Would they survive?

[Ducks and Banny hens]

Makes sense. I guess most of my doubts stem from 2 things.

Everything that is needed to raise a chick. From keeping the egg at 99.5 degrees, to turning the eggs, to helping once they hatch, to keeping them warm after they hatch to feeding them. Granted the hen can do most of this, I just wondered if modern chickens would. Thought maybe it's been bred out of them.

Yes, it's worked for 6,000 years in the wild, but many breeds don't bother with it. 'Modern' doesn't neccesarily mean bad at brooding. Actually, two of the newest breeds are some of the best in the world (they haven't beat the wild chicken, though). The Boxwood and the Bow Lake have been bred for nothing else but solid brooding abilities. Likewise, Leghorns, Minorcas, and especcially Hamburgs are very old, but they have no broodiness in any sense of the word.

'Modern' chickens as you put it are the result of bad stewardship when it comes to your point about predation. In good cases (the result of proper stewardship, or wilderness), there would be a mother hen and a cock with the chicks until they fully mature -- predator comes, mother and chicks hide, cock beats the tar out of the predator or lures it away. Most chickens you find nowadays are too stupid to do that. And it's hard once the chickens get to that lack of mentallity, to teach it to them is very hard.

And finally, you are right about climate. Chickens are very tropical animals.The handful of the hardiest breeds in the world (Finnish, Icelandic, Ushanka) may be the only ones that can survive a canadian winter without protection. Almost all the others need some amount of shelter, ranging from little in the hardiest breeds, to large, very hot shelters in say, Junglefowl or Asils.

 

[Oregon Blues]

You are in Indiana, so if they made it that far, they wouldn't survive the winter.

I think what would happen if you dumped 100 birds in your woods is you would wake up the next morning and they would all be sitting on your porch, waiting for you to feed them.

As for dumping chickens on Easter Island: It is a very fragile ecology and 100 chickens would do enormous damage. The sea birds would eat chicks. There might not be enough food for the chickens to eat and there isn't much water.

There is a human population there, caring for the island and I suspect that chickens would be removed immediately and if you got caught dumping chickens, you'd be serving time in jail.

 

[RoosterRanch]

I received some game hens from a friend of a friend many years ago. I integrated them in my fathers flock of 25 or so birds. Sadly my father became very ill and we spent quite a bit of time at a hospital out of town. During our absence, predators (unknown) ravaged the flock killing them all, or at least I thought. Several weeks later I was in the barn feeding and noticed under a leaning skid, a game hen squatted. I brought her food an water and she walked out with three of the cutest chicks you ever saw. She had managed to survive without my assistance or knowlege for weeks and even raise a small clutch that she must have started right before or after the attack. VERY HARDY bird she was. I think a flock of birds like her could have a reasonable chance of becoming a ferel flock.

 

[centrarchid]

I am from Indiana as well; Spencer County to be specific. We kept games, lots. Most of our breeding was done on walks (locations where a cock and hens) were kept free range with minimal inputs other than selecting who was to be broodstock and the harvest young starting late summer - early fall. The number of walks numbered between 10 and 20 depending on year. Locations were usually centered on a barn or outbuilding of some sort although some were little more than fence rows with clumps of trees to provide roost and cover. Usually no feed was applied specifically for chickens unless it was really could and that amounted to little more than taking a a dozen ears of corn and shelling it by hand leaving kernels under a bush. Most walks at least had livestock close by, most. Usually better than 2/3' of walks yeilded enough harvestable birds to be worth effort. Balance could simply have no survival of young or loss of some or all of breeders. With proven breeding groups, a given cock and hens were allowed to produce for several years before being swapped out. Some groups could operate for 5 years. More than once, walks were not checked becuase birds were thought lost only to find out 2 or three years laters that somebody survived and bred in dunghill fashion without our oversight of birds present of breeding age. Original hens often persisted but old rooster seldom outlasted all of his male offspring. An exceptional group which I have descendents of now persisted for more than 15 years in that fashion and a couple of those years the number of birds approached 40 when flock size was maximal in fall. Predators took a heavy toll and winters with heavy snows were particularly hard on them.

Those games could do pretty much everything needed to survive for at least a couple generations but they always had at least some protection from predators by activities of humans, livestock or farm dogs. In contrast, I have been playing with red jungle and when kept in a flock with games, it is the jungle fowl that have the hardest time surviving. Despite better flying ability, they seem to make all the wrong discissions and many predators seem to prefer smaller birds first, especially hawks and owls.

 

[Myles]

Great comments, thanks.

 

[centrarchid]

Yes, it's worked for 6,000 years in the wild, but many breeds don't bother with it. 'Modern' doesn't neccesarily mean bad at brooding. Actually, two of the newest breeds are some of the best in the world (they haven't beat the wild chicken, though). The Boxwood and the Bow Lake have been bred for nothing else but solid brooding abilities. Likewise, Leghorns, Minorcas, and especcially Hamburgs are very old, but they have no broodiness in any sense of the word.

'Modern' chickens as you put it are the result of bad stewardship when it comes to your point about predation. In good cases (the result of proper stewardship, or wilderness), there would be a mother hen and a cock with the chicks until they fully mature -- predator comes, mother and chicks hide, cock beats the tar out of the predator or lures it away. Most chickens you find nowadays are too stupid to do that. And it's hard once the chickens get to that lack of mentallity, to teach it to them is very hard.

And finally, you are right about climate. Chickens are very tropical animals.The handful of the hardiest breeds in the world (Finnish, Icelandic, Ushanka) may be the only ones that can survive a canadian winter without protection. Almost all the others need some amount of shelter, ranging from little in the hardiest breeds, to large, very hot shelters in say, Junglefowl or Asils.

I think it is closer to 8,000 years.

What are the Boxwood and the Bow Lake?

 

[Myles]

"Ancient chickens". They may have built the pyramids.

 

[centrarchid]

"Ancient chickens". They may have built the pyramids.

Ancient chickens go twice as far back in time as pyramids.

 

[Myles]

Ancient chickens go twice as far back in time as pyramids.

It took them some time to develope the technics needed to build them. Imagine all those chickens moving a 40 ton rock.