Challenges of living in the woods with chickens

[CabritaChicks]

Where does one get feral chickens?

Most "feral chickens" aren't a specific breed—they're usually semi-domestic chickens that have adaptation to life in the wild. Common commercial breeds found in feral populations include (I think even Mcmurray has them):

• Red Junglefowl – Sold by hatcheries and closely resemble true wild birds.
• Gamefowl (American or Old English) – Hardy, flighty, and well-suited to surviving on their own.

I find mine every 30feet in the caribbean. Big pests that cost retail and restaurants a fortune every year.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Where does one get feral chickens?

Totally depends on your situation/goals. I have some friends with free range (not cooped) chickens that are mixes. I am going to get some of those and also some chicks that a better foragers than what I have now. Some breeds are more inclined to “go wild”, so to speak, than others.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Most "feral chickens" aren't a specific breed—they're usually semi-domestic chickens that have adaptation to life in the wild. Common commercial breeds found in feral populations include (I think even Mcmurray has them):

• Red Junglefowl – Sold by hatcheries and closely resemble true wild birds.
• Gamefowl (American or Old English) – Hardy, flighty, and well-suited to surviving on their own.

I find mine every 30feet in the caribbean. Big pests that cost retail and restaurants a fortune every year.

This is the most accurate description. I was using the word a little flippantly.

 

[CabritaChicks]

This is the most accurate description. I was using the word a little flippantly.

Thanks! It’s tricky, because chickens did descend from wild fowl—but finding a truly “feral junglefowl” these days? That’s a stretch. Even my little Gypsy chick probably has some modern genetics mixed in—who knows what, exactly! I know there are folks who describe 'breed standard' junglefowl in great detail at poultry shows, but honestly, it’s not always spot-on. Kind of like with “native plants”—at some point, the lines blur and everything gets a bit muddled.

I know this firsthand—there are uninhabited islands near me with wild fowl that were originally brought over by pirates hundreds of years ago, so they could stop off and grab fresh meat on their voyages. Just like the deer on our island- originally brought by the dutch and brits for game hunting....but they hunted them to near extinction: not truly “native,” but actually descendants of Texas whitetail that were imported yet again in the 50's - they are pigmy (size of a goat and growl like a bear).

And just a 10-minute boat ride (or windsurf) from us is St. John—you can see it from our house. It’s full of animals now often considered “wild native,” but none of them really are. The deer, goats, sheep, donkeys, cats, dogs, mongoose, rats, and pigs? All introduced over time. So yeah… what’s considered “wild” or “native” just depends on how far back you’re willing to look!

 

[TOMTE]

Sorry, I got about 5 pages behind in reading everyones comments so some of my recent posts are a little late. Nice to hear from everyone though.

Sorry it got so off topic!

 

[TOMTE]

One thing to keep in mind regarding moving your coop farther away from the house: A friend of mine said they didn’t start losing chickens and dealing with predators until they moved their coop to the other end of their property away from the house. Something to think about.

Yes, I'm worried about this. We are going to try to critter-proof the coop and run as best we can. I'm sure there will be losses at some point but we're going to do our best to prevent that!

 

[TOMTE]

What is “native?”

Easy to answer. Native = there without human intervention. The natural spread of species into new areas over generations means the species is native.

The wikipedia page on native species sums it up beautifully.

"In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equivalent to the concept of indigenous or autochthonous species.
"A native species in a location is not necessarily also endemic to that location. Endemic species are exclusively found in a particular place. A native species may occur in areas other than the one under consideration. The terms endemic and native also do not imply that an organism necessarily first originated or evolved where it is currently found."

 

[TOMTE]

The animals and plants on Ascension Island mostly arrived within a 100 year time period and they sorted themselves perfectly into all ecological niches despite not evolving alongside one another. To quote a book on this subject-

So does this one special case mean that coevolution is nil and means nothing? I don't think so.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Thanks! It’s tricky, because chickens did descend from wild fowl—but finding a truly “feral junglefowl” these days? That’s a stretch. Even my little Gypsy chick probably has some modern genetics mixed in—who knows what, exactly! I know there are folks who describe 'breed standard' junglefowl in great detail at poultry shows, but honestly, it’s not always spot-on. Kind of like with “native plants”—at some point, the lines blur and everything gets a bit muddled.

I know this firsthand—there are uninhabited islands near me with wild fowl that were originally brought over by pirates hundreds of years ago, so they could stop off and grab fresh meat on their voyages. Just like the deer on our island- originally brought by the dutch and brits for game hunting....but they hunted them to near extinction: not truly “native,” but actually descendants of Texas whitetail that were imported yet again in the 50's - they are pigmy (size of a goat and growl like a bear).

And just a 10-minute boat ride (or windsurf) from us is St. John—you can see it from our house. It’s full of animals now often considered “wild native,” but none of them really are. The deer, goats, sheep, donkeys, cats, dogs, mongoose, rats, and pigs? All introduced over time. So yeah… what’s considered “wild” or “native” just depends on how far back you’re willing to look!

Agreed. There is a private island somewhere in the inside passage off BC that was populated with goats or sheep (I can’t remember which) that had no natural predators-including humans. Supposedly they were very inbred and starting to get quirky looking but I think that was a myth. If I could remember the name of it I could look it up but the last time I saw it was 20 years ago from the deck of a ship lol.

 

[TOMTE]

Agreed. There is a private island somewhere in the inside passage off BC that was populated with goats or sheep (I can’t remember which) that had no natural predators-including humans. Supposedly they were very inbred and starting to get quirky looking but I think that was a myth. If I could remember the name of it I could look it up but the last time I saw it was 20 years ago from the deck of a ship lol.

Lasqueti Island?!