Challenges of living in the woods with chickens

[Mother of Chaos]

...Just to be clear—my chickens are free-range during the day, and thriving in the forest. They follow me around like little woodland gremlins, living their best lives among the trees… Honestly, they’re more emotionally well-adjusted than most tourists…

Well, to be fair, this is not the highest bar for comparison.

Signed,
Grew Up as a Teenager in Hawai’i

 

[thecatumbrella]

I live in the woods.

We have raccoons, foxes, fisher cats, coyotes, black bears, and hawks. Needless to say, I pen the cochin bantams. One of my neighbors free-ranges with only the occasional loss. The other lost his entire flock to a young fox their first time out.

I have to douse myself in DEET every single day to keep the bugs off me. I'm sure that's not great for my long-term health, but we have 3 different mosquito diseases that circulate in the area. Nevermind the ticks.

I hate living in the woods. But I hate living in suburbia just a bit more.

 

[Appalachickens]

I live in the woods.

We have raccoons, foxes, fisher cats, coyotes, black bears, and hawks. Needless to say, I pen the cochin bantams. One of my neighbors free-ranges with only the occasional loss. The other lost his entire flock to a young fox their first time out.

I have to douse myself in DEET every single day to keep the bugs off me. I'm sure that's not great for my long-term health, but we have 3 different mosquito diseases that circulate in the area. Nevermind the ticks.

I hate living in the woods. But I hate living in suburbia just a bit more.

We have all those predators minus fisher cats (although I believe there are mink or weasels in the area) and loads of mosquitoes and ticks. But I can’t see my neighbors and that’s the way I like it. Plus forests are gorgeous and a balm to my soul. I’d pen Cochins, too, because they don’t seem like birds that can stand up to predators. I’m planning to free range my current girls when I’m there to supervise, but any future purchase will be with an eye toward predator-resistant birds.

 

[Carontheroad]

So here is our set up. My husband is a carpenter and we were so afraid of bears breaking in the coop that he built it like Fort Knox. It’s also built on concrete. Down below is like a open protected part of the run where I keep the food and water. We have 2 automatic doors, one that blocks off the upstairs and one that blocks off the underneath where the food and water is. I always say if we stop having chickens I claim the building for my she shed. It has a great view from that big window. The one picture shows how close to our house it is.

 

[Carontheroad]

I should probably explain why I’m not a fan of my jungle/game fowl:

• She looks like a roadrunner—skinny, fast, and not the least bit personable.
• She might be a little slow upstairs—she’s always the last to come to food or catch on to what’s going on.
• She’s excellent at escaping predators… which unfortunately means I can’t catch her either for even health checks.
• Because of her small size, she gets picked on by the other hens pretty regularly.
• Who knows what her sub-breeds even are—she’s a real mystery mix.
• Compared to my RIR mixes (no idea- but definitely not pure RIR's!) and my Leghorn/Marans/Easter Egger girls, she’s just a complete pain in the butt- which is why we call her Gypsy Chick.

We’re installing an automatic chicken coop door soon in the new coop, and honestly, I’m fully expecting my jungle/game fowl to get locked out—she’s so scatterbrained and easily distracted, I doubt she’ll make it in on time. I do free-range my flock all day, which helps cut down on feed costs, but when I weigh that against the extra effort it takes to care for her, the tiny eggs she might lay, and the complete lack of joy she brings to the whole chicken-keeping experience, I really question if she’s worth the hassle. Just my 2 cents on balancing the idealistic chicken flock/family/life with the reality of some of the wild ones.

However, If I was to breed her a few generations with some of my other flock- now THAT might be something incredible.

View attachment 4150591
Oh dear, for the record- I dont feed them tomatoes, those are chunks of mango, but they are frozen with passionfruit and dragonfruit (I grow them) and plantains, and when it begins to defrost, I added in watercress and brussel sprouts. And that is a piece of spaghetti squash that they ate earlier.

Gypsy chick is cute. Just look at all that personality!

 

[Carontheroad]

We have raccoons, foxes, fisher cats, coyotes, black bears, and hawks. Needless to say, I pen the cochin bantams. One of my neighbors free-ranges with only the occasional loss. The other lost his entire flock to a young fox their first time out.

I have to douse myself in DEET every single day to keep the bugs off me. I'm sure that's not great for my long-term health, but we have 3 different mosquito diseases that circulate in the area. Nevermind the ticks.

I hate living in the woods. But I hate living in suburbia just a bit more.

Oh man, mosquitos suck. We don’t have any here, I don’t know why. Maybe because we are near the Pacific ocean? No stagnant water nearby either. But I have lived in the prairies and remember those days when my perfume was insect repellant.

Your poor neighbor. I wonder what colour and breed of chicken he had that he lost them all in one go.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

I have to douse myself in DEET every single day to keep the bugs off me. I'm sure that's not great for my long-term health, but we have 3 different mosquito diseases that circulate in the area. Nevermind the ticks.

A family of beavers moved into my pond and they've raised the water level up about two feet so far. Consequently this is the worst year of mosquitoes in my swamp by far. However I got ducks recently and they've been eviscerating the mosquito population. Wonderful mosquito destroying animals

It's unfortunate and odd to hear you have ticks too. I haven't seen any since getting chickens. My property went from 1 tick every 10 feet to zero ticks in four years. Chickens should be tick annihilators

 

[CabritaChicks]

Like your setup! We put ours much further away from the home as it was the only flat-sh piece of the property (hubby is no carpenter, bless his heart for the work he is putting into this thing for a bunch of 'flying soccerballs'

We jokingly call bug spray “St. Thomas Cologne,” so I got the one that smells just a tad better than the deep woods variety. haha.

However I found a lotion online—it’s packed with mint, eucalyptus, and yuzu, and it cuts the mosquito swarm down by about 50%… Especially on short trips, or open air-restaurants (which is 99% of them here). So I can smell good, rather than I just got back from a hunting trip.

But with the species of skeeters we’ve got out here, it’s still nerve-racking. Going to check on the chickens feels less like a stroll through the forest and more like entering enemy territory. I don’t walk—I dash. Honestly, the trees may be peaceful, but the air? It bites.

If I could only teach the chickens to eat mosquitos.... hmmmm.

 

[Carontheroad]

I wanted to be able to tell them all apart so I deliberately got all different breeds. But when I do forest chickens, it will hopefully result in one mixed breed.

Yea I get it. Plus it makes for a colourful, interesting flock. I only have 4 breeds (34 chickens but will be getting rid of 7 cockerels). I put leg bands on to tell them apart. I don’t give them names but call them by their leg band colour, Miss Coral, Miss Mauve, Miss Green, etc. Always reminds me of the boardgame Clue: Miss Scarlet, in the billiard room, with the candlestick.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

If I could only teach the chickens to eat mosquitos.... hmmmm.

I've seen my chickens chase down and eat nearly every flying insect imaginable, but not mosquitoes. They're far too stealthy. It makes more sense to eliminate mosquitoes in the larval and egg stages when they're packed together in close groups, however the larva are nearly invisible, aquatic, and small enough that they literally feed on bacteria

Ducks are perfect for this though with the way they feed- filtering the water. My Indian Runners go to every single puddle and guzzle down all the life in them

Chickens are wonderful pest control, but not for mosquitoes unfortunately. Maybe they eliminate some (they do go 6" deep into water and eat things), but not enough for my preference