Need Help

[aart]

I think you have misunderstood what a feral hen is. She is feral by breed.
Feral is not the same thing as wild.

Feral is just not living in a coop and run and mostly not being fed by people directly.
Could be any breed, correct?
Many warm climates have 'feral' chickens running around and procreating.

 

[HawaiiCoyote]

Feral is just not living in a coop and run and mostly not being fed by people directly.
Could be any breed, correct?
Many warm climates have 'feral' chickens running around and procreating.

Mhm

 

[aart]

Mhm

Is that a 'yes'....or am I misreading the tone?

 

[AprilsZoo]

Feral is just not living in a coop and run and mostly not being fed by people directly.
Could be any breed, correct?
Many warm climates have 'feral' chickens running around and procreating.

That was my understanding aart— basically mutt chickens, left to their own devices... typically unowned, uncared for.

Feral behavior is not the same in different species, that’s why I said that they will respond differently than say, a cat, to being “domesticated”.

I, too, am confused by HawaiiCoyote’s seeming agreement to your post, since to me your definition and hers are somewhat different:

I think you have misunderstood what a feral hen is. She is feral by breed.
Feral is not the same thing as wild.
It doesn't matter is she had an owner beforehand or even if she was hand-raised by someone, she's a feral hen by genetics. She lays white eggs. She has a high pitched voice and looks like a welsummer. I'm 100% positive she is a feral hen. Thanks for your input!

Her description implies any white egg laying chicken with certain visual characteristics and high-pitch voice. As likely to be owned as not.

idk if Los Angeles is known to have wild Feral populations as Hawai’i has. I think Hawai’i has had feral chickens for just about as long as people have been there. They were brought over by native islanders many, many, many generations ago. The husbandry was different than we think of today. They were allowed to do as they liked. Most stayed close because they were fed. Some were friendly. They procreated freely and the native islanders knew where to find eggs and took some as needed. While marking others to be left so new baby chicks could be born. Eventually the Feral chicken population was high, and eventually people began to cage & “keep” chickens in a different manner. Today’s keeping is different by far than the original ways.

Anyway... back to the topic— it does seem aart & HawaiiCoyote have differing definitions. And I suspect for LA, aart’s is closer to correct. (No dis to you HC— yours is correct for Hawaii.)

I think OP has a mutt chicken, resembling very closely a Hawaiian Feral chicken (capital “F”), but here we just call them mutts .

It may or may not be wild/feral (with a small “f”). From OP’s first post, it isn’t... or at least it wasn’t. But any animal that is neglected & left to its own devices for survival will revert to feral eventually. I have no idea how long it takes in chickens. Cats take a few weeks to months, depending on how socialized they were to begin with. I would guess it wouldn’t take too long for chickens... neglected ones are probably already feral even living in the owners backyard.

[Feral = breed || feral = not habituated to humans]