Chicken keeping without coops or with mutiple coops

[centrarchid]

I see a variation on cock / harem master with hen depositing an egg when only one female is involved. The variations is particularly easy to seen when home range for group is larger covering several acres or more. Most of my chickens are very strong fliers as far as chickens go so they can do carry out some rapid long distance movement on the wing.

 

[Shadrach]

This Tribe 2 outside their coop.

Black pullet in foreground called Hinge. Daughter of Harold and BlueSpot
Brown pullet called Bracket. Daughter of Harold and Blue Spot
Red cock with white ear patches called Mag. Son of Harold and Blue Spot
Buff hen called Blue Spot (she’s about nine years old and holds the tribe together since her cock Harold died.
Black hen with crown called Nolia. Daughter of Harold and Blue Spot.
Cock with blue black tail feathers called Puch. Son of Harold and Blue Spot and eldest cock.
Buff and red coloured cockerel with straight comb called Nail. Son of Harold and Blue Spot

This one of the hospital/maternity units.

The idea is when hens are laying and sitting, it stays on the stand. Once the chicks hatch it can be placed on the ground. This allows the mum to get her chicks on to natural ground as early as possible. It’s in need of refurbishing.

 

[BullMtnFords]

Not sure what all the fuss is about. In the past I usually have had about 6-7 chickens. With the exception of a playful puppy I took in earlier this year, Would miss maybe 3 a year, at MOST? I have 2 places, to house chicks until they are old enough to handle themselves outside. I live in S Central MT. Weather varies!
I've always let my chickens free range.
One winter I had a Barred Rock roost in a tree for DAYS, in >20 degree weather. One year, whoever sold to TSC, 2 died within months of purchase. There's an old computer table, banana boxes of kindling and a covered chest freezer on the back porch Most roost on. They're CHICKENS, they WILL find a place to sleep and WE ALL WASH....
I have about 16 pullets, hens, this year. Have a few people Hooked on the TRUE Orange yolk eggs, LOL. There's a special place the Grit and Calcium go, so they can free feed, 20 acres to roam and plenty of bugs. There are 2 wandering horses that provide bugs also. (Why some neighbors **tch, they're 'exceptions' to the State law? Waterers all over. Thankfully, I adopted an abused, abandoned hound. If she smells ANYTHING on the property, she OUT for it. I have wood boxes, front & back porches, 2 pick ups, trees & a few bushes providing shelter altho have only had 2 flying predators, that I recall.
IMHO, It's like manual/automatic Transmission vehicles; If you demand one, you accept the limitations of such. If you can do both, you B-R-O-A-D-A-N your abilities.

 

[centrarchid]

Thread linked below also one of the long-term story line efforts. Also got some criticism from those more into the Fort Knox or the highway. It has observations on a single flock most of the time although towards end other flocks were being setup in pasture to west of house. Breed used made overlapping territories impossible but behaviors likely closer to what Red Jungle Fowl do relative to most domestic chickens. Individual names per wife as gave birds a little more linkage to the human side of relationship.

I have had chickens for many years prior to moving to Missouri. Where I grew up we had many flocks with a tremendous range in how they were managed. Once was effectively not managed for close to 20 years. Since moving to Missouri I have identified close to 15 residences that have kept chickens within 1 mile of my home. None have had self-sustaining flocks (replacements mostly purchased from commercial hatcheries) and most keep unbalanced flocks confined very tightly or have no protections for free-range birds. None of those residences have kept a flock for more than 3 years running without at least a total loss. I am an outlier with birds outside far more than average and where essentially all my birds are born and raised here. Handily, my birds have the largest area to free-range of any flocks around. It takes a lot of work managing predators and it get expensive. Still fun and allows teaching kids.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/constructing-a-single-chicken-family-unit-for-porch.451333/

 

[Chelsa'sChicks]

As of now my chickens are fenced and with a coop due to a fox issue. Previously the chickens (who were a mix of breeds - PBR,RIR,LH,EE,BO and Australorp) and who did all get along cooped in the barn. They free ranged 100% without doors, fences or a coop. They put themselves to bed in the barn and would roost in the barn rafters by fluttering up a latter or using the hay conveyer belt. Depended on the bird lol. Since the fox they have been cooped and extremely upset with me. My chickens also come to a whistle and I have never had an issue with them roosting in trees or otherwise.

 

[BullMtnFords]

As of now my chickens are fenced and with a coop due to a fox issue. Previously the chickens (who were a mix of breeds - PBR,RIR,LH,EE,BO and Australorp) and who did all get along cooped in the barn. They free ranged 100% without doors, fences or a coop. They put themselves to bed in the barn and would roost in the barn rafters by fluttering up a latter or using the hay conveyer belt. Depended on the bird lol. Since the fox they have been cooped and extremely upset with me. My chickens also come to a whistle and I have never had an issue with them roosting in trees or otherwise.

Love it. They don't fly to the rafters? I wouldn't be talked into walking INTO the barn at Night, But...Sounds Great.. This year is a mix of Breeds. 4 I bought as adults, early this year. 14 as chicks. The Free Roosters turned out to be Minis, Annoyed with That and a free bird; she was being ornery with other 2 in 3 hen coop. Mix bag of (Chicks)Tricks? Unless someone is GOOD at hiding, Many a time. I've lost a couple...

 

[Shadrach]

Not sure what all the fuss is about. In the past I usually have had about 6-7 chickens. With the exception of a playful puppy I took in earlier this year, Would miss maybe 3 a year, at MOST? I have 2 places, to house chicks until they are old enough to handle themselves outside. I live in S Central MT. Weather varies!
I've always let my chickens free range.
One winter I had a Barred Rock roost in a tree for DAYS, in >20 degree weather. One year, whoever sold to TSC, 2 died within months of purchase. There's an old computer table, banana boxes of kindling and a covered chest freezer on the back porch Most roost on. They're CHICKENS, they WILL find a place to sleep and WE ALL WASH....
I have about 16 pullets, hens, this year. Have a few people Hooked on the TRUE Orange yolk eggs, LOL. There's a special place the Grit and Calcium go, so they can free feed, 20 acres to roam and plenty of bugs. There are 2 wandering horses that provide bugs also. (Why some neighbors **tch, they're 'exceptions' to the State law? Waterers all over. Thankfully, I adopted an abused, abandoned hound. If she smells ANYTHING on the property, she OUT for it. I have wood boxes, front & back porches, 2 pick ups, trees & a few bushes providing shelter altho have only had 2 flying predators, that I recall.
IMHO, It's like manual/automatic Transmission vehicles; If you demand one, you accept the limitations of such. If you can do both, you B-R-O-A-D-A-N your abilities.

In general I agree with you.
Chickens are extraordinarily adaptable. If a group of chickens suddenly appeared on your property then a completely hands off approach would seem reasonable to me.
That isn’t what happens though. People ‘get’ chickens and my view is as soon as you ‘get’ chickens you are then responsible for their welfare. The ‘fuss’ is over what constitutes neglect and what constitutes care.
There are contributors and no doubt readers of this thread, who consider free range chicken keeping to be neglect. Some would probably change their mind if they came and spent a couple of weeks here with me.
Given the predator losses you state and the facilities you provide, and assuming you provide health care for a sick chicken, I think the conditions you describe are fine; others won’t.
People just love trying to manage things…..

 

[Shadrach]

As of now my chickens are fenced and with a coop due to a fox issue. Previously the chickens (who were a mix of breeds - PBR,RIR,LH,EE,BO and Australorp) and who did all get along cooped in the barn. They free ranged 100% without doors, fences or a coop. They put themselves to bed in the barn and would roost in the barn rafters by fluttering up a latter or using the hay conveyer belt. Depended on the bird lol. Since the fox they have been cooped and extremely upset with me. My chickens also come to a whistle and I have never had an issue with them roosting in trees or otherwise.

It sounds Ideal. How big is the barn?
I don't whistle for the chickens, but they do come when I call them, even during the day.
Shame about the fox problem.

 

[Shadrach]

Below are just a few of the problems I’ve encountered keeping free range multi cooped chickens.
These are badly edited extracts from my book.
Most of the information can be found elsewhere on this site.

I have not adequately dealt with the question of breed mixing. Given so many people like to mix breeds I feel that presenting an argument against it is likely to offend some people and lead to a locked thread.



Tree Huggers
I get lots of professional tree hugging chickens that go up a tree to roost.
There is a place between the ankle and knee joint of a chicken that if you apply pressure to, the chicken has a reflex action of stepping backwards and grasping whatever object it is that exerts the pressure, when the chicken is in its roosting position.
I found that exerting pressure at this place while there is sufficient light for the chickens to be confident about its vision, often makes the chicken step back briefly, but then hop onto another branch.
I have a long pole with a T piece at one end approximately the width of the chickens body.

Timing is quite important. You want the chicken to step back and grasp the T piece and basically be too scared to let go because it can’t see well enough to be confident about making a leap to another branch. If it has got dark, then you have problems locating the correct position on the chickens leg and risk pushing it off the branch so this method works best at late dusk.
Once the chicken grasps the T piece you can lower the chicken to a point where you can use your hands to hold it.
This method is fine once the chicken is in the tree, but It’s much easier if the chicken comes down from the tree of it’s own accord, or better still, doesn’t go up the tree in the first place.
Chickens seem to like routine so I introduced one. I’m at the coops at dusk anyway because that’s when the chickens go to roost and I get a chance to check that they’ve all come home and check that none are sick or injured. I feed them at dusk, so I’m fairly confident that they go to roost with full crops. I don’t leave food down for them during the day anymore. In the morning I feed them the bought chicken food. In the evenings I give them food I’ve prepared and they much prefer what I make to the bought food. I made sure for the first couple of weeks I put things in the food I prepared that I know they really like; small bits of cheese for example, and I call them to come down for it.
At first some where reluctant and I just encourage them out of the trees with a pole. I found that once the senior hen came down the rest would follow. The important thing is is not to leave it to late. If it gets too dark they wont come down because they can’t see well enough.
It took a couple of weeks for the routine to get established but I rarely have to call them now.

Attitude
I’ve watched other chicken keepers run around diving into bushes trying to catch a chicken. I don’t want to be doing that. I want ideally to be able to call the various tribes any time of day and have them come to me. If a chicken is injured, or sick, I don’t want to have to wait until dusk to catch it.
A point that is important to me, is I don’t want the chickens to run away from me frightened and screaming every time I approach; no not even the cocks. I like spending time with them and if some cocks think I’m one of their hens, no problem. If they tidbit around me I don’t mind. In seven years and perhaps twenty cocks and cockerels I have only ever had one draw blood and it was my own fault.

Cock Fights
Some common sense is needed If you’re breaking up a cock fight, wear gloves and always try to remove the aggressor from the scene. it’s not hard to tell which cock is pushing their luck if you know your chickens. I have thin poles scattered around the place and I sometimes use these to separate the cocks. Slid the pole between the fighting cocks and gently lever the cock away from the other, putting yourself between them as soon as you make a gap. Yes, you may get a cock attacking your leg so don’t wear shorts, or have bare feet when your with the chickens. Cocks do the classic ‘seeing red ‘when they fight and you need to take that into account, standing there shouting at them, or asking them to play nice doesn’t get results. Once you’ve separated them pick the aggressor up. What you do then depends on your chicken keeping arrangements. For me with a multicoop system and tribes its easy, I take the cock back to his hens and if the two tribes are too close, usher one away from the other.

There is no need to hit them! you’re just joining the fight if you do, and if you hurt the cock, then he will probably become aggressive through fear and that is very hard to put right.

Your Plumage
Chickens get confused by the humans ability to change its plumage. Chickens rely very much on visual stimuli and other chickens look much the same day in day out. A person I’m in contact with in Australia who uses a multiple coop system always wears overalls of the same colour when he’s outside with the chickens. I have three pairs of trousers that are identical and that seems to do the trick here. Don’t wear hoodies, chickens need to see your face to know its you. Hats, well they get used to them. The basic point is, wear suitable clothes and wear similar clothes when dealing with the chickens.

The Call sign
Chickens use call signs. You may have noticed that when a hen approaches another hen, or a group, she makes a sound, often a double cluck ,but it varies from hen to hen. This call sign is very important and scientist are still trying to assess what information it may convey. My feeling is it identifies the hen and what her status is to the other hens. It also lets the other hens know she is aware of their presence. I’ve been using a call sign for years.
If you’re the size of a chicken, random human motion poses a threat. Naturally enough they’re concerned that you may tread on them, or throw something heavy in their direction, or turn a hose on them e.t.c.
If I approach a chicken ,or a tribe I make this call sign and it lets them know a) it’s me (they can’t always see you coming), b) that I know they’re there, c) that I mean no harm. Predators don’t tend to advertise their presence!
The chicken knows your coming towards them before they see, or hear you. They have sensitive vibration detectors in their legs (how sensitive is still unknown). They may not know what, or who is approaching them and your call sign will reassure them.

Pecking and Beaks
Chickens don’t have hands anymore. There is scientific evidence that chickens are descended from dinosaurs and probably looked like small, beaked, raptors. The need to escape predators and reach food at a greater height meant the chicken developed wings that replaced the arms and probably three fingered hands they had. A misconception I often read is that chickens are birds. They’re not; and any comparisons made between birds and chickens are completely misleading.
Chickens use their beaks like we use our hands. I’ve had people here watching the chickens get upset because they’ve seen a chicken pecking another. Not all pecks are equal. Often a hierarchy peck doesn’t even disturb the other chickens feathers. If the peck is ignored then the next peck is more forceful. Chickens peck to groom each other, they’re not trying to peck out each others eyes or bloody a crop; often they are removing lice and mites and old scabs. Chickens peck to show affection, it’s a sideways sweeping movement usually on the back of a hens neck. Chickens peck to test if something is edible it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll eat what they peck at. Chickens often peck at insects that they may not have encountered before. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to eat them either.

The time to worry about pecking is if it draws blood and even then I can think of a few occasions where, while it was unpleasant, there were understandable reasons why it happened. Chickens fight, they very rarely kill each other. There are always horror stories of ‘killer’ chickens but given there are three times as many chickens in the world as there are humans some sense of proportion is needed.
I’ve seen here on other smallholdings chickens with clipped beaks. I think this is a barbaric practice. The usual reason given for beak clipping is to stop chickens pecking each other. My view is that if chickens are pecking each other that badly then there is something wrong with their environment.
Chickens need the beak shape they have, not just to eat but to groom. A chicken can’t pick lice and mites off if the tip of the beak is flattened. Sometimes there are medical reasons for beak reshaping and this can be done with a file, if necessary a bit at a time. My view, never clip, it can cause splits up the beak and can prevent the chicken from being able to groom itself properly.

Physical Contact
Very few of the chickens I’ve met like being picked up. Hens associate that level of physical contact by force with mating. Its safe to assume that most hens don’t really fancy humans. Yes, you can get them used to being handled, but I bet they still shake themselves when they’re put down.
Like a lot of people who keep chickens I want to be able to touch them, but I appreciate that they don’t like it. Watching chickens grooming gave me an idea and I’ve used this method to make friends with a few of the more nervous chickens I’ve had here and now I do it with most.
Normally the closest physical contact a chicken has with a human is through hand feeding so I start there. The chicken gets used to the clos proximity of your hand and because its in front of them they can keep an eye on it. In time when you offer your hand the chicken will be hopeful that there is food on the way and move towards you. I alternate for a while, sometimes I have food and other times I just touch their beak. They get used to this. It’s a bit like a handshake. Once they got used to this it not only became easier to catch them if necessary, it also meant that with patience as long as I didn’t raise my hand above their head height, I could lift a wing or slide my hand underneath their body without causing too much alarm.

Foraging
If you live in a zone where it gets hot then let the chickens out just after the coop receives direct sunlight. Chickens do the bulk of their foraging in the mornings and evenings and the more time they have to do it the greater the chances that they will find a wide variety of food. This is good for the chicken. When it starts to get hot all the chickens want to do is find some shade and sleep and groom. I’ve tried letting the chickens out earlier but they seem reluctant to leave the coop.

Feeding problems.
Feeding free range chickens can be a problem if you want to be sure the right chickens get the right food and enough of it . You may want your laying chickens to eat layers pellets, but you wont want the others to eat them too. If you’ve got chicks running around, they’ll need anti coccidiosis starter food and you don’t want the adults eating that.
Lots of advice here about biosecurity and not letting wild birds near the chicken food.
Chickens recovering from an illness may need special diets and you want them to get the food, not everyone else.
There are always rat problems. This year for some reason there are lots here. You don’t want rat shit in the chicken food but just as important, you don’t want to encourage rats by having food left on the ground, or in feeders.
I want to make sure everyone gets fed, not just the seniors. Having a multi coop arrangement with different tribes makes feeding in one location difficult if I want to avoid fights over food.
I’m experimenting with feeder trays; one per tribe is the idea.
I want to be able to spread food over a wide enough area to ensure that the most junior chickens get their share.
I’ve used large bowls with a shallow lip in the past and food gets scratched out onto the ground and this encourages rats. Bowls with a higher lip help, but this makes it difficult for the smaller chickens and chicks to feed.
I’ve tried various feeders including the tube feeders shown in the pictures above and I still end up with food on the ground and if left open, rats still get food out. Another problem is only one or two chickens can feed from the tubes at a time. This means I either make more feeders, or spend more time waiting for all the chickens to eat before roosting.
I want to make it more difficult for a rat to run over and grab a piece of food which at the moment they do while the chickens are feeding.
My preference would be to spend a few evenings out with an air rifle and kill the rats. I’m not allowed to do this (a full explanation is complicated) Poisening the rats isn’t an option here because the wildlife eat the rats (just not enough at the moment) Snap traps aren’t an option either when the chickens are free range.
I’ve made one tray I metre square with a 100mm lip around the perimeter and I’m going to try this out.

 

[Shadrach]

Chicken Behaviour.
A common misconception is the chicken can’t be intelligent because its brain is so small.
For its body mass the chicken has a larger brain than any other fowl, or bird. Chickens have a neuron firing rate that is thirty times faster than a humans. Think about a computers processing ability thirty years ago compared to a modern computer built with a micro chip processor. Of course, a lot depends on how you define intelligence.
Chickens are extraordinarily adaptable. Humans, for example, tend to alter their environment to suit their needs while the chicken will adapt to the environment it finds itself in.
Chickens are hierarchical social creatures and this has helped the chicken to survive in circumstances and environments that other creatures would not. Consider what might happen if fifty dogs were contained in a structure with the space recommended for a chicken relative to the dogs size.
Chickens communicate with each other and scientists have identified thirty four different sounds and this number keeps increasing and is now at a point where there is debate regarding whether chickens have a language as defined by humans.
There are many more interesting recent discoveries about the chicken and this is because it’s only been comparatively recently that scientists have studied chicken with the objective of discovering more about its behaviour rather than concentrated on maximising the chickens potential for human benefit.

The physiology of the chicken has been studied at depth and disease management like wise.
What hasn’t been studied at enough depth yet is chicken behaviour. As I stated in an earlier post, in order to study chicken behaviour you need to let the chicken behave.
There is only so much that can be discovered under laboratory conditions when dealing with animals, birds, fowl and marine life. Eventually you have to study the subject in its natural environment.
It’s with the above in mind that made me wonder, and then investigate, what happens if you let the chicken think for itself.

I was asked by True Patriot in an earlier post if the welfare of the chicken was my prime objective.
It isn’t. My prime objective is to try and make people think of the chicken in a different way. This may not end up to the benefit of the chicken in the long run. It could result in a massive decline in the chicken population if I managed to persuade enough people not to keep chickens at all.

Most of what I’ve written in these posts could be found in various journals, academic papers, web sites such as this and books. What is different is the use of a multi coop system. Nobody who has contributed to this thread uses a multi coop system. The one post that partially coincides with my observations is post 2 where the chickens have been left to roost where they liked and Snapdraggin identified two tribes with a cock in each. What’s more interesting is there were three hens living separately. There are other people using a multi coop system and I’m in contact with two of them. They also report similar observations to mine.
I’ve often read that in large flocks of chickens with a single cock the cock has his favourite hens. This I believe is the tribe. It’s quite difficult to get people to observe and report on what actually happens with the cock and his favorites. Does the cock escort his favourites if they are in a free range system? Does he drop food for them? Are the cock and his favourite hens the same breed? What happens if there is more than one cock, are his favourites different hens? Where there is more than one cock and you provide another coop does one cock occupy that coop with his favourite hens? If there are mixed breeds, does one breed occupy one coop and the other breed another?

In short, what happens if you let chickens choose and give them the facilities to do so.
This is what I’m interested in and this is what I’ve tried to do here.

My intention now is to write a couple of articles which I will post here at BYC.

While I’m happy to answer any further direct questions in this thread, my interest is in multi cooped free range chicken keeping and chicken behaviour, particularly communication. Here at BYC this isn’t a common interest, so I won’t make any further contributions to this thread.

I would like to thank BYC for making this a featured thread.
I would also like to say thank you to True Patriot.

Its time to go and talk to the chickens.