AnotherMeOhMy
Songster
Yes that is one of our big fears. Its one teason why we wont try to send him/her into the flock. Although there is a possibility that August wont be run off by the others, we dont feel he/she would be safe if we turned him/her loose outside with all the other ranch chickens. We have concerns that August will either be attacked by the flock members or taken by prey. We plan on making a fully enclosed run for August to be able to spend time outside being a chicken.A word of caution:
I read a thread here on BYC about a lady who took some chickens from someone that couldn’t keep them anymore. They were completely human raised mostly inside the house.
These chickens had absolutely NO clue about danger or predators or anything.
It’s like they had no instinct anymore.
The lady said a hawk came down and as she was running outside and her birds were running for cover these other chickens just continued foraging or just stood there.
Unfortunately one was taken by the hawk before she could do anything.
Currently I place large dog kennel outside on the ranch and just temove the tray. That way he/she can still see the other birds,watch them and get good periods of time out on the ranch but with an arena thats safe.