We have had chickens for 8 months now and a couple weeks ago 3 hens and a rooster showed up in our woods. We live in Missouri and right now the weather is getting to be around zero at night. They come out of the woods every morning and once we let our chickens out they will go in the coop and eat. Two are white and the rooster and other hen are black and brown and very tiny. They seem to be getting thinner. When we walk out they run to the edge of the woods and wont come near us. Our chickens have nothing to do with them and peck at them. I feel bad for them. I have a feeling someone bought them as chicks because they were cute and once they got big and saw our coop (we live in a subdivision) decided to just dump them. What should I do for these poor abandoned chickens? Thanks
Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan You could try to capture them, then rehome or integrate them into your flock. Left alone, nature will likely take care of them.
to BYC! If this was happening to me, I might try putting out feed and water for them. Each day move the feeders and waterers closer to your coop. I might also try leaving them really tastey goodies so they start to associate the property with goodies and hopefully soon I could win over their trust enough to corner or trap them in a dog crate. I keep quail as well and many years ago had a giant escape of several of them. I used these large wire dog crates left open with food in them and was able to catch nearly all of them this way. Good luck and enjoy BYC!
Hello Welcome To BYC and Happy Holidays! Like the other posters said, you can catch them and either keep them, cull them or rehome them. If you just let them be, sooner or later a predator will probably take care of them... I would do something I think though, they are so close to your chickens you don't want them attracting predators to yours. Do you want them and have room in your coop for them or can you set up a separate area for them? It will take awhile to integrate them with yours. They are already mixing with your flock so rather late to quarantine.
Welcome to BYC - good luck with the strays. When we first moved here someone would drop off chickens every fall. This happened 4 or 5 years in a row.
