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

[neo71665]

I'd suggest just finding the cheapest birds you can in your area. What you describe you wanting to try to do they won't live long anyways.

 

[All4Eggz]

What are you wanting from these semi feral chickens?? Meat? eggs? Or for looks?

@chickfused mentioned they need dual purpose breeds that are also cold and heat hardy.

Barred rocks and wyandottes are too big and slow....

You would want to have some sort of game chicken....

I thought of that, but my game birds don't have much meat on them, and don't lay much eggs. I do agree that Barred Rocks and Wyandottes are pretty slow.


A breed known to fight is an Asil. They are a fast gamey type bird that can KILL other roosters. Although they could be very heat and cold tolerant, the hens don't lay much and the roosters don't have much meat, so if a dual purpose breed is your main priority, that wouldn't be a great option.

A few more people that might be able to help:
@3KillerBs
@Everose
@21hens-incharge
@LaFleche
@ColtHandorf
@LadiesAndJane
@Isadora
@dawg53
@R2elk

 

[All4Eggz]

I dont think you are going to get something that fits all your requirements..... you will probably be able to get 2 out of 3 or 2 from 4 of your wishes..... choose the top 2 attributes and then decide on a breed.....

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

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

 

[Lenny loves chickens]

I'm in Tennessee. Summers are brutal, winters get pretty chilly. I'm looking for a flock to pretty much sustain itself on my land, no fences, but a coop to go into at night and food water supplemented for free ranging. Basically just a step above feral. Looking for meat and eggs and baby chick raising. Any suggestions for breeds to look at?

Iowa blues are know for fighting off hawks and being protectors of the chicken....if you can find a pure breed breeder

 

[Kglassmo]

We had an Indian game rooster defend our flock against wild dogs when I was a kid. He was short, stocky, robust and could still use his spurs and fly into low branches; black feathers, gold flecks for camo. Dominiques can become fairly wild when not handled enough; black & white barring helps camo, roos r big and great defenders. Guinea hens are pretty wild if you want good wandering poultry to keep a lookout (they’re loud honkers..like geese) and cleanse your property of unwanted insects. They can fly pretty high away from predators. If you want steady source of eggs, not sure how well that works with wandering hens…they will lay them all over; predators will harvest. Good luck to you.

 

[jeg1954]

I'm in Tennessee. Summers are brutal, winters get pretty chilly. I'm looking for a flock to pretty much sustain itself on my land, no fences, but a coop to go into at night and food water supplemented for free ranging. Basically just a step above feral. Looking for meat and eggs and baby chick raising. Any suggestions for breeds to look at?

I think the all time best for what you need is the (DARK CORNISH ) i have them and love them and if you try them you will too.

 

[NatJ]

You could try some of the "Indian Red Jungle Fowl" from Ideal Poultry.
No, they are not the wild type of jungle fowl, just domestic chickens that are small and look like jungle fowl.

But they can fly fairly well (for a chicken), and the hens seem to be very broody.

They are only a little bigger than bantams, but the hatchery will sell them SEXED which is almost never true of bantams. So you could get a few females and see how they do.

Be aware, Ideal lists them as laying more eggs than almost any other breed on their site, but that must be a typo or something. There is no way you can get that many eggs per year from a bird that spends so much time broody. A friend of mine has one that went broody several times last summer. She also refuses to sleep in the coop, but has so far avoided the predators that usually take chickens sleeping outside their coop.




I see people recommending Icelandic chickens, and it would certainly make sense to try some, but I have read that they are not very predator-savvy. Sorry, I can't find that particular blog again, but the author found that Icelandics on their particular farm got eaten by predators much faster than some of the other breeds they tried-- I think the Icelandics just spread out and foraged, rather than watching for predators. They guessed it was because Iceland has very few predators, so there would have been selection for foraging ability but not much for predator avoidance.

 

[ChickenLeg]

I live in tennessee and when I lived in Knoxville their was a wild flock of gametype birds that lived in south Knoxville. BBR and Silvers, I moved away in 2018 but it had been there for over a decade. Someome moved out and left their birds and they survived on their on.

I live in Jackson TN now and a friend has silver and BBR gamebirds running loose he never has penned them up, they live in bushes and trees out in Cedar Grove. Very country area with lots of predators, and hes had gamebirds since around 2010. He has to catch the extra males omce they get around 4 or 5 months old because they fight til the death on many occassions. If you can find a line of gamebirds from cackle they probably arent as fighty as others but probably are good to live out in the wild. Ive had the idea of having a light brown leghorn x bbr gamebird line that was ferel on the farm but never felt like spending the extra time and money on wild birds. Cheers

 

[Tkissane]

I'm in Tennessee. Summers are brutal, winters get pretty chilly. I'm looking for a flock to pretty much sustain itself on my land, no fences, but a coop to go into at night and food water supplemented for free ranging. Basically just a step above feral. Looking for meat and eggs and baby chick raising. Any suggestions for breeds to look at?

We let our chickens free range without fencing and the breeds that have survived at least 3 years, whether by luck or ability and also continue laying in the coop are australorp, Easter egger, and white leghorn. We had a small flock previously that was free range, no fences. When we moved the new owner kept the flock and gave updates. Australorp and Rhode Island red were still there years after we moved and still laying. The Australorp also have been broody, so I imagine they could keep the population going, though we haven't let them raise chicks so can't say for sure.

 

[jc681]

I'm in Tennessee. Summers are brutal, winters get pretty chilly. I'm looking for a flock to pretty much sustain itself on my land, no fences, but a coop to go into at night and food water supplemented for free ranging. Basically just a step above feral. Looking for meat and eggs and baby chick raising. Any suggestions for breeds to look at?

i would be very worried about predators they can virtually wipe out a flock in a night. Not to mention the horrible death and mutilation our feathered friends would go through whilst you could be sleeping.
I don’t like the sound of roosters fighting each other to toughen up either this is a form of cock fighting amongst themselves minus the money and so would be illegal here in Australia.
Could you come up with another idea whereby your feathered friends would be protected ..
Julie
Melbourne