I’m crushed. When the snow melted, the turkeys left. I was excited about the possibilities of photographing turkey mating dance (they strut in a figure eight with their snood almost reaching the ground); I thought I had a good chance of photographing turkey sex; and now I have no turkeys at all.
So I’m getting a flock from Murray McMurray Hatchery. At first I thought we could have Guinea fowl, adventuresome birds who forage widely. Bob pointed out that the flock would probably really like the neighbor’s yard too, and we should ask them if they want 30 Guinea fowl visiting before I put in my order. Good point.
I don’t want turkeys because they’d be bound to escape and mess up the wild turkey’s gene pool. Does anyone know about chickens? I’d like a flock of meat birds that are independent foragers
I thought the Lakenvelders looked nice–this is an old Dutch variety that are independent with very competent roosters.
The silver grey Dorkens are an old breed–known to the Romans, says Murray McMurray–with a long body and short legs. They’re supposed to be calm.
And finally, I liked the looks of this bird: a white laced red cornish hen. 
The catalogue said that these have the blocky body type of the true cornish hen, and are slow to mature.
If there’s a better foraging type, please let me know.
And if you have an opinion on which kind of flock I should get, please leave a comment.
Get the kind they raise to fight. I had a neighbor with some and they were the only thing that could stay alive around the coons, bobcats, coyote and fox.
Sounds like the previous commenter has some good advice. All I was going to say was, “Oooooo, the first ones are so pretty! Get those ones!” Shows how much I know about raising chickens….
We have family group of grey partridge living in our windbreak, but they don’t yield much meat!! My husband checked once. They sure do de-bone and de-feather nicely though….
I asked my aunt, who lives in the boonies and knows everything about chickens. She said that if you don’t pen them there chickens up at night they are gonna get ‘et’ by, as rdennis says, coons, bobcats, coyote and fox. She mentioned one other ‘eater’ but I can’t remember what it was. She thinks your best bet are the guineas. Says they are no trouble a’tall if you don’t mind the ‘racket’ and they roost in trees.
As for my opinion, I have no idea. I had three Easter chickens back when I was a kid (in the dark ages) and one day they just up and disappeared. Times were tough and we hardly ever had meat. I was nearly grown before I figured out what happened to my pink, green and blue chickens!
Good luck with your project. Look forward to the photos.
Hi! I don’t remember much about chickens, but good luck on this venture.. What happened to the little filly that you visited out in the deep snow? We need an update - I’ve been worrying since the last visit you had.. thanks
I’ve been putting it off–I’ll make the trek this weekend.