I thought it was a good deal, until winter came. They took to roosting in the trees, only way to get them was to shoot them. Delicious, I have always thought free run chickens taste better. Subjective opinion, I know. Big trouble -Chickens don't survive the winters here without a lot of help, that ruins the energy efficiency.
Chickens are tropical creatures.
Trying to force plants and animals to live where they normally don't will cost energy, defeat the whole purpose if you can't get that energy on a sustainable basis. As usual, the market drives all this. I wasn't putting much into these chickens, they were semi wild, so it was not a big deal to me if the fox came. And the skunk and the raccoon. We all had chicken that summer.