Wild chickens????

[Hikerhead]

On one of the ridge lines between Kelly's Knob and Dicks Creek Gap I spotted some kind of a fowl. It looked very much like a reguler chicken but was brown in color.

It was not a turkey nor a grouse.

Would anyone know what it might have been?

[Streamweaver]

Saber toothed cave chickens?? Maybe a Pheasant?? Female pheasants are less colorfull than the males they are reddish brown mostly. It could just be chickens that got loose from a nearby yard . Streamweaver

[SGT Rock]

Packs of ferral chickens on the AT? I doubt it, a hiker would have eaten them a long time ago. MMMMM chicken

[Doctari]

I would bet that it wasnt a saber toothed cave chicken, too far south for them. And pretty far from their main source of food, polar bears.

Could be a chicken, the natural color of a chicken is brownish. The white ones are a man made color (years & years of breeding), And there were/are a lot of farms in the area, so there could be domestic chickens gone wild. Somewhat unlikely, but possible.

I would lean toward it having been a female pheasant too. Could be a turkey, which may look like a chicken from a distance specially ifn it be young.

Doctari.

[okpik]

Bet what ever it was it tastes like,...(dare I say?) chicken

[MicahDawgNC]

I know I have seen several wild chickens wandering the hills east of the AT in Great Smoky Mtns. NP They were all reddish-brown and leaner than farm-raised chickens. Perhaps ancestors of chickens escaped from the original Appalachia homesteaders? Curious to think about...

[Hikerhead]

Allright!!!! I'm not going crazy afterall. There are wild chickens out there.

Thanks Dawg.

[9 Mules]

Sounds like a popular farm bird called a "Rhode Island Red", I raise a few, they're brown/reddish in color. The females will be more brown then the males and if left in the wild would be leaner then the farm raised.
Wait until they roost at dusk and you can pick them up easy like a sleeping baby.
Dip them in a pot of hot water @ almost a boil and the feathers will fall right off. Do that of course after you dispatch them.