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I think debate and discussion is a good thing. If we all just agree to disagree and carry on regardless nobody learns and nothing changes.;)

It's got a lot better here over the years. I lose one or two a year now. Looking at some of the devastation on the ER and general boards those numbers don't look too bad. The problem here is the European Goshawk. It's a fact of free ranging. You're going to lose some.

Hmmm, then the semi feral flocks in the various places in the world shouldn't exist.

Sorry I've mixed up my replies. It was meant for roosterhavoc.

Now this is an interesting observation. I read a lot of worried posts about broody hens abandoning what people view as viable eggs but this seems to be part of their natural instinct to get what has hatched away from the nest as soon as possible. It also has to do with trying to avoid what gets...

Being blunt, but not at all rude;) you thinking how I manage the chickens here is extremely wrong doesn't really concern me. I'm going to remind you that you hunt, trap, and as I understand it breed chickens. I don't think any of those creatures that you kill wanted to die either and I think the...

Your 'yard' picture seems to have disappeared. I wouldn't have called that a yard. The picket fence wouldn't keep a chicken in. Basically that looks like a free range setting. If the chickens stay inside the fence boundaries it's because that's where they feel safe, not because they can't get out.

Interesting question. You know how breeders breed for certain characteristics based on looks mostly, well I'm doing something similar in attempting to see how quickly previously domesticated chickens gain the ability to fare semi feral. You've misunderstood the tameness. They are far from tame...

;)

And how many acres is that yard? If my memory serves me you quite a lot of land.

I mean chicks that have had their mother killed by a predator. Is one breed smarter than another? I think they adapt as each new generation hatches. It's how previously domesticated chickens create successful feral colonies. Breed does play a role but, here we go again 'studies have shown' that...

Judging by the huge variation in 'backyards' here on BYC I don't think my backyard is much different.;) How big is your backyard WV? What is different, but not at all unique from what I've read here is my keeping arrangement. The science, well these days it's how the modern world moves forward...

As you write there are a lot of variables. I've tried with parent less chicks in the past. It just hasn't worked. It's hard enough trying to keep chicks with good mothers alive if they've hatched away from their tribes and haven't been integrated yet.

Did the one with the pecked back make it and was she normal; whatever that is in the chicken world?

Oh right. I understand now.:)

I think the OP has already made the decision so I can't see any problem with the debate as long as it's polite and friendly.

Hang on, in a couple of posts above you wrote you killed hens that killed their chicks so how do you know if the killer gene whatever gets transfered to the offspring?

Okay, fair enough. I don't rescue chicks here and I don't kill otherwise normal mothers. The first hen that killed her chicks here I couldn't find until after the event. It was along time ago and I didn't put a great deal of effort into finding her. The second hatched in a tribes coop and I...

Let me ask you something. If you free ranged and a hen sat on a clutch in a nest outside and you knew which hen this was but didn't find her nest until after she had killed her chicks, would you still kill that hen?

It would be really cool if you stuck to the topic rather than casting aspersions on my state of mind.;) I have tried very hard to give my reasons for taking this course of action. It's fine you not agreeing with me.:)