Free range chickens

[aramis720]

I've got a new place in Orchidland and I'll be there off and on, probably with a renter when I'm not there. I'm thinking of getting a few chickens to roam around at will, with a little hutch for them to return to at night and hopefully lay some eggs. What are the pros and cons of this approach? It seems I wouldn't need to feed them or really do anything if they're free range. But are there downsides I don't know about?

[rainyjim]

Mongoose, feral and domesticated cats, roaming packs of dogs (seriously). If your property isn't fenced in these could be an issue, obviously even a fence won't slow down mongoose/cats. Other than that your plan should work out they are pretty self sufficient - they may need to be fed at their coop/roost initially so you establish its there "safe spot"/home - after they take up residence / realize its their turf then you can probably let them coast with minimal attention.

[Carey]

Before you go & do anything, check out the property for a bit, you may find that your place already has free range (feral) chickens Although jungle fowl are not as easy to deal with as domestic, the plan you have would work better for the ferals than a truly domestic breed, as even the best hand fed domestic will go more than a little wild with little to no contact or care.

[Andrew]

Depending on how much your property is landscaped will factor into the equation. I too thought a few chickens would be fun to have but they love to scratch and they turned areas of my lawn and other garden areas into a plowed up mess.

[gogould]

What comes to mind is why? Where is the positive outcome in this? At all. When you come to visit and go to the store buy a dozen eggs for three bucks.
People that do these kinds of schemes create problems that are hard to describe but easy to observe. Not all ideas are good ideas.

[unknownjulie]

Just tell the renter it's "ok" if they have chickens. Speaking of which- Do not assume good renters are easy to come by in Puna. Where are you going to be finding the "renters"? Will "the renter" have to leave when you are in town? Where will "the renter" go? You might inquire on this site about "success stories of short term renters in Puna". Maybe it's a good idea and maybe not, but I don't know enough about it. I just know that this is something I would absolutely NOT want to deal with! I think the chicken idea is only part of a larger "property management topic". I am thinking that both could be "easier said than done"- but this is just my own personal opinion.

[csgray]

We have some feral hens that hang out around our place, eat bugs and roost in a tree at the back of the property at night. They are not the problem, but the roosters they attract are. We were awakened at 1:30 this morning AGAIN by the rooster that one of the hens walked all the way to the end of our street to fetch back to the flock! This is after we had trapped and disposed of the first 3 roosters these hens had manifested.

Don't think you can have free range hens without ending up with roosters, all that squawking and crowing lets all the birds in earshot know who is where, and where the roosters are. That drive to reproduce is strong in the jungle fowl, now we need to get rid of this rooster before the super broody hens hatch some more.

Carol

[Amrita]

Free range hah! My neighbor has many fighting cocks an also hens and the resulting chicks and he lets them roam free. He has hardly any foliage and does not feed them regularly so guess what. They all come over to my garden to scratch. I'm a vegitarian and I have done catch and remove to no avail. He's of course not cooperative and I'm a bit afraid of him (he thinks of himself as an ultimate fighter) so I just live with it. OLE is not quite paradise.

[missydog1]

As Carol described, the roosters come. We had no roosters around my property for six blessed years, but when a neighbor adopted a chicken, two roosters showed up. Then they checked out my place. Then more roosters, and hens had chicks. Now the place is like a barnyard, with a half dozen or more adult roosters that crow day or night, often under the bedroom window.

I have choke mongoose here, and they donÔt bother or attack the chickens or roosters (if only). Mongoose raid nests for eggs, but that hasnÔt slowed down the chick production.

On the positive side, they eat bugs, which includes centipedes.
I donÔt have a manicured lawn, so the scratching is no biggie. It is the pigs that tear up the yard in a serious way.

The pigs donÔt seem to bother the poultry either. Everything co-exists very well. I am happy that I donÔt have a problem with roaming dogs, but that could certainly be an issue for you. Dogs will kill chickens.

I have yet to get an egg out of the poultry colonization ... []

[shave_ice]

You will have to worry about dogs if your place isn't fenced in.

The other thing to consider is that just because you have a coop for them doesn't mean they will lay in it. I let my six chickens free range and they have a nice coop, but for the longest time their favorite spot to lay was in an inaccessible place underneath the house. So we had to put chicken wire all around the bottom of the house so they couldn't get under there. I've also found eggs in various bushes and ferns around the property. They also love to come up on the lanai and poop everywhere. So now, the next project is to fence in a much smaller area attached to their coop. Their free ranging days are over.

Total free-range sounds nice, but it has its downfalls, at least in my experience.