Free-Range Survival Chickens by Florida Bullfrog

Happy Monday!

I am very pleased to announce a brand-new book by "Florida Bullfrog." He has worked for years to recreate the survival chicken breeds of the past. Birds that can free-range in high predator environments without being locked in a coop. After multiple years of work, we were able to publish his new book Free-Range Survival Chickens. It's changed the way I look at birds! He told me, "if you're losing your flocks to predators, you have the wrong chickens!"

It's a fascinating book, and very useful for anyone who wants to raise birds that can survive and thrive without factory food, expensive coops, etc.

Free Range Survival Chickens

Very glad to see him write this book. It's definitely needed right now. You can find it on Amazon, or order it from your local bookseller.

If anyone has questions, ask away. I hope to post an interview with him on YT soon.

-David

Talking with the author:

My copy arrived yesterday. I can't say whether it's a good book yet, but I'm very enthusiastic about the topic! Thanks for getting it out there.

I received this book and read it over a few days. There is a lot to consider in the book that you won't find in many "coop chicken" books. I was mainly interested to read about how the author dealt with protecting his garden.

When any of my chickens get out of whatever location I am keeping them in, they are going directly to the garden area. The author states that he has poor soil conditions and so any gardening is intensive and therefore in small areas, such as raised beds, which are easily fenced around. Our garden areas are not currently fenced in.

My takeaway from reading the book was that I (maybe you depending on your situation) have the following 3 options:

1-Fence the chickens
2-Fence the garden
3-Move the garden far away from the chickens or vice versa

This is if you are deciding to range the chickens in the way the book is written, with very little human input. You could clip wings, use electric poultry netting, etc. but that is not what the author is mainly proposing.

Decisions, decisions. Regardless of what we experiment with or try, I am glad to have read this book and intend to keep it and read again. I plan to always keep it along with the other chicken reference book I have as we experiment.

I would recommend this book to anyone considering chicken keeping or rethinking your chicken keeping style. It is really a fascinating read with a ton of information about the history of the chicken and different breeds and how we got to where we are today. Along with a lot of other very useful information.

I have just purchased this book, I'm eager to read it and put together a review here in the coming weeks.

My friends visited one of the Caribbean Islands, and the chickens were all "wild" there, and there were prohibitions again human interference with them, as they were considered an extremely valuable, organic, insect control.  However, I don't know enough to know what sort of non-human predators the chickens had to deal with.

I myself visited Kawaii Island over a decade ago. There were plenty of relatively small chickens naturalized and reproducing despite some predators and again, Humans were at least expected to leave them be and try not to run them over in parking lots etc. However, I was told that these chickens became wild after backyard "cock-fighting" flocks were released by a significant typhoon hitting the Island some time before my visit, so these chickens both had a leg up in self-defense before being free-ranged, and had already spent time adapting to existing threats.

One thing I'm aware of from my own homestead is that our ducks and geese that are hatched and raised by "real moms," (in our case, we have to use Muscovy moms, as our Khaki Campbell ducks and our largely Emden geese, have had mothering bred out of them to a large extent) are safer out loose for at least short periods. I would need a *much* better set-up of paddock areas with good hidey holes and plant cover to go further, as our aerial predator pressure is significant.

I have not read the book, but I am suspicious that Livestock Guardian Dogs might also be an important factor, however, the chickens my friend saw and the ones I saw were independent of that protection also. They were in a climate that likely provided them with good access to wild food year-round.

I have chickens for two primary reasons, making soil (compost) and for eggs.  It seems to me that this would negate both of those things.  

Jay Angler wrote:

I have not read the book, but I am suspicious that Livestock Guardian Dogs might also be an important factor, however, the chickens my friend saw and the ones I saw were independent of that protection also. They were in a climate that likely provided them with good access to wild food year-round.

Jay, it is funny you mentioned this. He says, for some reason, his dog does not mind eagles. He said he has watched his dog, watch an eagle eat a chicken 30 yards away and continued to lay on the ground.

Trace Oswald wrote:I have chickens for two primary reasons, making soil (compost) and for eggs.  It seems to me that this would negate both of those things.  

Trace, he goes through some historical instances of coop chickens and their demise.

I believe his premise would be; what happens when you can't get store bought feed anymore and have to open the coop for the chickens to get some of their diet themselves.

I give this book 8 out of 10 acorns.

This book is not for your average chicken tender. This book takes a look at genetics, historical raising of chickens, local environmental considerations, and relooking at our current relationship with poultry. This book has valuable tidbits for all keepers of chickens, but would be of specific interest to those who want to work on landraceing hearty mostly self sufficient flocks on acreage. From tall and strong birds to small and nimble, there are a myriad of traits that can be bred for in chickens that can give them an edge over predation.

Do you wonder how modern chickens have turned out they way they are? Do you know why and how they were bred the way they were? Do you wonder what chickens COULD look like if they were bred for purposes other than eggs and meat? I would recommend getting this book.

Trace Oswald wrote:I have chickens for two primary reasons, making soil (compost) and for eggs.  It seems to me that this would negate both of those things.  

I've never used a coop and I have a profound abundance of eggs. All domestic breeds and most landraces will prefer to lay their eggs in areas where they feel safe, which typically means near humans because they deter predators

My own chickens lay their eggs here in the morning in some nests I made, just feet from my front door, before they go wandering off into the forest throughout the day. Then they come home at dusk to roost in trees next to my house. It's a profoundly simple operation

In fact I suspect this free-ranging is closer to how chickens were used for the majority of their 10,000 year history with humans. It's imprisoning chickens into cages and breeding all vigor and survival instincts out of them that's new

The era of industrial farming has erased much knowledge from humanity, particularly so in the first world

Josh Hoffman wrote:My takeaway from reading the book was that I have the following 3 options:

1-Fence the chickens
2-Fence the garden
3-Move the garden far away from the chickens or vice versa  

There's a fourth option, which is to garden with plants that chickens wont bother. Many plants are inedible to them for one reason or another, such as the texture or flavor. As just one example, I have a large garden of prickly pears that the chickens will never bother in the slightest

Van Das wrote:
My own chickens lay their eggs here in the morning in some nests I made, just feet from my front door, before they go wandering off into the forest throughout the day. Then they come home at dusk to roost in trees next to my house. It's a profoundly simple operation

In fact I suspect this free-ranging is closer to how chickens were used for the majority of their 10,000 year history with humans. It's imprisoning chickens into cages and breeding all vigor and survival instincts out of them that's new

Van, welcome to Permies! I'm glad to hear that this more natural way to keep chickens is working out for you.

Van Das wrote:

Trace Oswald wrote:I have chickens for two primary reasons, making soil (compost) and for eggs.  It seems to me that this would negate both of those things.  

I've never used a coop and I have a profound abundance of eggs. All domestic breeds and most landraces will prefer to lay their eggs in areas where they feel safe, which typically means near humans because they deter predators

My own chickens lay their eggs here in the morning in some nests I made, just feet from my front door, before they go wandering off into the forest throughout the day. Then they come home at dusk to roost in trees next to my house. It's a profoundly simple operation

In fact I suspect this free-ranging is closer to how chickens were used for the majority of their 10,000 year history with humans. It's imprisoning chickens into cages and breeding all vigor and survival instincts out of them that's new

The era of industrial farming has erased much knowledge from humanity, particularly so in the first world

Josh Hoffman wrote:My takeaway from reading the book was that I have the following 3 options:

1-Fence the chickens
2-Fence the garden
3-Move the garden far away from the chickens or vice versa  

There's a fourth option, which is to garden with plants that chickens wont bother. Many plants are inedible to them for one reason or another, such as the texture or flavor. As just one example, I have a large garden of prickly pears that the chickens will never bother in the slightest

When I first got chickens, I free ranged them 100% on my two acres.  They roosted in the trees like yours, but I didn't have the same luck with the eggs you have.  Mine would lay them in any old random spot.  Once I found the laying spot, I could get their eggs because they did use the same spot over and over.  Unfortunately, the raccoons and skunks figured out where the spots were too.  I lost some birds to raccoons because it turns out, raccoons don't have any problem climbing trees to get your chickens.   I didn't like that, so I bought a small building at an auction and turned it into a coop.  I would lock them up at night, and let them free range during the day.  That fixed the egg issue, because they would lay in the nest boxes.  I lost less to raccoons, but they still got some during the times the chickens were out loose.  

After I had the coop, and they were still out free ranging during the day, they wandered into the road.  Someone ran over a bunch of them at once.  I lost about 2 dozen more over the first year to raccoons and coyotes.  I found the losses to be unacceptable, so I built them a run.  They were much safer after that and I didn't lose any more to predators or cars.

I'm on a new property now.  I built them a coop that is 8'x16', so I personally don't consider it locking them in a cage.  I also built them a run.  It's 40' by 30', so again, I don't feel like they are overly restricted.  I have berry bushes and a mature apple tree growing in their run.  I dump at least 2 or 3 wheel barrow loads of greens a week into their run , usually comfrey, nettles, giant ragweed (which is their favorite), grass, dandelion, and clover clippings and whatever kitchen scraps we have. I have a large (approx 10') compost ring in the run for them to dig in.  They have a dust bathing area that is about 8'x8'.  I give them run of my fenced gardens and my approx 1 acre food forest, but that is only in the fall to help me clean up.  Are they more restricted than if they were free range?  Absolutely.  Are they being deprived?  I don't think so.  Are they safer than when they free ranged?  No question.  

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that there is a huge amount of variation between 100% free range, and industrial farming and living in cages.  Maybe free range works for you, as well as for the book's author.  It probably works for other people as well.  In my situation, with high predator pressure, it's a disaster.  Could I spend years breeding specifically to breed chickens that could fight off predators?  I think a person could breed chickens that did better than the current ones, but I don't believe people can breed chickens that can ward off a coyote attack.  Put the best game cock in the world up against a coyote or a big raccoon, my money isn't on the bird.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Even if I could breed birds like that, what would I give up in the process?  Pretty much all domestication I would think, and I personally like to interact with my chickens.  I think they are a blast to watch, and I love it when they coming running when they see me.  In addition to that, a major goal is having my chickens create compost for my gardens. Free ranging simply can't work for that.  

"too long, didn't read"/ Individual circumstances are everything in permaculture and I don't think there is a one size fits all solution to any of it.

Van Das wrote:

Josh Hoffman wrote:My takeaway from reading the book was that I have the following 3 options:

1-Fence the chickens
2-Fence the garden
3-Move the garden far away from the chickens or vice versa  

There's a fourth option, which is to garden with plants that chickens wont bother. Many plants are inedible to them for one reason or another, such as the texture or flavor. As just one example, I have a large garden of prickly pears that the chickens will never bother in the slightest

There are, more than likely, even more options. I limited it to what the author presented in the book.

Part of the premise of the book (included in the title) is what would happen if SHTF and you could not get feed? For our family, we would eat our chickens, and rely on gardening, foraging and hunting.

I like the chickens and eggs but mainly use them as a source for great compost. If they were not here, I would forage the compost from the floor of the surrounding forests if I needed it. The more established the garden gets, the less we need due to the many green manures such as comfrey that we have growing.

This year, our garden is almost entirely volunteers that I let go to seed, or put under the wood chips, or brought when I added the chicken compost to the garden area.

Trace Oswald wrote:Could I spend years breeding specifically to breed chickens that could fight off predators?  I think a person could breed chickens that did better than the current ones, but I don't believe people can breed chickens that can ward off a coyote attack.  Put the best game cock in the world up against a coyote or a big raccoon, my money isn't on the bird.  

There are already essentially a number of perfect survival chickens out there. Mostly gamefowl and landraces. However it's not necessary that any chicken can beat up a dog or any other predator, but merely that they can disengage tactfully. Sometimes this does entail fighting, but usually that's the exception and not the rule

Over my years with chickens I've only witnessed a handful of predator fights, and not in a single instance has a chicken been injured. The most poignant example I can recall is an American Game hen fleeing from a fox with her babies, then she suddenly spun around and tackled the fox in the face. This surprised the predator enough that her babies made it through my perimeter fence just fine and then she flew over as well. The entire scene lasted mere seconds

Berserker chickens fighting to the death against significantly larger animals is completely non-essential. My chickens fly away when they encounter predators, and they fight if required only until the opportunity to get away presents itself. The former event (fleeing) happening occasionally and the latter event (fighting) being quite rare

For the most part the foxes have entirely given up on trying to catch my chickens and the two species co-habitate fine. Basic predator mitigation and some natural selection will fine-tune a flock over the course of years into very fit and tough specimens, if the flock is reproducing that is

Those of my chickens that choose to leave my part of the forest and venture out into the wilderness willingly subject themselves to natural selection and I'm fine with that

Trace Oswald wrote:I give them run of my fenced gardens and my approx 1 acre food forest, but that is only in the fall to help me clean up.  Are they more restricted than if they were free range?  Absolutely.  Are they being deprived?  I don't think so.  Are they safer than when they free ranged?  No question.  

There's no doubt in my mind that your chickens are far happier than the average chicken and they're lucky to be there

Trace Oswald wrote:"too long, didn't read"/ Individual circumstances are everything in permaculture and I don't think there is a one size fits all solution to any of it.  

Yes, we're all dealing with dramatically different circumstances and environments from one another. What works perfectly in one location could cause disaster in another