GTA
All Springer/NP/PCP Air Gun Discussion General => Hunting Gate => Topic started by: birdmove on July 08, 2020, 10:25:08 PM
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Here on Hawaii Island (i.e. the big island), Puna District, where we live, there are quite a few wild chickens. If left unchecked, they would get out of hand. We have a coop, so sometimes, if I can catch a hen, I might keep one now and then. Next option, if I catch hens or roosters, often I can give them away for free. Next option, catch and release them in the jungle. Last option. I shoot them. My neighbor lady will take them and make soup or whatever.
I have been trying to catch this one wild hen, before she starts laying, as soon after that, there will be 6-8 maybe peeps running around, and it starts all over. This hen just wouldn't go into the cage so I could trap her. So, today, there she was, where I could take a safe shot, so I took it. Perfect head shot at about 10 yards with my Daisy 880. Eight pumps behind a 6.9 grain RWS Super H Point hollow point. An old Leaper 4x32 AO scope. She flopped a bit on nerves, but was quite dead. Got a call in to my neighbor to see if she wants the bird.
I have one old wild rooster we call grampa, and we let him be. About a year ago, an intruder rooster came and beat the bejeezus out of grampa. I won't stand for that, so I sent him to meet his maker. I have one more trouble making rooster. Either I catch him, or shoot him. My neighbor wants him either way. Then about two more young hens, and I should be done for a while.
A Daisy 880, as mentioned above, can do this job. I also go after rats at night going into our coop. We have an acre here, and no fence, so have to watch for these critters. Rats here often have a very nasty disease called rat lungworm, and that disease is as bad as it sounds for humans. Do rats have that on the mainland??
My 880 is approaching 3000 pellets gone through it. It's quiet, easy to pump, quiet to pump, and accurate enough to maybe 15 yards of so. This job is never done, but somebody has to do it.
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What a great story! Wild chickens. Whooda thunk it? I've always argued that the little bird in a package of silhouette targets was a duck. Because chickens aren't game animals. Now you've shot that argument down. :o
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Feral chickens are a big problem in the islands of Hawaii. They are like our ground squirrels or groundhogs.
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What a great story! Wild chickens. Whooda thunk it? I've always argued that the little bird in a package of silhouette targets was a duck. Because chickens aren't game animals. Now you've shot that argument down. :o
Literally!
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What a concept! Wild chickens. I'd love to have them here. I might then shoot something other than paper! There'd be a permanent pot of chicken soup on the back burner. And my wife cooks a mean pot of chicken soup.
I bet they taste like...chicken.
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We have wild chickens in Arkansas, but they belong to somebody somewhere. Wild dogs in Arkansas are the same as the wild chickens. Most folks in Arkansas don’t keep their pets or chickens at home or in a fence. If they’re on my property, they’re game. Long as the wife or kids don’t find out. I’d sure like to hunt them all, but then I’d be labeled the bad guy.
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My brother has farm land on Maui that borders a abandoned macadamia nut orchard. He gets lots of wild chickens migrating onto his property. Used to have about 4 different groups of chickens around the house and their roosters crowing mid day was unending. Sometimes during a phone call it was difficult to hear due to the roosters crowing.
Next door neighbor does plant research and develops new varieties of flowers. Anyway, chickens somehow got into his greenhouse and ate about $10K worth of plant starts. Well after this incident neighbor bought me a .22 springer to remove the chickens. This gun sent me down the air gun path and eventually to PCP guns and eventually to hunting wild pigs with airguns.
Chicken hunting is great sport as they have excellent eye sight and hearing. They taste horrible though. Real gamey taste. Have tried all kinds of ways to cook and stew. Only way I found is to pluck, gut and put in ice water with a little white vinegar for 2-3 days (same for wild pigs), but is too much work for a chicken. Have some neighbors that trap them and put them on chicken feed for a month or two and that gets rid of the gamey taste.
(https://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f18/Cpeter2018/Rooster Pic_zpsjcl4crti.jpg?width=400&height=400&crop=1:1,smart)
Jungle fowl taken with .30 cal impact
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You'll never see a feral chicken around these parts. I wish we had them. Coyote love them. The locals tell me that a tethered chicken is the best bait for coyote. ::)
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You'll never see a feral chicken around these parts. I wish we had them. Coyote love them. The locals tell me that a tethered chicken is the best bait for coyote. ::)
I agree, they wouldn't last long at all. We have way too many predators that HI does not, like fox, bobcat, coyote, raccoon. They would all be after the chickens and wipe them out quickly. For all we know there were wild chickens running around a few thousand years ago in the US or most of the world, until the predators wiped them out.
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I lived on Kauai for 5yrs, so I'm very familiar. My only gripe with these feral chickens was that some of them would crow in the middle of the night.....very loudly! >:(
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You'll never see a feral chicken around these parts. I wish we had them. Coyote love them. The locals tell me that a tethered chicken is the best bait for coyote. ::)
I agree, they wouldn't last long at all. We have way too many predators that HI does not, like fox, bobcat, coyote, raccoon. They would all be after the chickens and wipe them out quickly. For all we know there were wild chickens running around a few thousand years ago in the US or most of the world, until the predators wiped them out.
And yet grouse and pheasant survive in the wild here. And we have feral housecats too. A FWC biologist told me years ago that feral cats are the worst invasive predator there is. They kill everything without compunction. Anyhoo... I think some of the gaminess issue of feral chicken definitely comes from their diet. I know from experience that in Texas Rabbits can become inedible at certain times of the year from eating sage. Around here a feral hog that has been feeding on acorn mast in the hardwood hammocks is prized eating while one that has been feeding on fiddler crabs in the salt marsh ain't fit to eat.
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But good eating with this one feeding on fiddler crabs!!👍
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But good eating with this one feeding on fiddler crabs!!👍
Right on! Sheephead is darn good eating!
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But good eating with this one feeding on fiddler crabs!!👍
Right on! Sheephead is darn good eating!
Tastes like chicken?
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But good eating with this one feeding on fiddler crabs!!👍
Right on! Sheephead is darn good eating!
Tastes like chicken?
I'm betting it tastes like fiddler crab
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You'll never see a feral chicken around these parts. I wish we had them. Coyote love them. The locals tell me that a tethered chicken is the best bait for coyote. ::)
I agree, they wouldn't last long at all. We have way too many predators that HI does not, like fox, bobcat, coyote, raccoon. They would all be after the chickens and wipe them out quickly. For all we know there were wild chickens running around a few thousand years ago in the US or most of the world, until the predators wiped them out.
Wild chickens would probably still be around the US if they had not tried to cross the roads.
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I remember a small parking area in Hilo. Don't get me srong, as I LOVE Hilo! But a group of chickens obviously hung out pretty heavily in that spot. The slimy greenish chicken poop was a thick coating. Nasty stuff. Hilo is like the rainiest city/town in, I believe, the world. The rain kept it nice and moist.
Despite Hilo being so rainy, they also get lots of beautiful sunny days. It's just that, sometimes when it rains, it REALLY RAINS!!
I have trapped and given away probably 15-20 chickens. One time a couple were just finishing build a chicken coop. I had just trapped a mother hen and about five babies. I have them all to this couple. I'm sure it worked out well. When trying to introduce a strange hen into an existing group of chicken, they will pick on the newby, sometimes to the point of killing her. We have four hens, one who survived being introduced into a group. The four hens easily keeps my wife and I in eggs, and we often give some away.
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Game type chickens can make it. My ancestors on their farm in rural north Florida kept several hundred fighting chickens in feral conditions that they used for their egg and meat birds. No care was given to them. They just lived wild in the woods like wild turkey. In that era they would have been contending with the usual North American predators plus red wolves and panthers. The game chickens reproduce faster than human and animal predators can take them. Once a month my grandmother would stalk the woods in the remote parts of the farm and harvest 30 or so at a time for the family's monthly chicken meat and it never put a dent in the population. My great grandfather and uncles would collect the stags a couple times of year and then condition them for cock fighting. They'd catch the stags at night on the roost by sticking a long pole under their feet and they'd instinctively step onto the poll off the tree branch they were roosted on.
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You'll never see a feral chicken around these parts. I wish we had them. Coyote love them. The locals tell me that a tethered chicken is the best bait for coyote. ::)
I agree, they wouldn't last long at all. We have way too many predators that HI does not, like fox, bobcat, coyote, raccoon. They would all be after the chickens and wipe them out quickly. For all we know there were wild chickens running around a few thousand years ago in the US or most of the world, until the predators wiped them out.
The original wild chickens do still live in the jungles of SE Asia and they deal with all the predators that live there. Domestic chickens have had the wild instincts bred out of them. I raise a derivative of the wild chickens free range on my farm and I've only ever lost one adult of their kind to a predator in over one and a half years. On occasion I will loose a chick or two. They're the chicken equivalent of wolf-dog hybrids.
(https://i.imgur.com/PZb2fpA.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/i0rxDfZ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/urW7mgA.jpg)
That last one is a bad SOB. You can see it in his eyes. He's so aggressive that I have to keep him locked up for safety. I use him for breeding stock. The trick is to get that aggression turned towards other animals and not humans.
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Game type chickens can make it. My ancestors on their farm in rural north Florida kept several hundred fighting chickens in feral conditions that they used for their egg and meat birds. No care was given to them. They just lived wild in the woods like wild turkey. In that era they would have been contending with the usual North American predators plus red wolves and panthers. The game chickens reproduce faster than human and animal predators can take them. Once a month my grandmother would stalk the woods in the remote parts of the farm and harvest 30 or so at a time for the family's monthly chicken meat and it never put a dent in the population. My great grandfather and uncles would collect the stags a couple times of year and then condition them for cock fighting. They'd catch the stags at night on the roost by sticking a long pole under their feet and they'd instinctively step onto the poll off the tree branch they were roosted on.
That's the kind of local folk lore I love to collect. You can bet that information will turn up in one of my early Florida cultural programs for the park Thank you!
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Game type chickens can make it. My ancestors on their farm in rural north Florida kept several hundred fighting chickens in feral conditions that they used for their egg and meat birds. No care was given to them. They just lived wild in the woods like wild turkey. In that era they would have been contending with the usual North American predators plus red wolves and panthers. The game chickens reproduce faster than human and animal predators can take them. Once a month my grandmother would stalk the woods in the remote parts of the farm and harvest 30 or so at a time for the family's monthly chicken meat and it never put a dent in the population. My great grandfather and uncles would collect the stags a couple times of year and then condition them for cock fighting. They'd catch the stags at night on the roost by sticking a long pole under their feet and they'd instinctively step onto the poll off the tree branch they were roosted on.
That's the kind of local folk lore I love to collect. You can bet that information will turn up in one of my early Florida cultural programs for the park Thank you!
You are welcome. My family is from Gulf Hammock since the early 1800s. If you look up Brunson Lewis' panther attack (the only documented Florida panther attack to my knowledge), he was my great, great, great, grandfather (maybe another "great" in there, not sure). The family farm on the Strickland side of the family was located in Morriston on the south end of Gulf Hammock from the early 1900s into my lifetime and they had 100 acres that they raised the game chickens on. Mostly woods. The boys probably did normal predator control through varmint trapping but nothing special otherwise. The hens hid their nests but there was so many that it wasn't hard finding enough eggs for eating. It was pretty standard practice back then for most of the Cracker farms to have their free range game chickens living the same lifestyle. I strongly believe that the game chickens of that era were probably a Florida landrace like Cracker cows and Cracker horses and are now lost to history. My personal flock growing up was probably a more modern bloodline of American Blueface. My current flock are red jungle fowl hybrids that are similar to the bantam version of the gamefowl my ancestors kept but probably not the exact bird. I got my current flock off of a farm in central Florida that couldn't tell me anything about their ancestry.
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Great natural/cultural history info, Travis!
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That's the same type Wild chickens we have here,
They are everywhere, I don't even see them anymore :)
You can shoot them if they come into private property, but you cannot hunt them in the wild.
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. My great grandfather and uncles would collect the stags a couple times of year and then condition them for cock fighting. They'd catch the stags at night on the roost by sticking a long pole under their feet and they'd instinctively step onto the poll off the tree branch they were roosted on.
I am trying to picture how this works. The roost is about 20ft up on a branch. They put pole under the branch and under his feet and the bird will step on to the pole while they are sleeping?
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. My great grandfather and uncles would collect the stags a couple times of year and then condition them for cock fighting. They'd catch the stags at night on the roost by sticking a long pole under their feet and they'd instinctively step onto the poll off the tree branch they were roosted on.
I am trying to picture how this works. The roost is about 20ft up on a branch. They put pole under the branch and under his feet and the bird will step on to the pole while they are sleeping?
Yes. You gently poke their underside with it and they just step on. Or push it against their legs. Then you slowly move them downward until a pair of hands can reach them. Got to grab them quick. Otherwise they wake up hard and freak out as soon as hands touch them.
When I’ve done it I initially tried PVC and I found they wouldn’t step on it. Too smooth and wobbly I think. When I switched to wood they stepped right on it. And then I would try to ease my hands around their legs and then loose them as they’d fly off upon feeling my touch, which apparently doesn’t feel like the pole. Got to quickly grab their legs. They’ll flap their wings a bit but if your grip is good then you got them.
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Cool little knowledge bits,....thanks
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Been near 25 years ago was out in our local woods and came across some FERAL chickens. being in a sporting mood stalked them until able to take a shot at one and harvesting it ... or should say Inspecting ???
Plumage rather scruffy, toe nails that hooked around like a Circus Side show performers.
Figured living in a soft forest floor environment the typical scratching done on harder surfaces was not wearing down the toe tails ... kinda freaked me out a bit looking at its feet.
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Been near 25 years ago was out in our local woods and came across some FERAL chickens. being in a sporting mood stalked them until able to take a shot at one and harvesting it ... or should say Inspecting ???
Plumage rather scruffy, toe nails that hooked around like a Circus Side show performers.
Figured living in a soft forest floor environment the typical scratching done on harder surfaces was not wearing down the toe tails ... kinda freaked me out a bit looking at its feet.
It may have been a beneficial mutation. Chickens mature fast and reproduce at a high rate. Therefore they can evolve dramatically and quickly because mutations show up at close intervals. They can become something new within a human lifetime. I’m raising some right now that look more like extinct phorusrhacids (Terror birds) than chickens. Some subraces of these chickens are carnivores and cannot be sustained on a mostly grain diet because they adapted to life on islands where they mostly ate washed-up dead fish. My goal is to breed them into a particular aggressive line of my jungle fowl to make them fierce, predatory, and large, chickens.
That's the same type Wild chickens we have here,
They are everywhere, I don't even see them anymore :)
You can shoot them if they come into private property, but you cannot hunt them in the wild.
Remember about a year ago I sought out pictures of your wild chickens to compare them to mine. I’ve since been on a bit of a chicken breeding adventure. The chickens are more of my hobby than airguns are.
Here’s a pretty close replica of truly wild red jungle fowl I hatched back in Christmas of 2019. He’s nearly grown now. He should be pretty close to the purer stock of wild chickens you have on the islands, closer related to what the Polynesians brought instead of the later European chickens.
(https://i.imgur.com/XgJfMfu.jpg)
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Yep, that's you standard Cock you would see everywhere here.