Challenges of living in the woods with chickens

[Florida Bullfrog]

I recently observed some new behavior that may be of interest to this discussion.

I have many lines of chickens. My “wildest” line are red jungle fowl x American gamefowl hybrids. Short of giving them a covered run, they cannot be contained. They’ll fly over any fence or barrier.

I have need to keep the hybrids separate from other lines on free-range, but I also want them to live as free and with as little human care as possible. My farm is large enough to support separate free-range flocks, but in practice the flocks will intermingle because flocks turned loose on distant parts of the farm always return to the barnyard within a few weeks.

To the goal of keeping the hybrid “Cracker” gamefowl separate from other flocks, I recently began experimenting with a 68” electric net. I know they can fly higher than 68,” but I hoped they simply wouldn’t as a matter of practicality.

The high net encloses an area of a quarter acre. Its out in the woods and encompasses several oak and pine trees as well as blueberries. There is no coop. The chickens are expected to roost in the trees and nest on the ground, as my free-range chickens generally do. There’s plenty of natural food to sustain them in the enclosure to sustain them. I provide one small feeder with some commercial feed and a 5 gallon waterer.

To the edge of the enclosure, but on the outside of it, is a 30 foot high holly tree.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

The chickens very naturally chose the tall and prickly holly tree for their roost. Yet the holly is outside the enclosure. They spend the nights outside the enclosure, and fly down into the enclosure at daylight. They spend all day behind the electric and return to the holly at night.

I trained them to do this, to fly down into the enclosure and not outside of it. It was easy. I’ll do a writeup later. The utility would be that should you find yourself needing to contain very flighty chickens in a woodland environment while minimizing the actual confinement, it can be done.

 

[Carontheroad]

I recently observed some new behavior that may be of interest to this discussion.

I have many lines of chickens. My “wildest” line are red jungle fowl x American gamefowl hybrids. Short of giving them a covered run, they cannot be contained. They’ll fly over any fence or barrier.

I have need to keep the hybrids separate from other lines on free-range, but I also want them to live as free and with as little human care as possible. My farm is large enough to support separate free-range flocks, but in practice the flocks will intermingle because flocks turned loose on distant parts of the farm always return to the barnyard within a few weeks.

To the goal of keeping the hybrid “Cracker” gamefowl separate from other flocks, I recently began experimenting with a 68” electric net. I know they can fly higher than 68,” but I hoped they simply wouldn’t as a matter of practicality.

The high net encloses an area of a quarter acre. Its out in the woods and encompasses several oak and pine trees as well as blueberries. There is no coop. The chickens are expected to roost in the trees and nest on the ground, as my free-range chickens generally do. There’s plenty of natural food to sustain them in the enclosure to sustain them. I provide one small feeder with some commercial feed and a 5 gallon waterer.

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To the edge of the enclosure, but on the outside of it, is a 30 foot high holly tree.

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Here’s where it gets interesting.

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The chickens very naturally chose the tall and prickly holly tree for their roost. Yet the holly is outside the enclosure. They spend the nights outside the enclosure, and fly down into the enclosure at daylight. They spend all day behind the electric and return to the holly at night.

I trained them to do this, to fly down into the enclosure and not outside of it. It was easy. I’ll do a writeup later. The utility would be that should you find yourself needing to contain very flighty chickens in a woodland environment while minimizing the actual confinement, it can be done.

That’s so interesting. Smart birds choosing the holly tree. They look so cozy up there. I had no idea how many different ways there are to keep chickens. Each setting is unique and really only requires some research and a creative mind. Well, a handy hubby also helps. When I first started this thread I honestly thought that I was at a disadvantage for not having a nice lawn/pasture and no perimeter fencing because of living in the woods. You all have opened my eyes and I see the woods now as an advantage for the chickens.

The hubby and I were just discussing electric fencing and whether we would benefit from using it somehow. We currently have, in addition to our 14 hens, 20 seven week old chicks, 9 of which are cockerels, so we are trying to anticipate what we’ll soon need. The chicks are legbars and are known to be quite flighty which I can already see. Also one of the cockerels is starting to make crowing sounds already which I thought was way too early. It’s not much of a crow but he’s practicing! With that many chickens we are definitely going to do more free ranging. We hope to rehome 6 of the cockerels but if we can’t what then? Contemplating a bachelor pad (who knew there was such a thing). What about if we just let them free range like yours? The excess roosters I mean.

Can I ask how long you have had your birds live like this? Also, not sure how many wild ones you have but from the tree picture it looks like there are 3-4 hens and one rooster. Having read “No Coop No Problem”s article on chicken behaviour (I forget what the article is called but an excellent read), I think he mentioned that the free chickens tended to group into smaller flocks like yours. One concern I have is that things go along smoothly for maybe even a year until the predators find out about them then birds start going missing.

Do your wild flock allow you to approach them and pick them up? Do you collect their eggs? Which makes me wonder, chickens in the wild, what do they do with all the eggs they lay? I don’t imagine there is always a broody hen that wants to hatch them? But if so, then the population would grow too fast I would think.

Okay, enough with the questions. I look forward to your right up.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Do your wild flock allow you to approach them and pick them up? Do you collect their eggs? Which makes me wonder, chickens in the wild, what do they do with all the eggs they lay? I don’t imagine there is always a broody hen that wants to hatch them? But if so, then the population would grow too fast I would think.

@Florida Bullfrog wrote a book that is well worth a read actually and answers all those questions … and more! He might well feel like typing it up here but I would still recommend the book. I was getting discouraged about free ranging because when I moved to my new place my first thought was “oh look-chicken heaven!” But everyone told me they would all be picked off in a week and I couldn’t equate that with my over a decade of chickening. Something wasn’t lining up. The book made me feel like my instincts were correct and I am, in fact, in chicken heaven. I just maybe need to adjust my egg basket towards more flighty birds and less fatties who sleep on the ground when given a chance

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

That’s so interesting. Smart birds choosing the holly tree. They look so cozy up there. I had no idea how many different ways there are to keep chickens. Each setting is unique and really only requires some research and a creative mind. Well, a handy hubby also helps. When I first started this thread I honestly thought that I was at a disadvantage for not having a nice lawn/pasture and no perimeter fencing because of living in the woods. You all have opened my eyes and I see the woods now as an advantage for the chickens.

The hubby and I were just discussing electric fencing and whether we would benefit from using it somehow. We currently have, in addition to our 14 hens, 20 seven week old chicks, 9 of which are cockerels, so we are trying to anticipate what we’ll soon need. The chicks are legbars and are known to be quite flighty which I can already see. Also one of the cockerels is starting to make crowing sounds already which I thought was way too early. It’s not much of a crow but he’s practicing! With that many chickens we are definitely going to do more free ranging. We hope to rehome 6 of the cockerels but if we can’t what then? Contemplating a bachelor pad (who knew there was such a thing). What about if we just let them free range like yours? The excess roosters I mean.

Can I ask how long you have had your birds live like this? Also, not sure how many wild ones you have but from the tree picture it looks like there are 3-4 hens and one rooster. Having read “No Coop No Problem”s article on chicken behaviour (I forget what the article is called but an excellent read), I think he mentioned that the free chickens tended to group into smaller flocks like yours. One concern I have is that things go along smoothly for maybe even a year until the predators find out about them then birds start going missing.

Do your wild flock allow you to approach them and pick them up? Do you collect their eggs? Which makes me wonder, chickens in the wild, what do they do with all the eggs they lay? I don’t imagine there is always a broody hen that wants to hatch them? But if so, then the population would grow too fast I would think.

Okay, enough with the questions. I look forward to your right up.

There's actually two different categories of questions there. The first relates specifically to this 68" inch net setup. The second concerning general free-ranging.

These birds behind the net aren't "free-range" in my mind. The enclosure is 1/4 of an acre. Yes, they can currently come and go at will because they fly over the net. But where I generally got them staying behind the net of their own free-will, I'm not sure that's free range. It's just a very big run made out of electric. I've been doing this net enclosure for a week. In times past, I've had birds of these genetics totally free-range in the woods for weeks at a time before moving them around.

Totally separate from the birds behind the net are something around 50 free-rangers that truly free-range 24-7 with no barriers and no care from me. That flock has been going for years. The free-range flock is "in the woods" to the extent my farm is in the middle of a much larger tract of deep woods and swamps. But the free-range flock keeps itself in the farmyard and the transition zone between farmyard and woods. While these net birds are actually in the woods far from the farmyard.

There are 5 birds in the net enclosure, 1 rooster and 4 hens. This is not typical of how my flocks are usually structured. Usually I keep 1 mature rooster to 10-20 hens. I also allow immature roosters to run around. The mature rooster will tolerate them until they're 18-24 months old, after which the mature rooster will kill them or be killed by them. The only reason I have 5 birds behind the net is because they represent the genetics I want to breed.

I will not collect eggs from the net flock. I will have them reproduce at will and expand the flock to 50 or so individuals. I will then seed them deep in the woods away from the farm where they stand little chance of making their way back to the farmyard. I intend for them to live as a true feral flock as wild turkeys live.

The true free-rangers up at the farmyard nest in various ways. Nest boxes, open coops, farm equipment, underbrush. All sorts of ways. I can control a lot of it by giving them next boxes scattered around the farm yard with a ceramic egg inside. They'll seek out the nest boxes first. I collect what eggs we want to eat and let the hens hatch the rest. We butcher and eat the surplus chickens when they come of age. As they feed themselves, it's free meat. Therefore overpopulation is not a problem.

The 5 behind the net absolutely will not allow me to pick them up or otherwise walk within 5 yards of them. I can pick up several of my true free-rangers up at the house. Depends on the bloodline. Some are more domestic than wild, others are more wild than domestic.

When you're talking about "wild" chickens, there's a lot of history and science behind it. That's one of the reasons I wrote the book. A lot of the knowledge relating to free-ranging chickens has been lost, including the history of domestic chickens beyond the couple of paragraphs most books give on their domestication and historical practices of keeping them.

Basically, you have a continuum where on the left you have junglefowl, which are the pheasant-like birds that chickens were domesticated from, while on the right you have modern coop chickens. In the middle are gamefowl and rustic landraces. The further to the left you go, the more wild a chicken is. As you move right, they get more domesticated. The ideal chicken for free range is as wild as it can be while being domestic enough to be useful for your purposes. You're looking for the best balance that suits your needs and your farm.

The 5 behind the net are way to the left. My farmyard free-rangers are more balanced in the middle. Most err slightly to the left, but some more to the right. Depends on their genetics. As a general rule, those of oriental gamefowl background let me pick them up. Those of bankivoid background do not let me pick them up. None are as wild those as the 5 behind the net. The 5 are the wildest I have produced. I have another single pair of the very wild ones I've kept back for further breeding purposes.

Thus the reason I keep tabs on my genetics and why I wanted to move the really wild birds far from the others. I don't want the farmyard free-rangers to mix with these. I want these to be as wild as possible, but still laying lots of eggs and reproducing at a high rate. I intend to hunt these birds like one would hunt a wild turkey once I get their population high and established in a swamp far from my house. This is how my ancestors raised their chickens, and my grandmother hunted their wild chickens to the tune of about 30 a month to feed the family.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

So how I got the chickens choosing to fly back behind the electric net after roosting free:

Easy. Commercial feed is the great manipulator. There's enough natural food behind the net to sustain the birds without feed, but they love the feed. It's like chicken crack. The first 2 nights they flew down outside the net, and I had no feed inside the net. On the second morning, I let them watch me put out a feeder with feed in it. I then let them go inside. Now as long as there's feed in the little plastic feeder, they'll fly down to that feed in the mornings behind the net. Then stay behind the net all day until its time to roost.

My next experiment is to move the feeder to underneath a suitable roosting tree inside the enclosure far from the holly. I want to see if they choose to change their roosts to be closer to the feed.