Hi, everyone. I was so pleased to find a site that answered questions about chicken's trilling. I am new to chickens. All my chickens (and there are at least 25) are feral. They just showed up one day. Nine of them...adolescents. I was charmed by them and started feeding them and they have grown up and had babies (tooo cute for words...and that peeping...who could ever resist it??) Someone culled the original nine....there were five roosters among them (they are considered a nuisance by some people). Two of the remaining three girls had babies. And now those babies are grown or almost grown. From all of these, I have found exactly ONE egg...lying under a tree. All these chickens live in the trees at night. I finally stopped feeding them (mostly) because now they terrorize the cats (can you imagine??) Even the dog is a bit intimidated. They became a hassle around feeding time for the horses. I have two horses. My main concern now is my little guy (I think he's a guy because is comb is getting pronounced). I had seen him trailing along behind his brood mates with a bit of a limp. I worried about him. Then one day I found him in the barn, huddled up against the tack room door. I took him inside, fed him, kept him warm, took him to the vet (it's not easy to find a vet that will see a chicken...anybody else have that problem?) He said he was malnourished and had been wounded but that he should recover if I fed him and kept him away from the bullies. Well, that was a month ago. And he has gotten strong but he is still much smaller than his broodmates ( is that what you call them?). So I have him outside in a cage I made (4 feet by 4 feet) so he can see his others of his kind and yet be protected from the bullies. At night I bring him in the house and he has the guest bedroom (how many of you think I am nuts??) in which to stay warm and safe. I went him to re-integrate with the gang but I am not a bird person and am just playing this whole thing by my heart's ear. If anyone gets all the way to the end of this post and has any advice, direction, experience to share, I would sure love it. Thanks! Mahalo!
Aloha and from Twentynine Palms! You'll find a lot of friendly folks here with plenty to share! We moved here 3 yrs ago from Oahu!! Watch out for the mongoose!! Don't know much about feral chickens, but I'm sure someone here will have all the info you need!
Welcome to BYC! I love reading the stories about the feral chickens on here! My advice is that you are doing exactly the right thing by having him in a pen where he can grow strong and watch the other chickens and they can watch him. They will all stay bonded. When you think he is strong enough to be on his own, release him and see how things go. Just be ready to rescue him if the head roo gets too aggresive. I really don't there will be a problem. Hopefully you will get more advice!
Aloha! I am new just today too! I would say you have been bitten. It's like people who don't like cats but everywhere they go, cats find them. They force you to love them. It's best just to surrender and go with the flow. You have officially been suckered in to the chickenlovingworld. I don't think you are crazy but Maui is not a cold place so... However, I do think their diet should always be supplemented with organic foods or at least as organic as possible and no meat, salt, sugar, oil. You may also want to treat them for mites and worms on occasion as well as, supplement them with vitamins. It's really inexpensive as far as having animals goes. I guess nobody needs to tell you that since you have horses. I rest my case. Keep up the good work doll, CM9
