Posted: 11/2/2009 8:43:46 AM EDT
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There was a small flock of chickens out in the middle of the road the other day that I almost ran over. To my knowledge there are no farms around there, but they could have gotten away and been wondering around for a while. Anyway, it got me thinking. Is there a breeding population of wild chickens around like there are turkeys? |
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Have you ever been to Kauai? There are wild chickens everywhere!
http://www.govisithawaii.com/2008/07/07/why-does-kauai-have-so-many-wild-chickens/ |
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Quoted: Have you ever been to Kauai? There are wild chickens everywhere! http://www.govisithawaii.com/2008/07/07/why-does-kauai-have-so-many-wild-chickens/ No I have not. |
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What kind of chickens were they?
What did they look like? Some go feral with some degree of success, others don't. Guinea hens are a whole differerent kind of fowl, and they do roam around. The neighbor down the road has some, and we routinely see them out foraging for insects. Guinea hens are kind of plump bodied, but have a streamlined sort of head and overall teardrop shape to them, kind of like a huge quail. They are black and white speckled. |
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Quoted: What kind of chickens were they? What did they look like? Some go feral with some degree of success, others don't. Guinea hens are a whole differerent kind of fowl, and they do roam around. The neighbor down the road has some, and we routinely see them out foraging for insects. Guinea hens are kind of plump bodied, but have a streamlined sort of head and overall teardrop shape to them, kind of like a huge quail. They are black and white speckled. Didn't get a great look at them since they ran off pretty quick. They looked kind of like this though. Definitely not Guinea hens.  |
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I saw a wild rooster in Iowa once. He escaped from the poultry swap at the fairgrounds and took up residence at the neighboring golf course!
The cool thing was he hung out with a bunch of bad-assed looking alley cats and they all seemed to get along great! Some breeds of chickens are very cold hearty and good at fending for themselves. Others are completely clueless. RI reds would probably do well on their own, at least until the snow flies, when finding food could kill them. Even then they could survive nicely with access to human garbage, etc... You might also see them take up residence near other types of livestock operations under such conditions. A feedlot or dairy farm would be a great food source for them to scrounge from, and they could even breed with fair success given the proper conditions. |