Feral Chickens

[bugmankeith]

I was wondering in the U.S., what States can feral chickens survive in? I heard there were some in Brooklyn, NY, but was wondering if Long Island, NY has ever had them? Being the NYC is littered with trash/food and plenty of warm places to hide, I can see how they survive there with lots of food, but around here there is only food in garbage cans or wooded areas in parks and such and I think a chicken would be unable to hide for long.

I've known people who owned chickens on LI, even had a male peacock fly in my yard once. But I thought the cold Winters would spell doom for feral/escaped chickens, especially since they cant fly to move to new areas for food. Can they eat bugs on the ground and survive on a wild diet? Again, in Winter there is little to peck on.

 

[BQC123]

In NW Pennsylvania we get enough snow and cold that I don't believe it would be possible. Our occasional escapees would get frostbite, and could not find food through the snow. They become easy targets for predators who are adapted to these conditions. In harsh weather an escapee would be caught quickly, or be our next chicken dinner to prevent suffering.
Pheasants are stocked every year for hunting, but rarely survive. There is no sustainable breeding population here because the winters are too harsh.
Your weather may not be as bad, but I imagine results would be similar.

 

[Lucas339]

in fort pierce there is a population of chickens that has been around for many years. there is also a guy that has a large collection of peacocks that lives in the cityish areas of fort pierce (i say cityish because fort pierce is tiny) and they get out and stop traffic all the time.

 

[bugmankeith]

The coldest it has gotten here was 5- I think, but that was once or twice in my whole life, average coldest is 10 or 5 F in the coldest of Winter, but not everyday and that's mostly at that low at night only. The most snow we've had is 3 feet, but that will start to melt after a day or two and in wooded areas it will be less. We usually get 5-10 inches of snow on average. This past year we had 3 bad storms, but that is rare.

 

[kevin91172]

I was wondering in the U.S., what States can feral chickens survive in? I heard there were some in Brooklyn, NY, but was wondering if Long Island, NY has ever had them? Being the NYC is littered with trash/food and plenty of warm places to hide, I can see how they survive there with lots of food, but around here there is only food in garbage cans or wooded areas in parks and such and I think a chicken would be unable to hide for long.

I've known people who owned chickens on LI, even had a male peacock fly in my yard once. But I thought the cold Winters would spell doom for feral/escaped chickens, especially since they cant fly to move to new areas for food. Can they eat bugs on the ground and survive on a wild diet? Again, in Winter there is little to peck on.

Not to proud of it now....but i USED TO RAISE AND FIGHT GAME COCKS

All the hens rosters i culled that were not up to par I turned loose in the river bottom I live close to and they did fine,must breeders just cut off their heads off,but I did not agree now and why I got out of this blood sport
but game chickens went feral really quick...

Used to be legal fighting them in Louisiana but now outlawed..so now i got back into T's and reptiles

 

[bugmankeith]

Most of you are from the South, I know they can live there, I am asking about New York. Still, interesting to hear stories about then.