Landrace/adaptive breeding discussion

[BlindLemonChicken]

Side note since I never updated about what got my Lavender Orpington: I did catch something in the trap but it wasn’t what I thought I would catch—it was a possum. I guess in the mess I mistook the possum print for a raccoon because I’ve never seen a possum track before. The one I caught didn’t look big enough to haul off a full grown Orpington but I installed another camera inside the barn so next time there should be more evidence. I have always heard possums will kill chickens but I’ve never experienced it. I was bummed to have to exterminate the poor guy cause I like possums but he was in a paw trap and there’s no setting them loose after that. Not because his paw was damaged but I wasn’t getting close enough to do it. Also, killing chickens is not a releasing offense.

 

[LaurenRitz]

Sorry I am interjecting with an old topic, but I just happened upon this comment as I am considering letting some broodies hatch eggs in the spring with minimal intervention. Just curious Perris, where was your hens' successful hatching location? Did the hens sit in the woods, in a bush, somewhere else? And where did the unsuccessful hatches happen and how early/late in the hatch were the eggs predated?

Also does anyone else happen to have any stories of successful outdoor broody hatches? Or unsuccessful ones?

I've had a bunch go broody. My only current broody goes broody twice a year and has always laid in the coop, in one of the nesting boxes. She's the only one who has successfully raised chicks.

Others have laid under trees, in tall grass, in a bag of old leaves, etc. Each time there has been an outside nest, snakes got the eggs, usually toward the end of the incubation period. It might have been hatching eggs that attracted them.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

S

Sorry I am interjecting with an old topic, but I just happened upon this comment as I am considering letting some broodies hatch eggs in the spring with minimal intervention. Just curious Perris, where was your hens' successful hatching location? Did the hens sit in the woods, in a bush, somewhere else? And where did the unsuccessful hatches happen and how early/late in the hatch were the eggs predated?

Also does anyone else happen to have any stories of successful outdoor broody hatches? Or unsuccessful ones?

If you look back in the thread, I document the hens that brood totally free range without my intervention. I get about 12-16 broods late spring that way and some of those hens do second broods in the summer. Zero major predations during brooding over the course of several years. They have the sense to brood within a 2 acre farmyard area patrolled by my free-range dogs. Can be in weeds, under bushes, in farm equipment, designated nest boxes. Wherever. No losses during that time except to snakes. Grey rat snakes are hell on eggs and chicks. The height of brooding season here is June and I kill as many as a dozen grey rat snakes within that month at night raiding under the hens. Last couple of years haven’t been as bad. I think I’ve thinned them out.

Predations from birds of prey and mammals don’t seriously start until the hens are walking with the chicks. Survival rate to adulthood can be as high as 100% and as low as none, and anything in between. Some of the chicks can tree roost as early as 2-3 weeks. Some a lot longer. Some hens mostly ween their chicks off of them at a month. Others stat close to them a lot more. The hotter and drier it is, the better the chicks do on their own earlier.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I think the youngest chicks that have been weened early and made it were 2 weeks. I recall that being during a dry spell. They roosted in a fig tree and didn’t get rained on at night.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Note the times. What may have happened here was that something spooked the chickens and my dog responded. She’ll react to spook calls by the chickens from as far away as she can hear them. She can recognize whether the alert is on an arial predator or not. If she recognizes it as a hawk alert, she goes charging in with her eyes sky and treeward.

 

[Molpet]

Sorry I am interjecting with an old topic, but I just happened upon this comment as I am considering letting some broodies hatch eggs in the spring with minimal intervention. Just curious Perris, where was your hens' successful hatching location? Did the hens sit in the woods, in a bush, somewhere else? And where did the unsuccessful hatches happen and how early/late in the hatch were the eggs predated?

Also does anyone else happen to have any stories of successful outdoor broody hatches? Or unsuccessful ones?

If predators don't get them.... broodies on the south and west side of trees, building ect unless it's dry. Then somewhere that has moisture.
, but not too much.

 

[Backroadlogic]

I think the youngest chicks that have been weened early and made it were 2 weeks. I recall that being during a dry spell. They roosted in a fig tree and didn’t get rained on at night.

On 2 different occasions I had momma hens killed within a week of hatch. Once the chicks were adopted my another hen instantly. The others raised themselves. I had 2 momma hens killed this year with chicks that were a few weeks old and all the chicks survived.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Also does anyone else happen to have any stories of successful outdoor broody hatches? Or unsuccessful ones?

My experience was a long time ago growing up on a farm with free ranging chickens where most slept and laid in a hen house but some slept in trees and had nests other places. Often nests were in a hay barn but some were other places like piles of wood or such. I don't recall many in bushes but I'm sure some were. Of course hens went broody in the hen house, in the hay barn, and other places.

I don't recall any of the nests being destroyed by predators, even the ones in the wood piles. No remains or signs of dead hens. That doesn't mean there weren't any, just that we never saw any signs. We had 25 to 30 free ranging chickens so we might have not missed a specific hen. They were not pets, they were there for eggs and meat. I agree, snakes were a risk for chicks with a broody but we lost very few to them. Usually if a hen hatched a chick she raised it until it was weaned.

I can't give you any guarantees with this kind of stuff. Any nest is at risk. Wild birds hide nests all of the time. Some are successful, some are not. My circumstances are going to be different from yours. It's not an easy decision because you just can't know what will happen.

 

[Perris]

Just curious Perris, where was your hens' successful hatching location? Did the hens sit in the woods, in a bush, somewhere else? And where did the unsuccessful hatches happen and how early/late in the hatch were the eggs predated?

almost all my successful nests have been incubated in nest boxes in coops. Almost every hen here who has had a secret nest somewhere in the garden has had it predated - though all but one of those hens escaped the process without injury. Those I found were predated towards the end of the first week or thereabouts. The predator might take several days to consume all the eggs, so I'm guessing rats or corvids in those cases.

Several hens have tried to incubate their eggs in secret nests in hedges, in grasses, in clumps of herbaceous perennials, under the base of an oil tank, and probably some other places I never found. One managed to raise a clutch in a border backing onto the house and behind a large piece of hard plastic (which I think was aromatic and hid any revealing odours). Two have managed to incubate in an aluminium flower pot in a quiet corner, with walls behind on 2 sides and open at the top, but of a size that if the hen flattens she's only visible to something at least 2' tall. Again there is plastic in the vicinity (it's where we put the stuff for recycling) so smells may be masked, fwiw.

Once the outdoor brooded chicks hatched, in all cases I have no idea where they roosted for the next 6 weeks or more; some broodies are better than others at looking after them during those early weeks, when they are physically unable to follow a hen who forgets how small and limited they are, and flies 4' up and 4' across a border from the lawn to the terrace, for example. There is a lot to learn free ranging, and my best broodies will stay with their chicks for 3 months or more, and will get 100% or close to it to independence.

 

[Wild Iris]

... where was your hens' successful hatching location? Did the hens sit in the woods, in a bush, somewhere else? And where did the unsuccessful hatches happen and how early/late in the hatch were the eggs predated?

Also does anyone else happen to have any stories of successful outdoor broody hatches? Or unsuccessful ones?

I've had chickens for about 18 months, and free-ranged them for about half that time--so, only one spring/summer. I had two that went broody with determination (i.e. hid their eggs when they discovered I was taking them): one American Game and Old English Game Bantam. Both of them successfully raised two clutches this year. The OEGB made a nest under the workshop/shed and hatched 7; the AG made a nest underneath the lawn mower, between the workshop/shed & the garden, and hatched 6.

The AG brought her chicks to the chicken yard area on day 3. I had prepared a large dog crate in a covered place with straw in case she wanted to use it, and she chose to take them in there every evening but free-range them during the day. When they were 6-8 weeks old, a hawk killed two; the remaining 4 are doing well.

The OEGB lost 2 to a hawk on the 2nd day. Because the bantam babies were so very tiny--and the mother barely a year old--I brought them all into a sheltered dog crate for several weeks while they grew a bit. The 5 that remained are still doing well.

Both of these hatched a 2nd clutch toward the end of the summer.

The AG laid her eggs in a cat carrier on the front porch of our house. I let her stay there until it was time for them to hatch, then put the carrier into an XL, covered, dog crate. After a day or two, the mom took them out of the crate to sleep under the doghouse. After one chick was lost to a snake, she decided the dog crate was safer and she began taking them in there to sleep every night.

The OEGB chose to make her 2nd nest in a nesting box and I let her stay there.

From my limited experience, I'd say that a little luck is involved, but success is mostly due to native mom-smarts.