Can chickens live in the woods

[ravenvalor]

Greetings My Fine Feathered Friends:

Can chickens live comfortably in the woods? I have had my chickens at the edge of some woods for 3 - years now and would love to put some chicken wire around the woods and let them roam freely. I would put a dog or two out there with them and of course their pen.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[wombat]

It's their original native habitat.

It will be harder to protect them from hawks and owls, though, and they can get rather high in trees by going from branch to branch. Don't expect a fence to keep them in if the fence is in the trees.

 

[DTchickens]

It depends on the chickens, and what breeds they are.. Any that are close to the jungle fowl in character will live fine (mostly any game breeds, and leghorns etc).. But don't expect your large production birds to be able to escape from predators so easily or be light/good enough flyers to pick a good tree to roost in.

 

[wombat]

I hadn't read the original post very closely ... if you use chicken wire instead of welded wire, you'll probably have predators getting through unless you have a full-time guard dog on duty.

 

[mtnhomechick]

Mine free ranged in the woods all last summer and fall. The problem was that they got braver with time and soon they were acres away in the neighbors wood and yards. I don't free range anymore but I never lost one to the woods.

 

[BroomFarm]

Cool, nobody has posted my answer to this question, yet...

"NOT FOR VERY LONG!"

Woods are comprised of trees, which have holes in them, where raccoons nest, and they have branches, where hawks perch, and bushes, where foxes make dens. Woods may have been their original habitat, but chickens are no longer well-suited to survive in any habitat except one improved and secured by man.

Besides, they're happy as clams on a slack tide to just hang out in the run by the roost. We ran our fence right up TO the woods, but keep the chickens out in the open and have several areas where they can hide from eagle eyes.

 

[big greg barker]

Mine are under trees, but the are still fenced in. I have three runs of about 750 sq ft each, with big trees and some bushes. They are outside, but have shade from the sun if they want it. They are also protected from the eagles that are nearby. If hawks happen to be near, they hide in the coop, under the bushes, and I haven't lost any.

 

[Barred Rocker]

As long as you have a very secure coop and run for them. They're living with their predators. When I was a teenager (several decades ago

) we moved our coop and run about 80 feed into the woods. They did great there, had plenty of shade and lots of bugs. We had a pretty secure little compound but after about a year they started dissapearing one at a time every night. We didn't have a top over the run and I discovered after 90% of the flock was gone that either a coon or a weasle was climbing a tree and jumping into the pen. How he got back out I had no idea but he always made a clean get away. That was the last time I raised chickens until last year. My current coops and runs are right next to the woods but I challenge any critter to get past the fort knox I built. All I need are sirens and search lights!

 

[ravenvalor]

Thanks for all of the great replies.