Challenges of living in the woods with chickens

[Florida Bullfrog]

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.

Yesterday I moved their feeder to underneath an oak tree in the middle of the enclosure. The rooster and 1 hen roosted in the oak tree last night. The other three hens roosted in the holly tree outside the enclosure.

Tonight it appears all 5 birds roosted in the oak tree. I didn’t go inside the paddock to count heads, but I was able to shine the rooster’s eyes in the oak tree and it appeared no hens were in the holly tree.

 

[Carontheroad]

Its called “Free-Range Survival Chickens.” I wrote it under my screen name “Florida Bullfrog,” which was also my Youtube handle for many years. I recently shut my Youtube channel down for reasons I discuss here:

Post in thread 'Developing My Own Breed Of Large Gamefowl For Free Range Survival (Junglefowl x Liege)'
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ival-junglefowl-x-liege.1424023/post-28624110

I kept my presence here and a couple of other forums. There’s more documentation of my chicken projects here on BYC than there is anywhere else.

Found your book and I should get it in 2 days. One of the highest reviews I’ve seen on Amazon for anything. Looking forward to it!

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Can you spot all 4 chickens in this picture? 3 hens, 1 rooster. Hint: they’re all around the small pine in the middle.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Here’s a zoomed in pic showing some red comb. Put your thumb over a comb and you can see how invisible their natural coloration makes them.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Pics of woods nests.

 

[TOMTE]

Here’s a zoomed in pic showing some red comb. Put your thumb over a comb and you can see how invisible their natural coloration makes them. View attachment 4167554

Isn't it so amazing how chickens blend in!

Everything you mention about the location of food and known safety making a huge difference is what I've observed too. My flock is much different than yours, but instinct is instinct. I love watching them and I need to start making notes of what I learn...but I'm lazy

Chickens using cover in different areas of the property:

Brand new chickies taking shelter under a strawberry plant in their outdoor brooder.

The above pictures are from when they were confined to a run/the garden for the first couple months of their lives.

Then, after we started letting them have free roam of the property for at least a few hours a day:

Most of their time out was spent at the edge of the woods or up by the house, in/near their run.

As they got a little older and a little bigger, they got a bit more unsupervised roaming time. Dad and I made this shelter for them out of scrap wood:

Putting one of their waterers in there and tossing some treats in ensured that they knew it was for them and they got comfortable with it really quickly.

(I love this one )

Sometime in November we stopped letting them out, because the hawks were very actively hunting them and there were just too many close calls (in all of those close calls, my girls were saved by hiding spots like bushes, brush piles, under the car, etc). They were still far from full grown and not very coordinated flock-wise yet, so an easy target for Cooper's and red-shouldered hawks, and my anxiety was thru the roof.

So except for short excursions out during thaws, they spent all winter in their (winterized) run.

They all started laying during this time, too, starting with Lady Sybil on November 28th!

The winterized run. So tiny

The ground disappeared!

Some excursions:

Overall we had a mild winter and spring came quickly, so they were out and about again for a few hours at a time before they knew it.

Hello!

Even though we started letting them out again, dad and I modified/expanded their run.

Now they're ranging the property from morning to evening (or at least mid-late afternoon) most days! If I don't shut them in the run before sundown, they make their way back to the coop themselves, the good girls.

They all forage pretty well but all food and water is up in/near the run, and they know the run is their safe place, so that's where they return to periodically throughout the day and in the evening.

 

[Appalachickens]

Yes Seaslug, poor choice of words, more accurate wording would be “for no apparent reason”. There is always a reason for everything in life though, it’s just a figure of speech. Thanks for enlightening all of us on mink mentality. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one although they are in my parts. Is it true that they take the heads off the chickens? Have you noticed if they come back for their stash? Do they really try to hide/stash them a bit in the run or are they just strewn all over? Seems to me most animals kill what they can eat in the short term only. Off the top of my head, I can only think of spiders and their webs as another multi killer and their prey may still be alive in the web (not sure).

In the same vein, I actually felt sorry for a rat this past winter that we found in the coop. He was more afraid of us than I was of him and went running for the automatic coop door but we had closed it and he went splat like a belly flop right on it. We chased him out through the main door but a few days later he came back and so we trapped and killed him. Even then though, I thought poor rats, they need somewhere warm to sleep too.

That’s how I’m feeling about roosters. Poor roosters, no one wants them! I’m generalizing, not literally no one, lots of rooster lovers on this forum.

That’s how I feel about raccoons. We have one that comes around to nab some cat food and she’s clearly a nursing mother. I understand her need to find food for herself and her babies.

 

[Appalachickens]

I think it depends on the dog. My pug could 100% be trusted with the chickens. He liked to plop down in the sun and just bask in it while they did their dust bathing. Very chill. Very lazy. Very zen.

Any herding breed, any bull breed, any hunting dog, any dog that needs a job needs serious training and then should still be watched. But my pug? Solid as a rock. A fat, furry rock. Not because he wasn’t a vicious killer-rats and mice were on his menu believe it or not-but he stood guard over the chickens like he was guarding Buckingham Palace haha

Yeah, there’s no way I’d let our coonhound or the beagle/aussie mix anywhere near the chickens. That hunting drive is too strong.

 

[Appalachickens]

Found your book and I should get it in 2 days. One of the highest reviews I’ve seen on Amazon for anything. Looking forward to it.

Just finished it myself and now I’m working on plans for starting my own landrace next year.

 

[Appalachickens]

As they got a little older and a little bigger, they got a bit more unsupervised roaming time. Dad and I made this shelter for them out of scrap wood:
View attachment 4167582

That’s a cool little shelter.