constructing a single chicken family unit for porch

[centrarchid]

TWO LARGE OWL SPECIES POKING AROUND ROOST IN FRONT YARD

Again this morning at about 0230 chickens were riled up but this time not flying down from roost. Dog slept in bed with me next to window he can jump out of. When Scoob started to stir I grabbed him and muffled him so not to disturb owl. The nearly full moon had everything so I could see very well. On top of the roost next to a dominique x California grey cockerel I could see a barred owl. It looked larger than the cockerel despite the owl weighing at most only 1/2 as much. I then turned on flashlite thus flushing owl. Both great horned and barred owls are visiting. The former would eat latter when it catches them yet both species frequent my patch. So far only losses to owls were a couple of < l pound juveniles and that occured months ago. I wonder what the barred owl is up to since the chickens are way to big for it to catch. The roost does appear to be a premium site from which to hunt voles.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Could it be a Young Owl learning how to hunt, making stupid mistakes?

 

[teamsunbelt]

Quote:
We have had an owl making regular visits over the last few weeks. He has been eating grubs from the front yard after recent rains and yard work. He looks to be fully mature. I have taken pictures from a fairly close range on a couple of occasions. Quite a few visits by the owl have been during the times at which all of the chickens were out free ranging. Most of my flock are mature or close.

I believe most predators will take an easy meal if offered. It could be possible that your owl no longer sees the growing flock as easy meals, nor does it see them as a threat. I would guess that over time that the chickens could become comfortable with the owls presence, causing a big problem come spring when littles ones are around.

 

[centrarchid]

perchie.girl :

Quote:
Could it be a Young Owl learning how to hunt, making stupid mistakes?

Could be but I have not heard juvenile owl calls at all this year and birds in question are hooting which young of year I think do not do yet. The young owls should have been hunting since at least June and will likely have been feeding themselves exclusively since adults have begun to redefine mating bond and territrorial boundaries in preparation for eggs being laid in January.​

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
We have had an owl making regular visits over the last few weeks. He has been eating grubs from the front yard after recent rains and yard work. He looks to be fully mature. I have taken pictures from a fairly close range on a couple of occasions. Quite a few visits by the owl have been during the times at which all of the chickens were out free ranging. Most of my flock are mature or close.

I believe most predators will take an easy meal if offered. It could be possible that your owl no longer sees the growing flock as easy meals, nor does it see them as a threat. I would guess that over time that the chickens could become comfortable with the owls presence, causing a big problem come spring when littles ones are around.

These meals are not all that easy since they come at some risk.

With the exception of the front porch flock, none of the birds free ranging at this time will be free ranging next year. The front porch flock roost on the front porch and for some reason owls do not seem inclined to approach that location at night. The juvenile chickens, not belonging to front porch flock (most vulnerable,) have been kept in chicken tractors and roosts with overhead protection once they leave ground for night. Dog makes it so typical owl hunting technique where larger juvenile is knocked from roost and dispatched on ground does not work well since dog investigates as soon as chickens start making racket as owl starts knocking chickens down. Only losses to owls this year involved small juveniles the owl could simply snatch off roost and fly away with.

 

[centrarchid]

SPEACH'S LOYALTY NOT YET TO FRONT PORCH FLOCK

At about dusk, the free-ranging flock that had been targeted by barred owl for last three nights virtually all decided to move to the front porch flocks location. They repressent the same cohort / flock that Speach was incubated, brooded and ultimately free-ranged with following release from chicken tractor. Speach has been a bit of a butt-munch, to the original members of the front porch flock denying them access to the top tear unless I intervene. I intervened every night to keep my pets on safest perch at top with Speach. When Speach's flockmates flew up to the top tier, the bugger made no effort to drive them off even though he was top ranked even within their group. He still keeps front porch flock off until I intervene. It will be interesting to see what influences the rate at which a rooster begins to flockmates and stops the going to roost squabling.

 

[centrarchid]

MUGSHOTS FOR 2012 MEMBERS OF FRONT PORCH FLOCK

First six birds are all F1 red jungle fowl (female) x American game (male).

SPEACH - dominant male

SKIPPY - second ranked male

JUNIOR - fourth ranked male, most like father Eduardo

MORK - third ranked male, only bird with wild-type single comb

TONEY -

TAZZ -

TIPPY - Putative pure game. She lost her wingband so can not say for certain. She is larger than even Speach, has typical green legs, earlobes are not white, lacks a pattern allele all other red jungle fowl crosses have.

Names chosen with high number of consenants to promote name recognition as I attempt to train them.

 

[Daisy8s]

Wow, beautiful birds. Thanks for posting their pics. Nice to meet the next generation.

I'm curious as to why names with more consonants will lead to better recognition by the birds when called. I would have thought names with vowel sounds would be preferred as it's easier to hold and call a vowel sound than a consonant, especially "full stop" consonants such as the /p/ sound and /ch/ sound (though I do see that you're often ending with the /e/ sound which is easy to hold).

 

[centrarchid]

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The lasty three males in particular are just now molting into their first full adult feather set and are about 28 days behind first bird (Speach) in respect to hatch date. All will impress by Christmas.

I think they hear / distinguish the hard consenants like ch, te, ka, za, ba, pa, and ed parts of human speech better than the o, a, e, u, and i parts. My terms not best because language is not my specialty.

Bird I call Speach responds to anyone that says speach, each, leach, and reach but does not seem to respond as well to teach. Their abililties to distinguish sounds may be very different althought not inferior to our own. The red jungle fowl at least appear to have a relatively large number of vocal signals that have subtle to very different meanings. I have expereince with American crows and the red jungle fowl does not appear inferior in respect to communication abilities.

 

[centrarchid]

SKIPPY IS WORKING WAY UP PECKING ORDER


Today around PM feeding time I heard a couple birds fighting off in bushes. Upon getting in closer for a closer look I found Skippy duking it out with a much larger dominique x American game pullet from an older cohort. Skippy won the battle after a good two minutes of scrapping but he then got run off by a dominique x California grey cockerel. Skippy must whip all the females before he can expect to be able to court successfully and ultimately setup his own harem. He will still be lower in rank than all males that are not his full siblings as well as Speach. Everything that is not red jungle fowl x American game will soon be harvested greatly reducing challenges for Skippy. At some point, most likely after first of year, Skippy will either challenge Speach or move to another roost site.

Skippy

Dominique x American game pullet Skippy fought. She is a good 1.5 lbs heavier than Skippy and 1/2 game to boot making her a tough opponent.