Chickens in nature

[Vulpes vulpes]

you might find this useful / interesting
Origin of the domestic chicken from modern biological and zooarchaeological approaches, Masaki Eda, 2021, open access
https://academic.oup.com/af/article/11/3/52/6306459

Thanks Perris! You find the coolest articles

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Sidenote, if you don't mind my asking, where do you get your RJF stock?

I just got lucky when I first started. The local Tractor Supply had a small number of "red junglefowl" chicks. From what I understand they're sourced from Hoover's Hatchery, and they're of the impure San Diego Zoo bloodline. I was brand new with chickens so I just got two of them along with 18 RIR

However oddly enough it seems that these random feed store chicks matched RJF description more than anything else I've seen in many years. The male I had looked quite similar to this google picture here and he had a musical crow I've not encountered since, that sounded similar to this video:

I've heard about horribly inbred junglefowl that get sick and die at any opportunity, but yours seem to do really well. My apologies if you've already answered this somewhere

I only ever had two of them. The male I got rid of as he was human aggressive and I had small children at the time. The female randomly died of illness at about 2 years of age. She was a wonderful mother and it was sad to lose her. However she had many offspring and they're all extremely vigorous

I don't see many pictures of junglefowl crosses, and most of the ones I have seen are crossed to some sort of game

99% of the time I see people with RJF they're very obvious game mixes. The posture, musculature, and sickle feathers make it visually obvious and then the crowing is unmistakable

Now that my kids are older and not in danger of random junglefowl attacks, I really wish I could find a pure enough male that sounded like the one I used to have. It was a delight hearing soft musical crowing instead of the loud, graceless screaming of domestic roosters

 

[No Coop No Problem]

I've watched blue jays attack and run off hawks half a dozen times so far this year. It's possible that a lot of my success with free-ranging chickens is just luck. It's a nice blessing that my land happens to be a popular nesting area for blue jays

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I've watched blue jays attack and run off hawks half a dozen times so far this year. It's possible that a lot of my success with free-ranging chickens is just luck. It's a nice blessing that my land happens to be a popular nesting area for blue jays

Jays and crows are the neighborhood vigilantes against the hawks around here! More in the springtime though, I have to admit.

 

[chooki]

I have seen the raven/crow stealing eggs twice - egg in its beak!

At one stage, the local ravens/crows came to check the nests every morning to see if there were some eggs to steal. They aim to steal my chickens eggs from the nests before the eggs are collected.

I have been vigilant but the hens are free ranging and I can't be in the yard all day long. Luckily, the local birds hate those corvids, I know one is nearby when the neighbourhood birds alarm ring berserk.

This was an fake plastic egg that I had placed in the nest, the holes were the 'courtesy' acts of local crow/raven.

Nowadays, they know not to steal the fake but only go for real. I use broom to chase them away whenever I sight one.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I have seen the raven/crow stealing eggs twice - egg in its beak!

At one stage, the local ravens/crows came to check the nests every morning to see if there were some eggs to steal. They aim to steal my chickens eggs from the nests before the eggs are collected.

I have been vigilant but the hens are free ranging and I can't be in the yard all day long. Luckily, the local birds hate those corvids, I know one is nearby when the neighbourhood birds alarm ring berserk.

View attachment 4229653

This was an fake plastic egg that I had placed in the nest, the holes were the 'courtesy' acts of local crow/raven.

Nowadays, they know not to steal the fake but only go for real. I use broom to chase them away whenever I sight one.

I'm sorry about your egg losses, but that's so interesting!

Do you have many aerial predators, or are they mostly terrestrial (ground)? Our neighborhood crows have never shown any interest at all in our yard, whether the general backyard or the specific chicken areas. They just perch in the tall hemlocks, hickories, and maples and provide their version of the helicopter traffic report at rush hours.

 

[chooki]

Do you have many aerial predators, or are they mostly terrestrial (ground)?

Hens are at our suburban home, last time I sighted a bird of prey was more than 15 years ago. Not many ground predators that's large enough to carry away an adult chicken either, I had lost 1 bird in the past 10 years and that's when a neighbour was building extension and no one was living there for nearly a year.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Hens are at our suburban home, last time I sighted a bird of prey was more than 15 years ago. Not many ground predators that's large enough to carry away an adult chicken either, I had lost 1 bird in the past 10 years and that's when a neighbour was building extension and no one was living there for nearly a year.

Maybe the corvids take on a predatory role, when there are no true aerial predators to fill that ecological niche!

Australia is a wonderland for ecologists. You have so many unique species that exist nowhere else in the world, and your food webs ("food chains") are so different from elsewhere.

Edit - sorry to geek out on you there. Losing eggs is heartbreaking! I'm glad you have other birds to call alert.

 

[niazai_thechickenlife]

They are having the time of their lives!!! Love it! And you know they're super healthy if they can survive in nature.

 

[Appalachickens]

They may have at some point but crayfish sightings are rare here and I haven't personally witnessed them interacting

There's no real social interaction between chickens and other species, only ecological interaction- eat, fight/flight, or ignore

If they can eat it they will. If it eats them they'll run away or occasionally fight

Everything else gets ignored, or chased off if there's food competition

I have one chicken a Wyandotte) who is absolutely obsessed with one of our cats. When he’s close by, she stands inches from his face and stares at him.