chickens influencing other chickens

[BigBird31]

would my wild chicken living closely with my tame chicken ifluence either one in any way? please reply quickly so i can make any necessary changes

 

[juliawitt]

The bad thing is, you don't know the health of the wild chicken. She could have a disease or bacteria your chickens aren't used to, making your chickens sick. Plus, the wild chicken will have a hard time come winter. I would attempt to catch and either find the owner, or, isolate the wild hen (assuming you can catch it) for 30 days and then integrate. Chickens need companionship and something to eat and drink come winter. I would attempt to be proactive to protect your flock from potential disease and to save a chicken that cannot take care of itself when bad weather comes. She will not make it through winter. So, if you cannot catch her, you might need to be more drastic. It would be better to shoot and eat her, than take a chance on her bringing disease or watching her starve through winter. The lord provides, sometimes in odd ways. Might mean a free pot of chicken and noodles.

 

[bakerjw]

Quarantine issues aside. In my limited time with chickens I've seen the standoffish hens get much friendlier toward people when my friendly hens get treats. They'll stand off in the back and get irritated as ever that "They're getting treats and I'm not". Eventually they'll approach and not be so chicken.

 

[Animalian]

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Also worked with my dog, my hens steal bits of meat off his bone while he chews it. The new hen was terrified of him until she realised she could get treats 'from' him lol now she loves her treat giving protector lol

 

[CMV]

I have wild birds that co-habitate with my domestic birds- wild turkeys, wood cocks, and ruffed grouse. I have never had an illness in my flock per se, but I frequently have bug problems, specifically mites. I have never seen any bad behaviors in the wild birds rubbing off on my domestic birds, but they also don't tend to interact very closely. They share the same space, but stick to themselves mostly. They seem to like to be in each others presence, but do not fraternize.

Now, I have had several bad behaviors in the domestic flock rub off on each other. A behavioral problem in a flock spreads like wildfire- feather picking and egg eating are two examples that come to mind quickly. The only bad behavior that I can think of that a wild bird would bring to the table would be roosting in trees. You will need to watch for that.

I tolerate the wild birds even though I know the dangers it entails having them in close proximity to my domestic birds because it is a great experience having them around. I know that may come around and bite me at some point in the future, but I consider the risk to be worthwhile. I can't tell you how rewarding it has been to see generations of wild birds keep coming back to raise their young in our poultry-friendly yard. The number of ground birds in our area has increased exponentially since we started keeping domestic birds (so the hunters tell me

).

Good luck. And just because I love this pic- here's a shot of a newly hatched ruffed grouse that my dogs found in our yard. They alerted me to its presence, but didn't molest it at all.