Feral Domestic Chickens

[ErlyRisa]

Do Domestic chickens, if given the chance go feral? What would happen? Can they go back to the wild? How would it effect ecosystems (Forests with worms/seed)? Would foxes become abundant? Would Foxes/Cats stop hunting native Fauna (Chickens tasty easy prey, especially if abundant)? What would the equilibrium be...would chickens take over the forest, or would they be quite minimal? Is it even possible (The domestic Chicken seems to like human companionship - the Domsetic Chicken is aided by human rearing)? How many Roosters would you need to start the ball rolling? Would the females need huts to start them off because the males have forgotten how too provide? There is actually corelation to this scenario and humans/apes/chimps...Western Humans have lost the ability/social setup for normal bush survival, what would happen? Would you have just one "Rooster" / Silver Back, or is it that males just leave females behind to tend to the egg laying as they(males) go for a yonder to find the next precipous?

[Logical]

Domestic chickens do go feral. There is actually quite a problem with feral chickens in Key West, Florida. I can attest based on first hand experience that a feral rooster WILL protect his hens and he is very good at it.

[labelwench]

I have raised egg layers several times and based on my experience in this region(Southwest Yukon),the egg laying breeds would have a very slim chance of survival in this climate because of the cold, scarcity of feed in the winter and numerous hungry predators. There are a few people who have raised pheasants in this area and those birds would have far less difficulty in eluding predators, at the least. The biggest problem for people raising pheasants up here was keeping them contained for the require more space than the egg layers.

 

In a milder climate, I can see the possibility of several domestic breeds surviving because they are omnivores and even a slightly warmer climate offers more diversity of food and shelter for the birds, which are quite a bit more clever than many people credit them. There would be significant losses but birds can rear more than one clutch in a year.

[Ahmabeliever]

A ban on domestic roosters would help prevent them (chicken species entire) going feral. So egg layers are allowed - but no roosters. This makes it difficult however for self sustaining flocks.So... licences for roosters only might help. Communities have some folks who supply fresh laying birds, and these folks alone have the roosters. 

Where birds go feral it could easily change an ecosystem. In New Zealand, where we didn't even have mammals, most of the larger birds are extinct or at least functionally extinct. I think chickens could in part replace the Weka we used to have everywhere. But what was hunting the Weka? - Giant eagles... We have lost them too. Wild pigs perhaps (another introduced pest) might keep the numbers down, or eventually a balance obtained as they limit their own food sources. I imagine they'd force various plants into extinction due to their preference for fresh young shoots, and these extinctions would perturb the entire trophic web. 

We'd see changes from the microscopic right through to the macroscopic, what these changes will be is merely conjecture at this point. Go observe some feral populations - read historic documentation of the biology/ecology of the area and compare.

 

[Allanah]

I’ve never seen feral chickens in the area I live in. I do find it interesting to hear that they are a problem in other areas. As someone else said, regulations with roosters might help this issue.