Chickens in nature

[skeeeter]

Way to go!!
I, looking at your pics, noticed more grays than browns in the landscape.. (I grew up in Fl )
Just wanted to ask if you've considered hen (and chick)colors in your scheme. Would having mostly gray feathers be an advantage to survival(prosperity) in your neck o' the woods, all other conditions being equal?
Just a thought.
cheers!

 

[No Coop No Problem]

I, looking at your pics, noticed more grays than browns in the landscape.. (I grew up in Fl )
Just wanted to ask if you've considered hen (and chick)colors in your scheme. Would having mostly gray feathers be an advantage to survival(prosperity) in your neck o' the woods, all other conditions being equal?

I think you're right about the landscape. Gray is a color I would like to see added, but for some reason blue chicks never make it to adulthood here. I've only ever had three hatch in all the years, but they alone were picked off and their black siblings lived

Animals see different colors than we do, I think mammalian predators see in black and white, and birds see all colors and also into the UV spectrum. Maybe there's something regarding camoflage I'm unaware of

Blue wheaten would probably be a good addition. The chicks don't come out blue

 

[skeeeter]

I was thinking more on the lines of silver gray, fayoumis, dark brahmas coloring.
"Blue" chickens seem to stick out just like white ones do.. unless you have some similar colored foliage.
Whitish chickens, not so much.
We've got that green and white varigated arrowleaf vine here as groundcover, and..... lo and behold! white chickens and geese use it for camoflage! One hen stole a nest in there, and we didn't find it til she'd brought off the chicks!
No predators (stray dogs& cats included)did either.

 

[Chicken_Obsesser]

I'm making this thread to show people that chickens can do fine in more natural settings. My chickens are completely organic, live outside 24/7 and sleep in trees. They spend most of their time running around the forest and swamp, existing around countless different types of wild animals

I don't think the gamefowl need me at all, but the production chickens do. Keeping a semi-feral flock is a balancing act of these two genepools- survivors and producers. Currently I'm aiming for 3/4th dual-purpose, 1/4th gamefowl (dunghill) mutts that are camoflaged with the environment. I believe this is the optimal balance for my set-up to keep food on the table

Here's an assortment of pictures since I began keeping chickens, going roughly from old to new. It's been a long journey and I've learned much over the years:
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Credit to my wife for taking most of the good pictures here. Also my LGD deserves credit for making this all much easier. I did this for a year and a half without a dog, which was much more stressful
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I'll post more in the future

I just have to say I love this so much...I wish my chickens could live like this. This beautiful bird here is my favorite.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

I was thinking more on the lines of silver gray, fayoumis, dark brahmas coloring.

I'm far from an expert on chicken color terms but I think that's "birchen"

Reflecting on it now I think my pictures are also heavily biased. Gamefowl and game mutts are more common here than fat production chickens, but they're much harder to photograph. Similarly I have a lot of dense red swamp here, but that's hard for me to go into. So my pictures are mostly of the few open areas

Down in the swamp my two birchen chickens are much more obvious than the red and brown ones

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I just have to say I love this so much...I wish my chickens could live like this. This beautiful bird here is my favorite.

Thank you. That's a half RIR that inherited the blue wheaten effect from it's Cubalaya father

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Gonna try growing bahiagrass and clover here this year, chickens willing

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Successful hatch from my Asil in an outdoor nesting box

 

[WingItRanch]

Successful hatch from my Asil in an outdoor nesting box
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That's great! Also, terrifying. I wouldn't go near that mother hen!

 

[Bockbockbaboq]

Is that a yellow lab? We have a choco. He is no guard dog. Lol. We love him. He is great to pet and talk to and love on.

I love the photos. My chickens, we tried to free range, it didn't work, but I love that yours are free. (Our neighbors are more vicious than their dogs, and they are training their dogs to attack me and my family.)

 

[No Coop No Problem]

That's great! Also, terrifying. I wouldn't go near that mother hen!

She's actually incredibly sweet and allows full handling of both herself and her young with zero difficulty. I wish all my hens were as nice as her

Is that a yellow lab? We have a choco. He is no guard dog. Lol. We love him. He is great to pet and talk to and love on.

I love the photos. My chickens, we tried to free range, it didn't work, but I love that yours are free. (Our neighbors are more vicious than their dogs, and they are training their dogs to attack me and my family.)

She's actually a Central Asian Shepherd, though I can see the resemblance a bit. Sorry to hear that about your neighbors, that sounds like hell