What's the best breed to let run semi-feral?

[Iluveggers]

I was going to suggest brown leghorns would be a good choice. Better than white due to the camouflage.

 

[sekeyslaks]

A lot of people are recommending light breeds that would be great in your area that is true enough.I live in Tennessee too though and I have some Ancona’s and they are surprisingly amazing in winter weather,unlike my Andalusian’s who shiver in the first Fall breeze! But keep in mind that Light breeds have a tendency to roost in trees at night and LOVE to wander and forage.Darker colored birds won’t just be hard for predators to see but you too!Imagine trying to find a Black chicken at night,roosting in a tree.I speak from personal experience!! I find my Easter Egger’s or EE’s mixed with heavy breeds do the best in our weather.

 

[FolkSonginC]

Hamburgs are great for this purpose. I had a very nice hamburg hen named Goose who was an extremely talented flyer, and very small and light so she was built for it. Very active and aware of threats, at night she would fly up into the pine trees on her own (very high up from the ground) and then climb all the way to the top, and she was always safe from predators there. It was actually me locking her up at night that did her in when a raccoon found a way into the coop.

But she essentially lived just like you're describing, I had a coop and pen for her but she always found a way out of the pen and wandered about during the day, I hardly ever fed her except in the winter, and that's because I'm in Maine. She just wasn't interested, I would put the food out but she would just fly off and go about her business for the day foraging. And she layed a medium sized white egg nearly every day. I imagine hamburgs would be perfect for you. (not as relevant, but I think gold penciled is the nicest variety)

 

[FolkSonginC]

A lot of people are recommending light breeds that would be great in your area that is true enough.I live in Tennessee too though and I have some Ancona’s and they are surprisingly amazing in winter weather,unlike my Andalusian’s who shiver in the first Fall breeze! But keep in mind that Light breeds have a tendency to roost in trees at night and LOVE to wander and forage.Darker colored birds won’t just be hard for predators to see but you too!Imagine trying to find a Black chicken at night,roosting in a tree.I speak from personal experience!! I find my Easter Egger’s or EE’s mixed with heavy breeds do the best in our weather.

I honestly don't see a problem with roosting in trees, especially if they want a semi-feral bird. My light breeds have always alternated between coop and trees, and I always felt they were perfectly safe when they chose to roost in the trees. They go very high up. Never had any problems with cold either and that's with Maine winters.

 

[Mrs. K]

Birds are only part of this equation. A lot is going to depend on your predators. Almost every place has predators, some worse than others.

For daytime predators - I have had fair luck with a good rooster. Not all roosters are good roosters, you want one that sees you first when you approach the flock, that keeps an eye on his girls. A rooster is really not much good until he is close to a year old, and some never get good.

If you get hit by predators- they will be back. Many people have been picked off faster than having a broody hen bring in chicks to counter the loss.

If you do get it balanced right, your egg production will probably be a bit less, but if you have enough birds, it may not be an issue.

Some people think brown camouflaged birds are best, but others have said, they look more like natural prey, and predators pick them off more so than the white birds. I have lost all colors to predators, with no color being better than the other.

Personally - I think you could probably get eggs from them, but I don't think you will get much meat. The predators will get that.

Mrs K

 

[sekeyslaks]

I honestly don't see a problem with roosting in trees, especially if they want a semi-feral bird. My light breeds have always alternated between coop and trees, and I always felt they were perfectly safe when they chose to roost in the trees. They go very high up. Never had any problems with cold either and that's with Maine winters.

Well we have a Lot of predators here,our chickens would never last longer than a week out at night! We're surrounded on all sides by coyote's if the snakes,raccoons,possums,skunks,and minks don't get them first.It's better safe than sorry in my opinion,it only takes one time for the whole flock to be decimated.

 

[micstrachan]

I would have said Brown Leghorn because of their flightiness, but they don’t have much meat and aren’t particularly good in the cold. What about Australorps? I’ve only had two so far, but they were excellent foragers, great layers and carried some meat. Nowhere near as fast as Leghorns, but not super slow in my (limited) experience, either.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Naked Neck Turkens might be good. They can be very defensive although mine have always been loves they will stand up to a cat and I even found a large rat dead in the run one evening. I only had one turken at the time so can't say for sure it was her but my other birds were nowhere near as fiesty.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Yes. Lower your expectations. Now lower them some more. Disappointed yet? Lower them even further.

Modern birds have been bred to be larger, lay more frequently, and often grow faster than their counterparts of even a hundred years ago. The consequences of all that breeding is that they are far more dependent upon us, and far more dependent upon a nutritionally complete modern feed/diet to perform.

Ancient breeds - jungle fowl - aren't particularly well suited to your climate, but free range extremely well (in their native conditions). They are also tough, not particularly meaty, lay only rarely, and not large eggs at that. Oh yeah, and free ranging means that they are likely to lay eggs all kinds of places you won't find them.

I'm in Fl, USDA Growing zone 8a - while occasionally hotter, I have a longer growing season than you do, a milder winter, and average 1" of rain+ weekly. I'm also on flatter ground than you likely enjoy in NC. You can see my efforts to create a free ranging birds suitable for local conditions, here. and you can see (incomplete) my efforts to bend my feed curve with a biodiverse polyculture, here. Tl;dr - a year of non-stop breeding and frequent culling has provided a couple misses which qualify as forward progress, and one hopefull. I should be pretty close to "there" in four to six years, at the current rate. ...and free ranging saves me 15-35% (seasonally dependant) on my feed costs, but also means that, at any given weight, my birds are more flavorful, have more chew, and took longer to arrive at weight than a similar bird raised in more conventional (coop and run, free feeding) conditions.

I have SLW. They are predator aware, a bit flighty, better free rangers than some of my others. I like them - smart birds. They also take 7 months to maturity, lay eggs maybe three days out of five, and the eggs are medium, sometimes medium-large, almost never large. Bigger than my purpose-built Comets (an RSL-type), the hens still only weigh 4.5-5# and took half a year to get there. SLW, BTW, were bred roughly 100+ years ago as an improvement upon the dual purpose breed, Brahma - which are (eventually) big birds, buit does it ever take forever for them to get there - and they lay no better than SLW, either.

People are breeding "Ranger" lines for improved meat on carcass, decent free ranging ability, and faster growth - but the very impressive numbers coming out of the best of those lines are still coming from very traditional management practices - not turning them loose, offering some feed, and engaging in magic ritual with hopes of success. "Fingers Crossed" is rarely a successful strategy, and never reliable, year over year. Neither is "hope and prayer", "a wing and a prayer", "blood for the blood god", or any other similar practice.

Modern birds were bred on the altar of technology. If you want them to perform at anything like their potential, you need to continue to sacrifice upon the altar of technology. If, instead, you wish to return to ancient roots, and ancient levels of performance - start a culling project, and prepare yourself for Bene Gesserit levels of patience in the creation of your Kwisatz Haderach.

Extra points for the very appropriate and descriptive Dune reference.

 

[chickfused]

You will probably find that mutts will be your best option...... get 4 or 5 different breeds and let them loose ..... you will soon find out which are better suited to your environment

This is pretty much what I was thinking of doing, and letting nature do the culling for me. I've got a flock of 2 roos and 8 pullets right now that are pretty much in this realm. I bought a whole bunch of different birds and have some observations which could be helpful:

My "Ranger" chicken was the first to get eaten by a predator (dog). She was absolutely huge, and unfortunately, very slow. Don't be the slowest chicken y'all. She was also very docile, and laid every day from the time she was 21 weeks old. She was also shaping up to be a great mom, and foraged like a queen. She was not at all heat tolerant, and I didn't expect her natural lifespan to be more than 2-3 years. She would have stroked out or died of a heart attack. She'd pant at 72 degrees. I will buy more of these to raise for meat, but not as a flock foundation.

The dog attacks have resulted in several of my other breeds showing some predator savvy behavior. My Ancona made a beeline for the coop and went right in the dogproof door. My Crevecouer roo was in a tree (which, good for him, but he failed at his actual job), my Blue Andalusian was also in a tree. Everyone else scattered which meant the dog could only chase one at a time, which is also fairly savvy behavior in it's own way.

I would imagine their main priority would be "semi-feral" breeds, as they will not have boundaries to protect the chickens from predators.

This. I just don't have the ability to pen them and the land is bountiful chicken habitat. They have a coop to go in, and there's water and food in it for winter and night time predator protection. They always go in to sleep, but otherwise just roam around.

I would recommend getting flightier breeds, such as leghorns. Google also mentions Anconas, Fayoumis, and Araucanas. Birds that are prone to flying can escape much better from predators. Though it is not guaranteed that all the birds from those breeds will be flighty, there is more of a chance that they will be compared to other breeds. I would also look for breeds that are good foragers.

Leghorns are really starting to sound like they might be the way to go. I was talking to a local friend and she mentioned them too.

You can see my efforts to create a free ranging birds suitable for local conditions, here. and you can see (incomplete) my efforts to bend my feed curve with a biodiverse polyculture, here. Tl;dr - a year of non-stop breeding and frequent culling has provided a couple misses which qualify as forward progress, and one hopefull. I should be pretty close to "there" in four to six years, at the current rate. ...and free ranging saves me 15-35% (seasonally dependant) on my feed costs, but also means that, at any given weight, my birds are more flavorful, have more chew, and took longer to arrive at weight than a similar bird raised in more conventional (coop and run, free feeding) conditions.

Absolutely fantastic project and info. Thanks for sharing! I may join you in this effort.

Darker colored birds won’t just be hard for predators to see but you too!Imagine trying to find a Black chicken at night,roosting in a tree.I speak from personal experience!!

Hah! I've definitely had to find my black roo a time or two when he missed the automatic night time coop door closing. In the rain. In the pitch black.

If you do get it balanced right, your egg production will probably be a bit less, but if you have enough birds, it may not be an issue.

Honestly, I think I need about 2-3 times as many chickens as I have and just let nature take it's course. My coop isn't big enough to sleep that many though. I could probably fit about 4-6 more in there with enough room for them to sleep. It's 6 x 12.

Thanks everyone! Lots of stuff to think about!