Challenges of living in the woods with chickens

[TOMTE]

Lasqueti Island?!

Or Jedediah?

 

[TOMTE]

I plan on getting a livestock guardian dog, and just training it to live outside the run.

Do you have experience with LGDs? They can be hit or miss and if you get one as a puppy, it will almost definitely go thru a teenage phase where it will test boundaries and attack/kill the chickens its supposed to be protecting. Even a fully trained adult will sometimes decide it doesn't want to do the job. This is normal dog behavior but if you're not prepared to work with a potential mess of behavioral and physical health issues ($$$$) I wouldn't go that route. You can have more luck with motion sensor sprinklers and other deterrents than LGDs.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Lasqueti Island?!

No. This one had no people. That might steer me in the right direction with a search though

 

[2 Acres]

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?

I’m trying to seed out a bit of clover outside their closed run so that they have something to free range on. We also live on a side of a small mountain and they don’t typically venture up it into the woods much but so far we only let them out for a few hours before dusk due to fear of predators. Our 2 1/2 acre property is mostly hilly so establishing large fenced in areas is difficult due to the land being unlevel and the mountain rock is not far below the surface in many places. We don’t have unlimited water in our well where we can water large areas if we did want to try and plant grass.

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. We did have a hawk (or maybe a juvenile eagle) get into our open run section last year, no casualties because our chicken area is right next to the house and I heard and saw the ruckus. We later strung some blank CD discs over half of the open run and put two plastic crows in their run and this seems to work so far. The CD discs reflect different colours (even into our house) and has a festive feel which was a bonus surprise. I think it would also help to keep flighty chickens in. The fencing for the walk in run is secured around trees and there are trees inside the run. Part of the run has a chicken wire roof but mainly to keep chickens in as not strong enough to keep predators out. The coop is large and built like Fort Knox so nothing getting in there. Due to our terrain a chicken tractor is out of the question but I would love some ideas about keeping the run floor from being just dirt. I currently have 3 rectangle boxes with hardware cloth on top in the run that I’m trying to grow plants in so the chickens can pick at whatever grows past the cloth but hopefully won’t uproot the whole plant.

There is a raven that keeps coming to “visit”, landing in the trees or a shed just outside of the open run. It flies off when we go outside to check. I read that ravens will want to eat pullets but not mature hens. I do have 4 week old pullets that will be joining the others in a few months. There was no problem last year with the pullets. I’m not sure why the raven keeps visiting. I like to think he is protecting the flock from the overhead eagles and hawks that are always in our skies but that might just be wishful thinking.

We also have black bears that come through our property in spring and fall on their way to wherever they spend the winter. Two were on the coop deck last year but seemed more interested in the aluminum garbage can that they were rifling through that had empty feed bags in it. They didn’t seem to notice the chickens in the run and funnily the chickens weren’t alarmed either. We had to go outside with the bear horn and also scoot the chickens into the coop.

Anyway, that’s some of our experiences of woodland living with chickens and would love to hear what others are experiencing. I sometimes wistfully look at these nicely grassed yards and fields that chicken owners have but then I remember how much I love our wilderness lifestyle.

This sounds very familiar, however, I try to discourage the chickens to Not go in the woods since the local wildlife I have matches yours.

I box trap any unwanted critters, luring them in to the trap with part of a banana. Raccoons seem to love bananas.

No ravens here... but plenty of "birds of prey" that would be illegal to shoot. (fines and jail time). When I see them, a shotgun blank gets their attention.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

No. This one had no people. That might steer me in the right direction with a search though

It was close to Nanaimo…and now I’m hungry for Nanaimo bars, which I don’t know how to make haha

 

[No Coop No Problem]

So while the species that you and I are likely thinking of as mimosa (and not gum, which is also sometimes called mimosa) might seem harmless or to not take up much room, or to even provide nectar -- it can not provide the support for the 300+ species that an oak can, so it is better for the ecosystem to plant an oak. Doesn't mean that I do not want a mimosa for purely sentimental reasons...

This is a reasonable perspective, and I can see the point you're making about oak trees supporting more species. However what's even better than planting an oak tree is when humans refrain from clear-cutting and bulldozing acres of native forest to the ground. It's human environmental abuse that threatens native species the most, and it's what gives most invasives the opportunity to spread in the first place

Even infamous species like kudzu I suspect would be completely harmless on their own, if not for humans recking havok on the environment beforehand

Any southerner should be completely familiar with kudzu, the "vine that ate the south". It can be found growing on the side of the road, farms, and clearings all over the south. They say it kills everything. Well here's a picture I took a few months ago in a local forest of native muscadine grapes swallowing kudzu alive

I suspect if humans didn't kill the wild grapes everywhere and bulldoze so much forest down to create grass or crop monocultures, then kudzu would never have exploded the way it did. In short, it's a symptom and not the actual evil itself

Where does one get feral chickens?

Many domesticated species become feral under the right conditions. Pigs are infamous for this. Chickens will too if you just set them outside and let them live naturally. It's more efficient to use gamefowl (or already existing landraces) though because the process is far faster and smoother. I personally prefer gamefowl and production chickens mixed together for this because they're both tough and productive

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

I'm merely pointing out that coevolution isn't everything and that "ecological fitting" is a thing. Species fit ecological roles in nature and as Ascension Island shows us, random species can be put into random places and perform that same ecological role perfectly in a land surrounded by strangers

Do you have experience with LGDs? They can be hit or miss and if you get one as a puppy, it will almost definitely go thru a teenage phase where it will test boundaries and attack/kill the chickens its supposed to be protecting.

My LGD has never harmed anything she's supposed to be protecting. I think most breeds naturally protect anything they're raised around as a puppy. Perhaps it's a breed thing because LGD do come from several different families of dog. When I hear about the LGD murder-phase thing it's usually in regards to Great Pyrenees

 

[CabritaChicks]

Yes, watching the pigmy deer swim from island to island is hilarious- especially when there are migratory birds that hitch a ride on their heads!

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I'm merely pointing out that coevolution isn't everything and that "ecological fitting" is a thing.

Adaptation is what drives evolution might be another way of saying this. Species evolve, individuals adapt.

 

[TOMTE]

My LGD has never harmed anything she's supposed to be protecting. I think most breeds naturally protect anything they're raised around as a puppy. Perhaps it's a breed thing because LGD do come from several different families of dog. When I hear about the LGD murder-phase thing it's usually in regards to Great Pyrenees

I wouldn't say it's specifically an LGD thing but a general dog thing (sorry for the confusion). A dog's teenage phase = testing boundaries. While of course this doesn't necessarily mean a dog WILL go after the thing they're supposed to protect, it's a strong possibility as they test the waters. It's one of the reasons why I urge people not to jump on the LGD wagon (or any wagon for that matter) without lots of research. It can go very wrong very quickly, for lots of reasons, especially if you're not experienced with intense working breeds but you choose to get a pure bred LGD.

 

[ColoradoChicken89]

Do you have experience with LGDs? They can be hit or miss and if you get one as a puppy, it will almost definitely go thru a teenage phase where it will test boundaries and attack/kill the chickens its supposed to be protecting. Even a fully trained adult will sometimes decide it doesn't want to do the job. This is normal dog behavior but if you're not prepared to work with a potential mess of behavioral and physical health issues ($$$$) I wouldn't go that route. You can have more luck with motion sensor sprinklers and other deterrents than LGDs.

I will def keep that in mind about th sprinklers or somethings like that!!! We thought about getting a motion detector siren but rigging my voice yelling "HEY" cause that scares off most everything around the house (I used to live above the garage for years growing up, so I kinda learned how to deal with the bear anyways).

As for the LGD's I don't have any direct experience sadly, it's why it was going to be kinda one of the last resort things. I've got a lady that breeds them nearby the property, and I've been talking to her and doing a ton of research, and have stumbled on the sad fact they aren't exactly 100% reliable. It's kinda why if I do go down this path, I'll always keep it seperated from the flock (like with the solid run or tractor). mostly would want it just to exsist outside by the house/run, so that it hopefully keeps more wild things away in general. Though, tbh, I fear cause we have a lot of pet dogs, cats, cows (sometimes), and people/kids... it's def something I kinda worry about. The lady that breeds them did tell me, if she sells me one she would help with training (though nothing 100% guarenteed), so little less worried, but idk if I really want to go this route.

We had this one guy try to raise some chickens, peacocks, and ginea fowl kinda the same way (though without the tractor, so they were free during the day), and it was just a mess. He didn't have a top to his run though, so the hawks would just sit on top of the fence and pick them out of the field or their run The foxes/coyotees would just squeeze under his electric fence and climb over...He used like normal large chain link fence, so anything smaller could just crawl in and out... It was wild.

And that is the area I want to keep my chickens... cause its closest to the wellhouse (aka water/power), so I just know I'll basically have to keep the confined 100% in hardware cloth if I'm not present or they will be gone by winter... lol