Challenges of living in the woods with chickens

[kattabelly]

That’s why I’m wondering about this raven (and he has a large wing span) that keeps coming about. Usually they don’t come so close to the house.

Do you know if your hens ever lay in random places that aren't their nest boxes? We have ravens here - not many trees though! - and I'd often see one with an egg when I lived on a farm with a flock that liked to lay outdoors.

 

[thecatumbrella]

But I can’t see my neighbors and that’s the way I like it.

I'm so jealous. I have that privacy with 2 out of 3 neighbors, but my most immediate one is right on top of me. The two I can't see love to shoot all weekend, so not much for peace either. But when it's quiet, it's a dream!

We don’t have any here, I don’t know why. Maybe because we are near the Pacific ocean?

I'm on my way!

Chickens should be tick annihilators

That's what I thought, but I see them crawling around in the chicken pen once in a while (HOW?)!

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

This is the one thing my girls are good at! I get free cuddles because they want to hunt the gnats and mosquitos buzzing around me.

It makes more sense to eliminate mosquitoes in the larval and egg stages when they're packed together in close groups

Mosquito dunks are the best! They really do work and are safe for birds and fish.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

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

Interesting…this is how I talked my husband into getting feral chickens He hates ticks!

 

[No Coop No Problem]

That's what I thought, but I see [ticks] crawling around in the chicken pen once in a while (HOW?)!

Might be a breed thing. I know Cornish Cross don't forage at all. There's a lot of different skill levels when it comes to foraging. Junglefowl, Sumatra, American Game and Cubalaya all eliminate ticks

I'm so jealous. I have that privacy with 2 out of 3 neighbors, but my most immediate one is right on top of me. The two I can't see love to shoot all weekend, so not much for peace either. But when it's quiet, it's a dream!

Grow bamboo. It has a symbiotic relationship with junglefowl. Any phyllostachys species makes a perfect forest and roost for them

 

[townchicks]

Don't be envious of those photos of chickens on green lawns. That's not real life. You know how fairy tales, and rom-coms always end with the wedding, and gosh, then they lived happily ever after? Well, those sweet pretty pics of chickens on lawns are their version of wedding photos. Then real life kicks in, and the lawn gets destroyed, or the chickens banned from it. I live in suburbia, and I do have a lawn, mostly to keep the mud at bay in winter, and to have an area to throw the ball for the dog. My chickens rarely get to go on the lawn, because I don't trust my dog, so about a third of my yard is lawn and the chicken area is fenced off from it. I close off part of the chicken area in winter, so the weeds and grass can grow when it rains. we don't get rain here in summer. I can let the chickens out into this area with knee to thigh high weeds and grasses, and within 2 to 3 weeks, it's all gone. Then they hang out under the trees and dig for bugs. On rare occasions they are let out into the rest of the yard, and they don't even go far out into the lawn area anyway, they hang out around the shrubs, or dig out my veggie garden, when I forget to fence that off. So, yes, wedding photos, and half of those couples get divorced. A friend of mine, who has a literal ranch, donkeys, a mule and sheep, got sucked in by that chicken fantasy , then got rid of them when they destroyed her yard.Your chickens have the good life, not cooped up in some tiny run. Lawns are not eco friendly, anyway.

 

[Appalachickens]

Might be a breed thing. I know Cornish Cross don't forage at all. There's a lot of different skill levels when it comes to foraging. Junglefowl, Sumatra, American Game and Cubalaya all eliminate ticks

Grow bamboo. It has a symbiotic relationship with junglefowl. Any phyllostachys species makes a perfect forest and roost for them

American Game and Cubalaya are two I'm looking at. As a native plant enthusiast, might I put in a plea for growing Arundinaria, a river cane that is the only bamboo native to North America? It used to be plentiful and grew in dense stands called canebreaks. Because it is native, it isn't invasive.

 

[Appalachickens]

I'm so jealous. I have that privacy with 2 out of 3 neighbors, but my most immediate one is right on top of me. The two I can't see love to shoot all weekend, so not much for peace either. But when it's quiet, it's a dream!

I'm on my way!

That's what I thought, but I see them crawling around in the chicken pen once in a while (HOW?)!

This is the one thing my girls are good at! I get free cuddles because they want to hunt the gnats and mosquitos buzzing around me.

Mosquito dunks are the best! They really do work and are safe for birds and fish.

I agree about the mosquito dunks. I had one in a bucket and the cat drank from it with no ill effects.

We picked this property in large part because has ridges between us and any other neighbors on all sides that rise steeply up, with about a 500SF elevation change. That has not stopped coon hunters and ginseng poachers from trespassing unfortunately, but that's rare.

 

[thecatumbrella]

That has not stopped coon hunters and ginseng poachers from trespassing unfortunately, but that's rare.

I did not know ginseng poaching was a thing. Reading about it right now. I truly learn something new every day!

 

[MapleLaurelFarms]

I’ve noticed that most posts show lovely green grass for free ranging their chickens. I wanted to connect with people that have NO grass at all because they live in the woods. Only the forest floor material. What benefits or challenges have you had with this type of scenario?

We have mixed acreage of pasture and woods, and my chickens love the woods. You don't need grass for free-ranging or for healthy chickens. Mine prefer to dig around in the woodland leaf litter for bugs, grubs, worms, and other such things. They love the tree cover of our woods and only tend to hang out in the pasture in the late afternoons once the shade moves in.

I’m trying to seed out a bit of clover outside their closed run so that they have something to free range on... We don’t have unlimited water in our well where we can water large areas if we did want to try and plant grass.

Honestly, unless you just want to grow a patch of green for them for fun, I wouldn't put a lot of effort into it. Unless it's a large clover patch, they'll pick and scratch it clean within a day or two. As someone already showed, you can cover it with a hardware cloth screen to protect the clover, and although they'll enjoy it and it's good for them, they don't absolutely need it.

A good feed diet is the most important thing and then you can supplement with kitchen scraps and allow limited free-ranging so they can dig up a little extra protein, etc. They'll find stuff to eat, at least when it's not winter.

On the plus side, there is alot of trees and visually interesting areas for them to explore but this also comes with alot of predator hiding spots.

Exactly, and you're smart to be aware of this. Predation is the main concern with woodland areas. We have everything here that eats chicken - multiple hawk species, skunk, raccoon, fox, bobcat, black bear, etc. And they live primarily in the woods. Most of the predators tend to be nocturnal, so it's good that chickens are not. However, we've seen all of these animals out in the daytime, at one point or other.

Spend time in your own woods, and keep an eye on your acreage and the surrounding area so you have a better chance of noticing if you have an active den or a huge hawk's nest.

...but then I remember how much I love our wilderness lifestyle.

Ditto!

 

[Appalachickens]

I did not know ginseng poaching was a thing. Reading about it right now. I truly learn something new every day!

Our builder warned us about it when we built our house. Sang hunters are definitely a thing!