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The Red Jungle Fowl Breed Profile – Egg Laying, Temperament, Broodiness

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If you like your chickens wild, the Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus Gallus) is the way to go! They don’t care to make friends with their humans and prefer to disappear into nature as much as they can. This is because it is considered to be the great-great-great-great (ok you get the idea) grandfather of all domestic chickens and can still be found in the wild in the Caribbean and Asia, so they are truly wild at heart.
If you like the idea of keeping an old breed of chicken that still maintains the traits of chickens prior to domestication, you need to take a look at this pretty little breed. It may be hard to imagine chickens in the wild because they have been domesticated for over 9,000 years…but it is true, they used to go about their business without our intervention.
red jungle fowl chicken

Appearance

The Red Jungle Fowl rooster is a striking chicken to behold. He has a similar look to that of the Kellogg (Welsummer) rooster, with a smaller frame and few more color variations, and the upright posture of an Old English Game Hen.
Roosters have bright, contrasting colors that include blue-green buff, and of course a lovely iridescent blackish blue in their tail-feathers. Hens, on the other hand, are quite bland, with their brown and tan feathering. Don’t hold it against her though, she needs these colors as camouflage in the wild.

Size

Both male and female Red Jungle Fowl are a small breed of chicken. In the wild, these birds are quick and their size is perfect for stuffing themselves into nooks and crannies, as they hide from predators.
Next to a larger chicken, like the Brahma, the Jungle Fowl looks as if it is a bantam. This is not the case, however, and their small petite frames are just one of their special characteristics. At maturity, this chicken weighs in at a mere 4 lbs.

Eggs

Despite the fact that the Red Jungle Fowl is extremely petite, hens are happy to lay medium sized eggs. No pee-wee bantam eggs here!
A hen can lay over 250 eggs per year, so she knows how to keep up with the best of them, and eggs are lightly tinted—an extremely light brown egg.
Unfortunately, Jungle Fowl hen’s production tends to slow down during the cold season, but that’s not uncommon for most hens.

Meat

Clearly the smaller the chicken, the less likely they can be used for meat. The yield on this little bird is hardly worth harvesting, but that’s not saying you couldn’t. Any chicken can be used for their meat, but if you are looking for a high yield, take a look at the Ranger chickens that some hatcheries are now offering as alternatives to the Cornish Cross Broilers.
If you had to use the Red Jungle Fowl as a meat chicken, consider it a good grilling chicken, or a “Cornish hen” caliber of chicken. Due to their skittishness and small stature, they just simply don’t supply a lot of meat for their human families.
Hardiness
The Red Jungle Fowl does very well in hot climates but may need a little extra insulation during the cold months. Some, who have raised this breed, suggest using heat lamps to keep them alive and well during the winter, however, they will do just fine if kept out of the bitter cold.

Free-Range

Here’s where the Red Jungle Fowl becomes the superstar of the backyard. These birds were literally built to be wild. They are keen in their outdoor environment and are experts at evading looming predators, and your affections for that matter.
As foragers, the Red Jungle Fowl does a fantastic job feeding herself and searches expertly for all types of proteins, seeds, berries, and other delectable vegetation.
If you are expecting to collect eggs from your Jungle Fowl, you may have to do some extra work in training them to come into the coop at night to roost and lay their eggs. Hens instinctually know the safest place for them to lay their eggs, and if they can make the decision for themselves, they will. Don’t let their opinion of your well-placed nesting box hurt your feelings, it’s nothing personal…they just know better.

Temperament

Look, don’t touch—that’s the Jungle Fowl’s motto. It’s not that they are mean, they just prefer to be left alone. This breed is considered to be very skittish and wants nothing to do with human companionship. Their hesitancy to get close only makes them that much better at protecting themselves.

Why Get a Red Jungle Fowl?

The Red Jungle Fowl is considered to be a good layer, and many keep them for their eggs, but most who know a little about the breed are interested in them because of their ancestry, and ability to take care of themselves. Some fanciers swear that the breed is much more hardy, in general than other breeds of chickens. In other words, they aren’t believed to contract diseases as easily as other domesticated birds.
red jungle fowl
If you appreciate the ancestry of this bird, you may want to add one to your flock. It’s fun to watch your Jungle Fowls doing what they were built to do…destroy, erm, forage in your yard safely. In all honesty, it can be exciting to watch an expert chicken do their work by pecking, scratching, and evading prey.
It should be noted that it can be difficult to acquire Red Jungle Fowl from hatcheries, but there are a few that have them. If you know you gotta have one, or five, check into local breeders by attending some poultry shows. The breed is considered to be rare, which some fanciers love to have.
If you just like a lovely little ornamental breed that is as tough as nails, well, this the wild bird you should add to your flock. They are beautiful to behold and have a proud posture that just cannot be ignored by passerbys. If you like the attention, get an exotic Jungle Fowl chicken.

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18 thoughts on “The Red Jungle Fowl Breed Profile – Egg Laying, Temperament, Broodiness

    1. My is the total opposite i obky have 2 hens i have other hens but only 2 jungle fowl their talkers very loud for their tiny frame they lay consistently nice med light brown eggs their bith very loving they love me to cuddle them their so tiny compared to my brahmas but they live with 11 other hens & 1 Brahma Roo & hold their own their bit of Chicken Mamas Babies (Me) but their my smallest so their a bit spoiled ! I love my jungle fowl girl s

  1. Do not get one of these roosters. I introduced a hen and rooster to my forest cause I thought it would be neat and they probably wouldn’t make it due to the raccoons, hawks, owl, possum, ect out here. Well a year later there still walking around. And the rooster is a mean s.o.b. I mean very aggressive. I can’t walk down my road or work in horse paddock without having to smack him away repeatedly with a stick.

  2. We have so many of these lovelies here in HI. My yard bird just hatched 12. We stole 3 at about 4 weeks. Hoping they are hens. Such a fun energetic bunch of craziness. Super hardy.

  3. I did a bad thing.. i took a hen and a rooster because the lady just wanted to get rid of them.. they are far from skittish and house perfectly at night but the are the most clingy chickens I have. They have absolutely no fear of humans. The hen raised 14 chicks this year so far. What is written above is nothing like mine…

  4. Do you have any information on subspecies of Red Jungle Fowl? I’ve been told there are 5 subspecies that are still classified as Red Jungle Fowl but I’m having a hard time finding information on this.
    Also, how closely related are these to the Golden Duckwing Phoenix? I keep a small flock of Phoenix and they look nearly identical to these birds.

    1. There are 4 sub-species of Jungle Fowl, one of which is the ‘Red’. The Red JF has several regional variations but all of them are pretty well identical, with the most dominant feature being a white or a red earlobe. The most commonly kept Red are the Indian Red or Burmese but these have been widely interbred in captivity. Then there are the other 3 ‘species’ of Jungle Fowl: the Grey, aka ‘Sonnerat’ Jungle Fowl which can be found in better pheasant collections; this is the bird that many believe contributed the yellow leg gene into domestic chickens. Then there is the Ceylon Jungle Fowl which is a tropical bird and quite small. And finally the Green Jungle Fowl, also a tropical and an extremely beautiful small pheasant-like bird. The Green rooster has a yellow & purple comb and has only a single wattle.

  5. This is still a very domesticated breed and is not at all like the REAL red junglefowl, Gallus gallus. Real wild chicken ancestors lay about 10-15 eggs per year and are thus not prone to osteoporosis, cloacae prolapse, and the many other issues domestic chickens can have. I guess this breed simply looks more like the wild chicken, but it definitely is not the same!

  6. Hi, just wondering if they scratch madly and tear up the garden mulch …I have been told that they are very gentle! I do have the option…paddock or garden…fortunately!
    Are they available in Australia?

  7. They love cultivated soil, scratch, peck, take dust baths. You need to protect fresh plantings or they will dig them up. This is the case with most chickens. They do not bother our perennials, grape vines, fruit trees. They can fly amazingly well, almost like quail or pheasants. They are wary of predators but not invincible. They are fast and fly well enough to escape dogs and coyotes. Bobcats can occasionally be successful. Hawks can snatch a chick. They roost in the coop, in trees and hiding on the ground. The roosters can be aggressive but chasing them with a broom for a few minutes helps.

  8. I had three jungle fowl hens in my flock along with a mix of buff orpingtons, barred rock, and Rhode Island Reds. All of my chickens were hens. These jungle fowl were very aggressive with the other breeds, acting more like roosters. They would gang up on the others and eventually killed one of my barred rocks. They were totally fearless and so broody that I would have to get a rake to pry them off of eggs. They were aggressive and stuck together like a team harassing and injuring the other hens. I called them “the raptors”. I will never buy one of these types again. I can only imagine how much worse a rooster of this breed would behave.

  9. Hey I’m not sure if this notifies you when you comment on here but I’m hoping so because I’d really love an answer. We have A wild red jungle fowl that appeared in our backyard. We made a decent makeshift coop to help keep her warm during the winter as it was hitting the low teens. Since then she seems to enjoy her mini coop. She can free range when she wants and then go into the coop upon request. She just laid 4 eggs in there 1 last night and 3 this morning. I was wanting to know since she’s wild (we never bought her, she just appeared) , will she care if we take her eggs? I don’t want them to spoil or attract more predators but I also don’t want to make her feel unsafe in her new safe spot. I’ve read that I can crush the shell and feed it back to her. But will she be upset if they are taken since she’s wild and might not be used to it?

  10. A year ago, 4 wild junglefowl appeared in our Hawaii backyard. One rooster and three hens. Since then four chicks have hatched and ~10 more are on the way. We are concerned that so many chickens in the flock will cause them to move on to another spot – they appear to have eaten all the coqui frogs in the area as we no longer hear them at night. we would be heartbroken if they all left. We do wonder though if it is natural for smaller groups to leave or if the flocks always stay together. Any information on wild flock behaviors would be appreciated!

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