Here's a photograph of the most recent brood. I heard them cheeping excitedly this morning. They look to be a couple days old. Their mother was trying to coax them out of a cattle trough ... far too deep for them to get out of all by themselves. I helped them find their mommy. The 10th chick is a shadow by the mother hen's foot. This is a fairly typical brood for these hens when they find a good spot for their nest. Sorry for the b/w photo. Kelly
love that [photo! esp the b/w aspect of it... she doens't seem the type that would go broody, and yet look at her younguns!
What a group she has. I love to watch mommy hens and babies. It is a neat sight to see how they interact.
I've owned the American Game Fowl breed for 18 months. This is our 2nd Spring & Summer with them. Typically a Game Fowl hen would raise 2 broods of 9 to 11 chicks between April and October. We have so many hens running around and so few nesting spots that we are selective in who raises what and when. They are a rough and tumble group. Getting near them when they have biddies or are setting on eggs .... will cause them to attack you. I'm a grown man and have been around poultry since I was 8 years old ... my whole life essentially. They can scare the dickens out of me when I get too close. Wild feral cats and skunks will get run off by the hens if the hen sees the animal first. If you have ever had a Guinea Fowl hen with keets ... then these Game Fowl hens will remind you of a guinea mother ... extra protective.
I'll post a photo of another hen with her 2 ducklings. They are adorable. Kelly
This message was edited Jun 23, 2008 7:44 AM
hens and ducklings? great!
have you tlaked to ncchicken,? i think he is farily new here, and he raises Game Fowl also...
I have a photo here of the Game Fowl hen and her 2 Swedish Blue ducklings. One is a runt black but the other is near perfect. Here's the picture. This hen is tame compared to the other Game Fowl hens we have with chicks. I can walk right up to her and pick her up along a fence line. The ducklings scurry away but are quite healthy and happy. The summer weather is perfect now to brood ducklings successfully under a nanny.
how sweet...
Here's a color photo of the 2 Swedish Blue ducklings (1 is a black runt cull). They sleep in the secure box adjacent to their tiny pond with their Game Fowl mother. This box was the nest box they were hatched in. I carried the nest box from the tractor shed about 150 ft away on the neighbors land to bring this little brood into a secure fenced yard compound. During the day the feral cats and skunks stay away but at night they roam freely and kill. Cats have eaten about 20 of my day old to week old keets and chicks in the last few weeks. Wild cats are a terrible problem here.
The hen with 10 chicks under her now has 12. She added a couple from a hen who is now down to 3 from 5 or 6. No wonder the broody hens get all puffed up and angry when they're near each other. Its kidnapping ... and they both know it can happen.
The Blue Swedish are very pretty. I currently have a Crested Blue Swede, and can't wait to see how she looks when older.
yes Kelly, we had chicks disappearing here, cotton rats liekly started it and then a feral cat was caught in the act and shot. chicks are ibgger now, haven't lost any more. that cat was actually after soem OEGs and some started pullets... but could have easily taken a chicken. the hens are always so calm around the chickens. but when this one came near, Pansy got upset!
adroable ducks... can i get a better shot of the nesting box? may need DH to make a few extras...
Tammy, We have a small colony of mink by the stream which might be killing the chicks and keets. Cats have been terrible killers in the area since we got here. The poultry are 100-300 ft away from the stream and 30 ft higher elevation. I used to trap cats and skunks routinely. Doing so is an unpleasant chore. I'm getting sick about all the missing chicks. I'm especially miserable about the 9 missing guinea keets. We had 3 little blonde colored keets in that group.
The nesting box is simple to build. Show your husband the photo above with my measurements. It measures 24" long by 14" high and wide. The doorway is 10" wide. I used scraps of 1/2" plywood and just used a 2" high by 14" wide divider in the middle of the floor to keep the nest straw material inside ... and to the right of the doorway. I have 3 of these boxes. I'm planning to make another soon. I'll get another box photo soon. Kelly
so, Kelly, how are all those hcicks doing? how many do you think you will end up with?
tf
TF,
So funny you should ask. 2 nights ago we had this monster of a dog wander into the yard (I left the gate open) .... to the driveway ... thru the Arbor. this beast was looking for food but not necessarily chicken. I had already put 3 broods inside their portable night nest boxes and this was the only group remaining out. The 11 chicks are close to a month old and they were over by the fence. Mother hen saw the dog and screamed. I saw the dog too and made a motion toward it. He headed out the gate. I closed it. End of story. They're doing very well. They free range all day I never feed them a thing.
Kelly in Moxee
