Is this chicken area big enough?

[Shadrach]

I don't think that's quite right, but I think you are perhaps closely orthagonal to something I've observed, but couldn't previously explain - which I'd not seen addressed before.

My flock is in my sig, below, about 50 birds. Two handfuls are males, roughly seven are adult "breeders". That leaves close to fourty females. During the day, the various breeding males leave the house/run and spread across my property, then begin crowing to attract "their" flock of females to "their" area. Each has between 2 and 6 girls that usually are in close proximity - almost as if I have more than a handful of small flocks. The distance between the birds is around 200, 250 feet - almost as if each is claiming roughly an acre for themselves, with the center of their range being anywhere from maybe 125 to 300 feet from my barn (and their houses).

I'll have to give more thought on your "self boundary" proposal, but its a better fit for my observations than anything else I've seen offered.

It doesn't, however, appear to have much to do with the capacity of that space to support a given number of chickens. Most of my birds have picked locations in my woods, rather than the far more productive pasture, as center of their range.

Given your observations and your keeping circumstances, adjustments to your descriptors of chickens and their behaviour may help you out.
What you are observing is chickens carrying out what is normal tribal behaviour and this is the first descriptor one has to change. Chickens are not flock creatures, they are tribal. Once you understand this, much of the behaviour you've observed makes sense. I deal with the tribal nature of chickens extensively in my book.

There are duties/behaviours that roosters carry out in a free range setting that people who keep chickens in a coop and run environment don't often witness and this has in part led to the great misunderstanding of the nature of the chicken, in particular the rooster.

It doesn't, however, appear to have much to do with the capacity of that space to support a given number of chickens. Most of my birds have picked locations in my woods, rather than the far more productive pasture, as center of their range.

This is quite normal. The jungle fowl tend to live on the edge of the jungle and make forays into open ground to forage and return to the cover the jungle edge provides from the sun/heat and predators. Once you no longer domesticate them, as in no longer attempt to control where the go and what they do, they quite quickly return to behaviours observed and documented of the their ancestors.
The tribes I cared for in Catalonia would do much the same as you describe but use cover closer to their coops and feeding locations, venturing out onto open ground to foraging in the mornings and evenings. Most of their days were spent under cover apart from trips to egg layinng sites.

Other keepers I'm in contact with report a similar behaviour with their free range tribes.
I had 5 tribes at one point in Catalonia. Each tribe comprising a senior rooster, 3 to five hens and for a period of time their offspring.

If you are interested in having some control over where your tribes spend their day then the provision of suitable cover in the location you would prefer them to stay in helps. Bamboo clumps make excellent cover in the chickens eyes as do large shrubs below and canopy of trees. Currently your chickens choose the woodland edge because it is the closest option that provides them with an environment closest to a jungle.


The next pitfall is a lack of understanding as to what the term domesticated means.
Possibly the easiest route is to make use of the root definition of domestication which is to "be brought under human control."
It is quite an education when human control is removed and the chicken is allowed to make it's own choices. It becomes apparent that many of the behavioural traits that some would have us believe are eradicated through breeding are in fact just suppressed and the chicken will return to it's "natural" behaviour when the "control" is removed.

 

[Shadrach]

I agree that the area pictured in the main post is small. It can also use some improvements. What you are using as a basis for your statement. Is like comparing domestic turkeys to wild turkeys. Which is not an apples to apples comparison. Where as a wild turkey needs and has a large expanse to support itself. It also still has all the attributes to explore its territory and escape predators. A domestic turkey no longer has those means. Therefore it no longer needs to have a large territory.

See my reply to U_Stormcrow above.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Given your observations and your keeping circumstances, adjustments to your descriptors of chickens and their behaviour may help you out.
What you are observing is chickens carrying out what is normal tribal behaviour and this is the first descriptor one has to change. Chickens are not flock creatures, they are tribal. Once you understand this, much of the behaviour you've observed makes sense. I deal with the tribal nature of chickens extensively in my book.

There are duties/behaviours that roosters carry out in a free range setting that people who keep chickens in a coop and run environment don't often witness and this has in part led to the great misunderstanding of the nature of the chicken, in particular the rooster.

This is quite normal. The jungle fowl tend to live on the edge of the jungle and make forays into open ground to forage and return to the cover the jungle edge provides from the sun/heat and predators. Once you no longer domesticate them, as in no longer attempt to control where the go and what they do, they quite quickly return to behaviours observed and documented of the their ancestors.
The tribes I cared for in Catalonia would do much the same as you describe but use cover closer to their coops and feeding locations, venturing out onto open ground to foraging in the mornings and evenings. Most of their days were spent under cover apart from trips to egg layinng sites.

Other keepers I'm in contact with report a similar behaviour with their free range tribes.
I had 5 tribes at one point in Catalonia. Each tribe comprising a senior rooster, 3 to five hens and for a period of time their offspring.

If you are interested in having some control over where your tribes spend their day then the provision of suitable cover in the location you would prefer them to stay in helps. Bamboo clumps make excellent cover in the chickens eyes as do large shrubs below and canopy of trees. Currently your chickens choose the woodland edge because it is the closest option that provides them with an environment closest to a jungle.


The next pitfall is a lack of understanding as to what the term domesticated means.
Possibly the easiest route is to make use of the root definition of domestication which is to "be brought under human control."
It is quite an education when human control is removed and the chicken is allowed to make it's own choices. It becomes apparent that many of the behavioural traits that some would have us believe are eradicated through breeding are in fact just suppressed and the chicken will return to it's "natural" behaviour when the "control" is removed.

Care to link or message me a source for your book, assuming there is an English translation?