Does anyone else Free Range?

[Quack House]

I've seen and read a lot on here about coups and runs, but very little about free ranging. Mine are all out during the day and they head to the coup at night.

Does anyone else do this?

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Oh they'll love those boxes!

I free range too. I was up in the air about it...but I decided to let them have a more natural life...and of course they seem so happy to be let out each morning. I've taken 1 loss last fall with a new bird which was bantam and hooded (a silkie) I'm sure a bird of prey dipped down and picked her up. She was new...and the others were spending the day in the run (must have been a weather front that they stayed in) and they must have kicked her out of the run. Well anyways she didn't see her predator coming I'm sure. Pretty confident we had a hawk find her. I've seen them harass wild mallards nesting on the pot holes on the property. We are 5 1/2 acres of wooded boundaries, low spots...and a wide open 2-3 acres of lawn with sporadic mature pines, picnic table, deck and apple tree and landscaping to duck under. The chooks make their rounds...even over to the neighbors (who are only up on the weekends here in vacationland of MN)...but mostly forage in the brush and woods. We have a big red New Hampshire roo in which hawks have dive bombed but his size and keen eye for the sky have kept everybody under cover. I have one more silkie from a pair of hens I got last fall. He has not accepted her even being coop and run mates all winter. It will be interesting to see if she tags along with the crew or choses to stay in the run and coop. She's had a "Hair cut" on top so she can see pretty well. Plus she's pretty flighty and saavy. She's bonded with a couple of the hens... so we'll see. But I love it...I like looking out in the yard and seeing them have free will. The eggs are bright orange and the yellow lab sleeps on the deck with one eye open... Life is good free-ranging.







This is a photo off the internet...but I had a weasel last winter. Very small and young...but I noted blood on my rooster's leg on day. And then soon all the mice I had saw in the run during the winter were gone...and he disappeared too. And we had one Black Bear Sow visit and bust open some fencing and framework to my pop hole of the coop. She just had woken up and was raiding bird feeders in the area--just hungry after a long winter's nap. I was glad the girls were out of the coop already! LOL. Otherwise that's been it. The birds will be 2 April 13.



I've even built this free range nest box...if the girls are up at the house and don't want to truck all the way back down to the coop. LOL. It's portable and I can put it in fave spots...but this is where it has stayed for the most part. Centrally located for them.





Oh these pictures make me long for summer.... *sigh*... 6 months in a coop and run is too long for the chooks!

Sorry to go on...I just feel blessed and lucky that I can give this to these fun creatures...chickens. Love Free Rangin'!

 

[kwissykat]

I have 4 kids that love eggs. We go trough about 3 dozen a week. To buy them at a store it's about 250 to 3 dollars a dozen. I also live in a very impoverished area and plan on donating eggs to my neighbors in the area that need them. I believe in helping where I can.

 

[txladybugz]

I have a small flock that free range & I like it just fine. I let them out first thing in the morning while I am getting ready so they can eat. They stay outside on my 3 acres & come & go from the coop when they please, laying their eggs in the coop. At night they go roost in their coop & I lock them up. They are extremely clean & healthy birds this way. The only thing that is inconvenient is they like to peer inside the back patio windows & they drop huge land mines on the back porch....I have to spray it off often

 

[Rockpile99]

A couple things to consider for you new free ranging folks... One was just touched on, is the age of the flock, If you have all youngsters they are much more vulnerable being inexperienced. The other thing is the color. I know I didn't think of that when I added a8 1-2mo old chicks. I not only raise chickens for a colorful egg basket but also their feather color. I wanted some white chicks. I had four white chicks in the temporary housing I was using while in quarantine/introducing them to my current flock. I let them out during the day while I was home. In one day I lost two and lost a third by the end of the week. There were no remains or anything, not even any proof I even had them to begin with. It didn't dawn on me until after the third that it was just the white ones going missing. Duh, the rest were all camouflaged. The white ones may have been wearing big neon signs saying "free meal right here, come and get it!" Even with the realization and being more cautious with the remaining white chick, I still lost it within a month. They would have fared much better if they had an adult with them as I had seen one of my EE Mommas fight off a hawk going after her own babies during that same time period.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

I read and applied some of Beekissed's advice this past few weeks. One thing I added to make free ranging feel a little safer was using fallen tree branches throughout the range field, like little chicken "bunkers". And they really do run to them if something flies overhead.

 

[lakens layers]

My pawpaw let's his out in the morning and by dark they are back in the pin all he does is closes the door. They don't go to the road and dogs don't seem to mess with them.

 

[bobbi-j]

Quack House and lakens layers -

There are a lot of people here on BYC who free range. I am one of them. We let ours out after they are done laying for the day, and they put themselves in at night. When you free range, you do need to be prepared for some losses. They may not happen often, but eventually you will lose one or two. Until last summer, I'd gone 3 years without a loss. But we had to put our dog down in June, and DH and I went on vacation in July - we think it was coyotes that came through and took my rooster and a few hens the day before we were to return home. My mom had been doing chores. She let them out in the morning, had come over late afternoon to pick something up and a few hours later when she came to shut the coop that evening, the chickens were missing. There was one injured hen that they had to put down, and a few of my rooster's tailfeathers. I think whatever got them finally realized that there was no dog and hadn't been any human activity around the place for a while. I prefer to free range my chickens despite the chances of predators. I think it makes for happier, healthier birds.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Ooooooo. Sorry to say it but that's a beautiful weasel! I had one several years ago come into the coop and threaten a hen on her nest. He or she wanted the eggs, not my hen, but she was broody and would not budge. She started squawking and squawking and I heard and came out and chased out the weasel, but I confess I thought him/her so beautiful and I was glad when he/she began to visit the suet bird feeders instead!

 

[heartsizedfarm]

I agree free range is best for them physically and mentally, but the losses to predators can be hard on me mentally! Mine have been in a large, hopefully interesting coop for three months now, since I lost a young hen to a hawk. Too gruesome to describe. My rooster was injured too, probably trying his best to save her. I think once a predator has had one of your chickens they come back again and again. So I'm hoping the hawk will be frustrated here and move on. It's winter still here anyway. I'll let them out in spring when presumably hawks can find easier prey in the fields.