I posted a few video on chickens late and discussed how nature know to eat volaille and why free - ranging chickens does not work for us .
In reaction to one of them , commenter Florida Bullfrog write :
“ No no no David . I ’m going to issue you a challenge . I assert my chicken videos prove you wrong . If you ’ve lose all or most of your crybaby free ranging in a gamey predator surroundings , you ’re raising defective chickens . There are plenty of predator resistive chicken breed . Its just that the net permi / homesteading finish is ignorant of them . You ’re a victim of a modified knowledge base because many of the Youtube chicken people are n’t coming from a deep south , poor , backwoods civilization that raised complimentary range chickens for generation and lived off of them when it mattered . Do n’t appear to a hipster to learn you wimp . Look to some old man who add up from a back country farm . You already have this mentality with your horticulture . Why not your livestock ? ”
Well now . When you get a comment like that , what are you supposed to do ?
I took it as an interesting challenge , and asked him to share resources with me . He replied :
“ If you want something to read , you ’ll have to glimmer snippets from one-time books that cite wild game chickens on southerly farms , as I am not aware of any forward-looking Gallus gallus books not touch to cockfighting that reference the free reach keeping of secret plan or certain heritage breeds ( as I said the knowledge is lost on the current generation of poulet celebrities ) . For example , the Florida author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings cite her flock of tempestuous Florida plot chickens very briefly . She shoot them for the mesa just as one might burgeon forth a gaga joker , just as my nan hunted our wild game chickens around the farm to feed her family . I wo n’t stake a radio link lest the link be flag , but google Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ’ chickens and the reference will come up . What I know about how chickens were keep this mode does n’t come from anything I say , but from what I saw , having been raised by my grandparents and also being around others who all took for granted that it was normal to raise biz chickens free reach in the woods with no major human interposition . When I travel to my current Wood farm in north Florida I knew I would need game chicken like I acquire up with to survive here . It was only then that as I started looking for a flock that I realized the knowledge that bankavoid game chickens subsist feral on their own has n’t translated to the current generation of chicken gurus . That , or there ’s fear of the stigma associated with raise game breeds and cockfighting . It select me a year and a one-half of searching to find a flock that was mostly like what I grew up with . 100 years ago most rural southerly farms keep game chickens as their primary acquire crybaby . There is a destitute Holy Writ on Google Books from the late 1800s that put up a chronicle and upkeep of the Old English gamefowl , the primogenitor the American gamefowl , and throughout it take for granted the informality by which they survive devoid range . ”
Here is one of Florida Bullfrog ’s intriguing video :
He emailed me a lot more information as well :
Extreme Free-Range Chicken Resources
Florida Bullfrog continues with more resources on uttermost free - straddle :
The Old English Game Fowl: Its History, Description, Management, Breeding, and Feeding
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ Cross Creek Cookery
Other Feral Chicken Links
Meanwhile , I am still raising nub and egg chickens the hard way :
Free-Range Chickens in Alabama Story #1: Greg’s Fighting Chickens
That said , I have a couple of interesting stories of free - ambit or even ferine population of birds here in Lower Alabama . My protagonist Greg has a small flock of chickens that he started from a feral universe nearby . He recite me they were “ fighting chickens , ” and that there was a homo raising cocks for cockfighting who got in bother and his wife let all his wench go . Now they stray the Sir Henry Joseph Wood and take care of themselves . When Greg decided to put a little flock of birds in his backyard , his brother helped him by capture some of these push chickens , both hens and a rooster . Once they laid enough eggs in his backyard pen , Greg incubate a crowd of the bollock and hatch out a mess of them . He says they set “ two eggs a day , ” and are n’t mean .
Free-Range Chickens in Alabama Story #2:
On Halloween a man and his wife with a mates of young nipper came put-on - or - handle at my front door . Since we are quite rural and did n’t get any visitor last Halloween , we were unprepared for trick - or - treaters .
“ I do n’t have any candy , ” I say , “ but I do have a mulberry tree I can give you . ”
With that , I sent my girl out back to get a mulberry . The children seemed a act confused about it , but the parents just laughed and allege they ’d be happy to get a mulberry tree . I demand if they wanted some farm eggs , too .
I knew I was endure a risk here , since I ( a ) , did not give these poor people any candy , and ( b ) , was now offering to give them ammo .
The dad suppose , “ Aww no , we got great deal of farm eggs . ”
“ What birds are you raising ? ” I asked .
“ My pappa has a motley stack . ”
“ Do you keep them in a b ? ” I asked .
“ Naw , they just wander , ” he said .
Having just been tattle with Florida Bullfrog , I was now connive . We ’ve turn a loss LOTS of chickens to vulture over the years , yet here was a guy with chickens that were living in the wild and apparently raise eggs as well .
“ Can I come see them ? ” I asked , sharing further that I ’d been in a conversation with a man who was speak about JUST what his pa was doing .
“ certain , ” he said , and give me his turn .
This Saturday , I had some time , so I holler him , then maneuver our to see the chickens . They hold up possibly 15 minutes forth from us at the end of a rural road . A red stain driveway rolled up beside a country theatre with fences and outbuilding and small children playing . A fencing beside the drive held back an assortment of mixed squawk kine who were grazing contentedly on fatheaded green pasturage .
I was wave down by the human race I ’d take on on Halloween . He stood with two other men in front of an open service department . All three had backside of beer in their hands .
“ Park anywhere , ” he said , so I did , pulling up onto the grass . I was met by a orchestra pit crap pup and a grizzled English bulldog along with a babe female child with golden curls . The man I ’d met on Halloween shook my hand and inaugurate me to his dad …
… and I ’ll sharethe rest of the story in part two !
