyone alive who still has any. The traditional Florida chickens looked and acted like red jungle fowl and didn’t show traits of domestic influence such as larger size or multiple color patterns. Yet those feral chickens we have in Florida today look a lot like your Hawaiian birds; jungle fowl in appearance but larger with varied colors.
I’m curious to know to what degree feral chickens around the world show jungle fowl traits and why Florida at one time had a strain of chickens that seemed to be more like pure jungle fowl.