Keeping Chickens Free Range

[lazy gardener]

I'm going to burst your bubble here.....every single bird that I have that has been taken by an aerial predator has been a barred rock. Ranging right next to White Rock of the same age and size, the hawk consistently took the barred birds.

Consider this....aerial preds seek out what looks most like its natural prey and those barred, speckled, flecked and otherwise patterned birds are such as these. Been free ranging white birds in every single flock over 40 yrs time and the hawks never even attempt to nab the white birds or any of the solid colored birds, for that matter.....always, always the barred pattern birds. When the birds duck and freeze, the white birds are just a white blob and you can't even see them breathing, as their "pattern" is all white...could be a rock for all they know and if they ducked under leaves of the underbrush, they are even more invisible. The barred birds, however, show fine movements BECAUSE of their patterns....when vision is black and white and shades of grey, the movement of the breathing of the patterned birds is enough to draw their eye.

As usual, you are blessed with keen observation and skills of deduction!!! Love ya, Bee!

 

[duluthralphie]

I'm going to burst your bubble here.....every single bird that I have that has been taken by an aerial predator has been a barred rock. Ranging right next to White Rock of the same age and size, the hawk consistently took the barred birds.

Consider this....aerial preds seek out what looks most like its natural prey and those barred, speckled, flecked and otherwise patterned birds are such as these. Been free ranging white birds in every single flock over 40 yrs time and the hawks never even attempt to nab the white birds or any of the solid colored birds, for that matter.....always, always the barred pattern birds. When the birds duck and freeze, the white birds are just a white blob and you can't even see them breathing, as their "pattern" is all white...could be a rock for all they know and if they ducked under leaves of the underbrush, they are even more invisible. The barred birds, however, show fine movements BECAUSE of their patterns....when vision is black and white and shades of grey, the movement of the breathing of the patterned birds is enough to draw their eye.

I have had the opposite experience. My first birds lost were a white rock and a Deleware. I have lost others but those with white seem to go first.

For this reason my white sports will never be free ranged....

 

[SueT]

I'm going to burst your bubble here.....every single bird that I have that has been taken by an aerial predator has been a barred rock. Ranging right next to White Rock of the same age and size, the hawk consistently took the barred birds.

Wow! Very cool to know! Well we shall see, then, it will be an experiment. We do have an SL Wyandotte, and she's still with us. The others are solid colors indeed; an RIR and a Bl Australorp, .....
We live out in the country, and there are hawks aplenty.

 

[Peeps61]

Of the hens I have lost to hawks, I can say that they have consistently been light colored. I wonder if different regions have different behaviors from animals? My last hen taken was a white leghorn.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

I have only had Barr Rocks up to this year, did lose one to a hawk. Currently the racoon seems to prefer my Red Rangers...but I am inclined to believe this is more due to them hiding from me and refusing to get in the coop at night.
However as far as farm cats go, the white ones are alwsys to first to be picked off. My tiger striped ones and the black one stick around much longer.

 

[centrarchid]

I have seen no pattern based on breed / color pattern. Birds taken are given away by movement rather than coloration. Selectivity appears to be related to size of victim with smaller birds taken preferentially. That pattern can be taken advantage of with mixed size flocks where largest birds (fully adult roosters) will target hawk attempting to take hens and juveniles.

 

[duluthralphie]

I think I have the worlds smartest or laziest chickens.

I stopped feeding them in the morning because they would not free range, they just laid under the lilacs all day long.

This year they seem to be smarter. I let them out and the lay under the lilac all day long. When I come out the door they run to the deck waiting for handouts. (yep, I feed them table scraps). A few might wander as far as the wild bird feeders to get the droppings. Most just rush to the deck when we are on it or stay under the lilacs.

In the evening they sit on the deck steps and wait for me to bring them feed. They know I will feed them at night.

Should I send them to bed without feed a few nights to see if they will start acting like chickens again and forage? We have a huge woods right next to the house. most years they have it wore down to nothing with their scratching and digging. This year it looks like a jungle, I doubt a bird has even ventured into it.



So how do I combat "lazy Chicken Disorder"?


Once we get that solved we need to tackle "Hidden egg syndrome".

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Mine are getting lazier with the heat. They forage in the morning a bit and then right before bed, otherwise mine are under the lilacs too

 

[Tikkijane]

Tikki, 
***Just a suggestion***
     Can you put up a sign that says,
YES, THE CHICKENS ARE LOOSE,
YES, the eggs are Extra good because they are Loose,
Yes, they get enough to eat,
Yes, they usually get out of the way of traffic.


  I CAN be a smart ***, but it MAY work to not only deter those that 'NEED to BE NEEDED' But also encourage the selling of Eggs?

Oh, it's only the guineas in the road.

The chickens pretty well stay put closer to the house and out with the cows, etc. I am VERY rural. I do have Ag traffic, which includes buses full of migrant workers. I am pretty well known around here as 'the crazy chicken lady' and I still have people trying to buy my chickens.

Given the HUGE numbers of Ag folks and chicken houses out here, most people are actually very good about bio-security. And nobody bats an eye at free-ranging. More like, you'd hear comments about "those poor chickens, all locked up in a run like that. How are they supposed to do their jobs like that?!"

What's interesting to me is my friend lives in the same rural town, but about 10 miles from me. She had a coyote get one of her girls just last week {She only had 2 hens and a roo} right during the day. I don't know what all she's got going on right now, but they are very anti-gun. We'll see. She's got 15 keets right now.....

 

[centrarchid]

Plant strips about 4 feet wide in areas with better quality forage the birds otherwise do not visit during the day. For shorter term benefits I suggest a mixture of timothy and legumes. Birds will tunnel into it during hottest part of day and anchor their foraging effort around it much better than if area does not have dense low cover. If longer-term effort to be investment, then consider brambles or even Buck Brush. The scatter some grains near those areas to prime their interest in exploring.