I’m curious because I’ve been told even with a coop all it takes is one hen to decide to next outside and boom self replicating feral chicken population. And living in an area with rampant feral chickens now I’m wondering what happened in the USA, at least the areas where it is warm enough year round.
I can’t even blame people because you know that image of the rooster crowing at dawn? Yea that is a total myth, they crow at all hours and one crow will set off a wave of crows from near by roosters. You can actually hear it like a wave moving into the distance.
Lots more critters ready, willing and able to eat a wandering chicken on the mainland than on an island. I don’t think that, even 500 years after they were introduced to North America, a feral population ever had a chance to get established.
Well I was born down south on a chicken farm near Nashville, Tennessee
T’weren’t nobody there but a sky full of air, 17 billion chickens, an me
And then one day I said “hey hey hey, think I’ll drop a little LSD”
Well it blew my mind
I got real kind
And set my chickens free
And there was
Chickens in the pasture
Chickens in the barn
Chickens in the cauliflower
Chickens in the corn
Chickens driving Cadillacs to Washington DC
When I set my chickens free.
I’ve heard old-timers talk about feral chickens in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. But they only lasted a few years before being eaten to extinction by coyotes.
Where I grew up in Ohio, there’d be some feral pea and Guinea fowl from time to time. My dogs would scarf down their eggs because they’d nest in the stupidest places. And they wouldn’t survive the winter.
We have feral chickens in our yard every day from 7 to 7. Then they go back in their coop. Seriously, a lot of people just let their chickens run wild. I’ve never heard of this problem. Also, my rooster definitely crows in the morning. Occasionally, he crows during the day, but he crows every morning really early.
Most people here have trouble keeping chickens alive when they’re protected in coops. I can’t see them standing a chance out on their own.
Snakes, skunks, foxes, coyotes, cats, dogs, hawks, raccoons, possums, rats, weasels, mink, and a few jillion other predators think chicken & eggs is downright tasty.
Isn’t this more of a free range chickenset-up and not truly a feral population? My cat’s hang out in a large fenced in back yard, but I wouldn’t consider them feral. Sort of free range cats they are.
The only places I see feral chickens are around riding stables. Pea fowl and gunia hens have become well established in some of the foothill regions but not chickens. I am surprised some of the asian pheaseants besides the ring neck have not established themselves here. I imagine they will at some point.
