wild northern chickens

[phasianidae]

So this may be a little outside the box, is it possible to breed a chicken that is capable of serviving a MN or similar winter in the wild? After all, the pheasants do it.

 

[JohnGalt]

.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
I tried to do so in southern Indiana using American games along fence rows teeing into woodlots. Only invested 10 years in effort and not successfull. I did not come away with conclusion that it is impossible. Several take home points were found. The chickens as adults could fly more than well enought to avoid terrestrial predators. Red cedars provided roosting birds best cover from great horned owls. Hen coloration was not appropriate for being cryptic while brooding on leaf litter. My birds tried to breed too early. Juvenile recruitmment too low. Most adult mortality during winter with snow cover. They stuck out like sore thumbs. Red-tail hawks were main predator during winter and racoons on hens and chicks during summer. Deep snow was major barrier to feeding, they had hard time scraching down like a wild turkey. The American games were not inferior to red jungle fowl, despite latter being a stronger flier. The biggest problems I think for my birds was their behavior and coloration. Better night vision might have been helpful as well.

 

[MareeZoCool]

I cannot believe any chicken could survive living free without some type of assistance from humans; feed & water being a necessary need to supply, or offering a safe, secure habitat for roosting and nesting.

 

[centrarchid]

I also think problems in MN will be much greater than I had, especially when it comes to acquiring food from under snow cover.

The home range of such feral birds will have to be much bigger than the 1/4 square mile my pairs required.


We did have a semi-feral flock that persisted for more than 15 years along a fence row that butted into a white pine tree grove. They bred almost every year with numbers anywhere from 5 to 40 birds. They were also close to a feed meal. Same flock formed much of base by present flock is derived from. Initally flock was black breasted red with some ginger mixed in, when flock collected most where ginger with only a couple black breasted hens. Color change may have been due to selective pressure.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Go to Hawai or the Florida Keys. Feral populations thrive in those locations.

 

[chics in the sun]

Yep, they do. Big 'ol flock of 40 or so birds in Ybor city in Tampa right now, and a smaller one in the neighborhood where my parents live just south of me. Keep in mind, though, that their survival is partially supplemented by people's kitchen scraps. These are city flocks.

 

[Mahonri]

I can't imagine how pheasants do it in MN.

We have a half mile square block to the south of us where feral chickens have been living for more than 50 years.

They have become a novelty.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Pheasants have a very different set of behaviors. Despite that, they could not persist as well as my games in southern Indiana.


Yes, feral flocks in several southern population centers. Many I think would quickly collapse if people quite introducting new birds. Many feral flocks not self sustaining, especially when based on the more "selectively modified" breeds.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

What is it, genetically, that allows certain birds such as the Ptarmigan to have seasonal color changes? What kind of weird genetic modification work would you have to do to get that into a chicken?

I think it would be possible for birds to be hardy enough, and possibly pretty wise to predators...but they would have it so much easier if they could at least blend in to their surroundings.

I also find it interesting that Ptarmigan have feathered feet, as that is something I am told again and again to avoid...??