Just recently some new found information and history has come up on these majestic fowl. I’ve got this posted on my website and it’s also included on my forum wiki as well.

China Game, Hainan Fowl

written by David Rogers, as told by Toni-Marie Astin’s friend Ms. Ping
The fowl known in the US as “China Game” originated in the tropical Hainan Province of Southern China. Though they now exist throughout China. Hainan is a Chinese word meaning, “South of the Sea.” Hainan Province has 97% of its land mass on Hainan Island, “Hainan Dao”. The remaining 3% of its land mass is scattered across some two hundred smaller islands in the region. Hainan first appears in written history ca. 110 BC. Its first inhabitants are estimated to have arrived there some 3,000 years ago. It is not known how long the fowl have been bred there.
The fowl are referred to properly as “Hainan Fowl”. However, individuals in many rural populations refer to them simply as “tail fighters”. Their physical appearance and occasional mutations suggest they have Green Jungle Fowl from Java in their ancestry. Aside from the long tail feathers of the rooster, pea-combed birds having one centrally located wattle and rounded neck feathers are known to exist within the flocks of older, long-time breeders. This suggests that southern China had trade with Java, Indonesia, prior to the 7th century AD.
Black-breasted red is the most common plumage color pattern. Silver and gold ducking is also known to exist. As well as black-tailed red ginger. Leg colors are green and yellow, varying even within the same flock.
Corn is an expensive commodity that is not readily available. Brown rice itself is not necessarily fed to the fowl either due to its demand as a staple of the human diet. So only the byproducts of brown rice, fruit, and vegetables are fed to the fowl. Hainan Island is a typhoon prone location. Debris from the sea often washes up on the beaches. Dead fish, crustaceans, and sea weed are commonly collected from the beaches and fed to livestock, including the Hainan fowl.
Despite this diet of rice byproducts and sea refuse, it seems the fowl do well in the US living on other grains. This is in stark contrast to other fowl such as non-molting long-tail fowl that have a similar diet in their native country of Japan and do best maintained on such a diet.
The fowl were fought sometimes ceremoniously at specific times of the year. It’s said that they would not fight during the winter months and were used mostly during the spring and summer months during breeding season when the roosters were already prone to fighting.
Today the fowl are still used in this manner in rural villages in China. Elsewhere outside of China they are kept as pets and ornamental fowl.

I like to say i’m “retired” as to say i’ve quit in the chicken world. I’ve had to move to the city for a while and of course can’t have any here so i’ve had to make some serious changes in my life. I’ve decided to try my hand at housebirds for a while..something to do and since my passion is geared towards avian..I figure why not. I’m also doing container gardening and will try out this PVC gardening next spring. Growing lots of houseplants..ferns, succulents, palms..things i can propagate hopefully. With fall approaching, I will have to be making preperations to overwinter my plants in the house. Thank goodness the bananas are small and the palms aren’t too large right now…lol! The ferns are pretty massive but they can hang and the ceilings are high. Should be a jungle in here by the time I’m finished. Birds should be happy!

So the new project begins. I got a start with hens from my good friend Toni Marie Astin. She provided me with 3 nice cross hens of 1/2 cemani and 1/2 phoenix. I will be crossing these with my Black McRae stock for a while to get something different than the most common hard feather birds like the Thai that the Hmong culture has right now. I thought creating something closer to the Ayem Cemani Bird would be more exciting. Right now it’s a bit hot in the season to work on the project so i’ll be waiting for fall to put breeding pens together, however since this is such a short entry have provided a few shots of the hens. I’ll be getting a nice picture of the McRae stock soon i hope..slightly frisky bird and hard to get good shots..lol!

black meat/skin hen

I’ve enjoyed these dogs for a few years now. I started out by rescueing and then fostering them from mostly non-working farms. It amazes me still that people don’t understand the capacity that these dogs possess. The have the strength and ability to work hard for you. Protecting and guarding is their nature. Whether it be you as a master or your livestock, they can prove to sound out outstanding behavior. I now raise hybrids, mixes of anatolian, great pyranese and komondor mostly. I’ve found that mixing the breeds make better dogs by getting all traits rolled into one. They are most usually born right in with the chickens and goats, living like that until they are ready to go to new homes. I leave mine with the mother until they are 8 weeks old as i feel they gain better social skills from her. My older dogs do most of the “teaching” and I will work them on a small basis. If you choose to get one of these magnificent animals, I suggest you have a working farm and have the time to devote to them as well. They sleep mostly during the day and do their work at night, so if a barking dog bothers you, then maybe this particular breed is not for  you.

At Crowing Hills Farms, our mission is to incorporate various farming methods in an attempt to replicate Nature’s Way of growing the many things we cultivate. Aside from pure Organic farming methods, our goal is to utilize processes that mirror Mother Nature’s ecosystem. We grow and raise everything here on a more whole and balanced basis, using no pesticides, growth hormones, preservatives, or any other artificial additives.  It is our experience that these methods infuse more flavor in our meats, eggs, and vegetables without the constraints and bureaucratic aggravation that accompany the “organic” certification process.

http://www.ams.usda.gov/