Free Range Red Jungle fowl

[Sigraham]

We recently moved to the country(NC Sandhills area) and have free range chickens (3-20) visiting us throughout the day. We started feeding, had an available rabbit hutch and now have 1-3 egg layers so I collect eggs daily. A mama and her 6 chicks are now visiting and exploring our yard. The latest is a hen staying in the coop overnight, there should only be 1 or 2 eggs plus a fake egg under her. Does this make her a broody and is it normal for a hen to sit on only a couple of eggs? Another hen, tired of waiting for the nesting box finally used the new one!

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
Have you "adopted" some of the visitors? Or did they adopt you by moving into your old rabbit hutch?

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC. Your hen could well be broody.

This is a useful link of BYC guides to take a look at announcements-feedback-issues-guides.3 I’d suggest including your location using the guide in the link. You can use this link to contact members in your area - Find your State's thread.

Best wishes

Pork Pie

 

[Fishkeeper]

A broody hen will sit on eggs, not leave except rarely to get food and water, and defend the nest if you come close to her. If she sleeps on the nest instead of sleeping on the roost, and leaves the nest all day, she might just prefer to sleep there instead of a perch.

Are you sure they're red jungle fowl specifically, and not just feral chickens?

You might consider building a coop large enough for all of them and trying to get them all to stick around. Heck, you could even try to catch them to keep them in a pen where they'd be safer. If you could get them all to roost in a coop, you'd just have to sneak up at night and lock the door shut to catch them all.

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

Welcome to our FUNomenal community! Best wishes and have lots of fun!

 

[Cynthia12]

WELCOME! Oh boy, you will know if she's broody. Stays on that nest...fluffs up and makes a sound like you've never heard come from your girl before, and, they usually get a real interesting ...not so nice look in their eyes!

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Miss Piggy Sue says, “Welcome to our eggcelent flock here at BYC!”

 

[fldiver97]

Welcome! Glad you decided to join us

 

[feathermaid]

Do the chickens belong to a neighbor who is free ranging them? Are there roosters in the flock? I've never heard of jungle fowl loose here in the states, usually they're just lost or abandoned birds that have become feral. Do you have pictures? If they're willing to actually lay in a nest box they must be familiar with coops... feral chickens usually find a secluded area on the ground to hide their eggs.

But yes, a hen will sit on just a couple eggs, or so many she couldn't possibly keep them all warm. Some hens have even been known to sit on infertile eggs so long that they died from depriving themselves food and water. Sometimes other hens will still get a chance to add eggs to the box, so try to mark the originals and collect any new ones, because once her first set hatches she'll abandon the rest of unhatched. You can try to candle the eggs she has now to check for viability. Incubation takes 21 days so if she's still sitting there after about 4 weeks, you should probably remove the dud eggs and try get her out and moving frequently to break her broodiness. Or sneak in a few day old chicks under her at night and she'll likely accept them and raise them as her own.

Have fun with your new-found chickens!

 

[Sigraham]

This is a long story but will fill you in! The chickens were left in the neighboring garden and he told me they were game birds, Red Jungle Fowl. (Our pest control guy also said that they were.) They ended up living on the property of the man we purchased ours from, they spend their day time between both our places. They are not kept any where specific, have the run of the yards and fields, and roost in some nearby trees. In the beginning there were 5 Roos and about 25 hens. We now have 2 Roos and 18 hens that visit us. The hens are different colors, some light red or tan, buff, dark brown and almost black. Their ruffs are red or brown speckled with black. We are enjoying them and trying to learn their chicken ways! The Roos come by our back door and let us know they want to eat! The mama hen brings her babies to our yard and wand an explore during the day. So much fun to watch them. We buy feed and have made 2 mire nesting boxes although they seem to like the rabbit coop best. I will try to post some photos. Thanks for the input! Not sure how to do this so I’m posting thumbnails let me know if you want to see a larger one.