I live in a semi-rural area (a town surrounded by country). I see (and hear) there are people in my area who are raising chickens. These chickens often are wandering freely around the neighborhood in search of food or whatever it is chickens are interested in.
I assume there are predators living in this area; foxes, bobcats, coyotes, hawks, etc., that would be happy to enjoy a chicken dinner. So why are these chickens still alive? Are they more capable at defending themselves then they appear to be? Or are they being eaten by predators on a regular basis and I’m just seeing a series of chickens being replaced by their owners as they get eaten?
Well, depends. There may more there than you think.
Surely some are gotten by predators.
Chickens (all birds really) are wiley. Their biggest defense is run, hide, fly a bit, squawk like banshees. They do have spurs. Being flogged by a chicken isn’t pleasant.
A mild predator might run at the noise. Or knowing humans might be near may make their commitment to having chicken for dinner is not likely to go well, for them.
I know that there are hawks, eagles, and owls in this area. I’ve seen them. And they swoop down from the sky and grab animals like wild mice, rabbits, and squirrels. I guess I’m just figuring if they can catch a wild mouse, rabbit, or squirrel that way, it should be even easier for them to catch a domestic chicken.
If they come home to roost. If they are ranging thru out a neighborhood and getting things to eat further a field then they may not be coming home. To be safely(?) in their coop.
(Snakes get in coops in the most astonishing ways.)
Typically, the chickens will stay close(ly) of the house and return at night. Most would be predators avoid human settlements. Bears or cougars might be a threat but a chicken is too small and fast to make a good prey.
Birds of prey generally won’t strike another bird bigger than them: chickens weight 1,5 to 2 kg. Only eagles are bigger and they give humans a wide berth.
Ferrets, mustelids and foxes are clever, stealthy and small enough to go inside the hen’s barracks to kill and eat them. In this case the farmer will put traps…and buy some chickens as replacements.
Stray cats and dogs pose the bigger threat, as they are not afraid of humans.
Dogs! Many breeds of dogs will readily take to being in charge of the chickens. I kept free range chickens for years. They will break up fights, run off predators and even fight the hawks that come down. W always had mutts and they did the job just fine.
Are you sure the chickens belong to someone? We have a part of town that has a number of “free range” chickens that sort of just live in a neighborhood (Fair Oaks). I imagine in that situation any predation is easily replaced, and moreso, if there are a few roosters among them.
I’m pretty sure the ones I see at my house belong to my neighbors. They have what appears to be a coop for the chickens to use when they’re not roaming.
In the Netherlands one study showed the Common Buzzard and Northern Goshawk were (with foxes) the most common predators on commercial free-range chickens. The most interesting thing to me is that the chickens themselves quickly joined in on cannibalizing the carcass of their downed flock-mates. Sometimes feeding at the same time as the bird of prey!
In the U.S. the quite common Cooper’s hawks are a real threat to at least bantam-sized chickens and younger birds. The female hawks at least (which are larger) tend to be natural predators of ground birds like quail, grouse, and even the occasional pheasant. Smaller chickens definitely fall into that prey range and larger ones might be more rarely targeted. If they’ll very occasionally hit a pheasant, they’ll absolutely occasionally hit a full-sized chicken and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that they do.
As for why all the chickens don’t all get eaten - well, for one thing there are a lot more chickens than there are predators. Can’t eat them all . A small backyard flock might get devastated if a single predator goes on a killing spree when it gets into a pen at night. But generally a hawk is going to just take an occasional chicken and there aren’t huge numbers in any one spot.
Similarly chickens can fly (weakly), if truly free-range will roost in trees at night like turkeys do and can be pugnacious little omnivores. They’re not helpless. After all there isn’t all that great deal of difference from their assortedwildancestors who do just fine. Here’s a video of a failed attack.
I live in a neighborhood where many people keep backyard chickens.
There are foxes and coyotes in the area. They aren’t around in the residential subdivision during the day, though. All the chickens are in a house of some kind during the night.
There are chickens killed quite regularly by coyotes and foxes. Sometimes they will kill every chicken in the place but carry off only one.
It’s sad, but circle of life and all that. The chickens after their laying days are over end up in a pot after all.
Some of these suburbanites think they want Chickens. Then they find out how much trouble, noise, smell and expense they are.
They get bored and that’s where you get ferals.
If they feel more responsibility () they gather them up and drop them off at my gate way out in the boonies.
Yeah, thanks. Appreciate the gift.
Bring your dog, next time. I need him too😐
They think that chickens are easy. Just throw some corn on the ground and you get free eggs. They eventually realize that it’s a hassle and that doesn’t even include them getting bird flu or, god help them, the bumblefoot. Once that sets in you are in a world of fucking hurt.
My guess is that there is a renewing supply of chickens (including new hatches). In some places with very mild climates like Hawaii and California, feral chickens can be self sustaining populations, if there are a lot of people around, which damps down the predator population somewhat.
In my neck of the literal woods if I left my hens out they would be eaten in a couple weeks.
I’ve been getting eggs from my neighbors in a very suburban area (15 miles from the center of Boston) for the last ten years. No one seems to be the least bit surprised by what they were getting into. If they get in over their heads, there are always eager neighbors willing to take their chickens. No need to release them into the woods. They aren’t Asian Snakehead fish.
We citified folks aren’t as dumb as you seem to think we are.
Chickens seem to lay a LOT of eggs. One a day (give or take).
Why buy chickens? Seems there is a never ending supply of free one on the assembly line. Sure it takes time to grow but not that long and if there are a few in the pipeline it seems it shouldn’t be a problem.
Do free range chickens really roam that far from home?
I buy free-range eggs (advertised as such, taking them at their word) and I think they guarantee each chicken has something like 15m^3 to “roam” in. So, they are not in a box in a warehouse and can walk about but neither are they roaming the neighborhood.
City-guy here so I really do not know and I am curious.
The ones in our neighborhood (adjacent to 200 acres of woodlands and marshland) do not go farther than one yard over from theirs. Dogs in backyards are a natural boundary.
. A small backyard flock might get devastated if a single predator goes on a killing spree when it gets into a pen at night. But generally a hawk is going to just take an occasional chicken and there aren’t huge numbers in any one spot.
) they gather them up and drop them off at my gate way out in the boonies.