Establishing Feral Chicken flock

[rosemarythyme]

true, if they eat my flock could i shoot them on the premise of depredation

Until someone turns you in for shooting an eagle without a permit, sure. But if you're sitting on that much land, would anyone know?

 

[Clearwater Chicken]

i wouldn't shoot a raptor, i mean't coyotes, racoons, foxes, and other ground based predators

 

[Ridgerunner]

maybe illegal but i would like to when i have more land to keep chickens on in the future, let some of it go wild and have a mostly feral flock on MY OWN PROPERTY, when i am older and have more land available

What you are talking about now is different than what I thought your original post was about. That's why I tried to describe what I thought of as feral. The same word can have different meaning for different people.

I think (still not sure) what you are talking about isn't that different than the way small farmers kept chickens for thousands of years. The chickens fed themselves in good weather and for a large part in bad weather, but the farmers helped them out in bad weather. They free ranged during the day but were often locked up at night which is providing some predator protection. Some may have slept in trees or barns. The hens may have laid in a hen house, a hayloft, or somewhere else. And they typically went broody and raised chicks.

Predators are still the huge issue. They might trap or hunt predators and even keep a dog. Often they could manage to keep the worst of predators at bay. Sometimes no matter what they do they get wiped out. It is a risk.

To a large extent it is about a lifestyle. It is a lot different than living in an urban or suburban setting. I don't know what your background is. It sounds like you are still pretty young and mainly dreaming. Have your dreams, they are great. It's a great time to be philosophical, to think and plan. Sometimes people are able to live their dreams, but sometimes reality can hurt.

 

[Clearwater Chicken]

Sometimes people are able to live their dreams, but sometimes reality can hurt.

this is very true

 

[Don 27]

A portion of my game flock went through a feral / dunghill spell during the late 1970's through early 1980's (almost a decade). They fed themselves and the population oscillated quite a bit. Area covered was several acres centered on a hay pasture with a tree line and bramble patch as a well as feed mill that did have some spillage where grain was loaded. Birds roosted in trees, nested under mill buildings and possibly in bramble patch. This was all very close to great Uncle that had a lot of hounds used for fox hunting. A couple older dogs were allowed out all the time.

The roosters tore each other up each year with most not surviving into fall. Those that did where either really dinged up or very late season hatch.


To make for sustainable with the battle royals, I would base the founded feral flock on a cross between American Games and something like Icelandics. Latter has some feather function issues that can be corrected by game and it can disrupt the gameness attribute supplied by the games.

I have no common sense, just experience.

Sorry if I offended you . That wasn't my intention at all.

I think you are very knowledgeable when it comes to free range game birds.
I wouldn't say you have no common sense.

.
That's awesome some of you birds had the benefit of the spillage from the feed mill. l like the idea of utilizing stuff like that rather than just letting it go to waste.

Do you still free range the property?

 

[SueT]

Key West also has feral chickens, so many, they are considered a nuisance.

Here's an article about various locales with feral chickens and how they are dealing with them: (above photo from the article)
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/feral-chicken-island-management-key-west-kauai-bermuda

 

[centrarchid]

Sorry if I offended you . That wasn't my intention at all.

I think you are very knowledgeable when it comes to free range game birds.
I wouldn't say you have no common sense.

.
That's awesome some of you birds had the benefit of the spillage from the feed mill. l like the idea of utilizing stuff like that rather than just letting it go to waste.

Do you still free range the property?

No. Stock from same flock bred almost exclusively on walks until about 20 years ago.

 

[Shadrach]

There are lots of feral flocks in the world. There are feral flocks where I live.
Starting a feral flock in what may be an overly hostile environments with regard to weather and predators is likely to be difficult.
I would be looking as Asian, Persian and Chinese land race breeds rather than outright game fowl due to the fighting between males.
Some of these breeds already live as flocks with multiple males.

 

[Friendly_Lurker]

A friend of mine came up with the idea of having a flock of feral chickens. which breeds would be the most likely to go feral and how would you get them to do that. Could they survive on their own? what would be the ideal place to establish one? any thoughts, suggestions, commments?

Just how do you have a flock of feral chickens?

 

[Don 27]

this is very true

Don't get discouraged. I had the same troubles when I started a feral flock of chickens.
I just got myself some games and started developing how I was too keep them. I did mix other breeds with my games to avoid fighting. Sometimes nothing beats first hand experience, for me any way and I have had to learn the hard way. But now after breeding two generations of birds on my property with minimum protection they are beginning to learn ways how to survive, but I can't ever see them becoming a uncontrollable problem . What you could do to to keep them from becoming to wild and uncontrollable is hand feed them every so often .