Free ranging reducing laying?

[Ridgerunner]

Interesting question. If they free range, they can hide eggs on you or a predator may get some as others mentioned. If you confine them and all they get to eat is the prepared layer feed, they will get a great balanced diet formulated to maximize egg production. That is probably your maximum possible egg production. It is what the commercial operations do.

If you confine them and feed them treats, you may cut that efficiency a bit, but it is probably insignificant unless you give them a lot of treats. Then they won't have a balanced diet with proper nutrition and their health and egg production could suffer.

If they totally free range, they will eat so much green stuff, creepy crawlies, seeds, flying critters, chunks of dead vegetative matter, whatever they can find, that they might not eat much of their layer. They will still get a pretty good balanced diet. The egg laying efficiency may drop off a bit, but you probably won't notice at all. It will be a tiny amount if there is any. The egg yolks will be darker and many people think the eggs taste better. If you are somewhere in between total confinement and total free range, your chickens may eat more layer but they will still get a pretty good balanced diet. But the nice eggs and the more humane treatment of our chickens is what makes us different from the commercial operations.

I trust you are not a commercial operation where your livelihood depends on squeezing out the most eggs you can from your henhouse full of 10,000 chickens. How you discuss it with your friend is up to you, but for me, the quality of the eggs and the way I treat my chickens is more imnportant than possibly missing out on an occasional egg. I won't say he is wrong. He may be right. But whether he is right or wrong is totally not important to me.

 

[BoerneChickens]

You are correct - I am not a commercial producer and really want the hens to be happy and healthy, and they seem to love being able to come and go during the day - so I plan to let them free range in the yard regardless (again - small city sized lot so the "range" is probably only about 35x30). I feed them grower crumbles right now since they are not mature yet and they have a block with grain and grit and other things. They seem healthy and happy and that is as important to me as anything.

Really I just wondered so I that I can end the debate - but knowin the person who is "advising" me - I am guessing even documented data and scientific studies would not shut him up

LOL

 

[paflower]

I had mine in a yard but wanted to free range them. They were great layers in their coop. A couple of weeks after free ranging, they started laying in the woods. I have been unable to find their major stash. We did find a small stash and weren't sure how old they were. Would you eat the eggs?

Anyways...we put them back in the yard. But, now they are jumping over teh 4 ft fence and they have clipped wings!
They are driving me crazy!

 

[SunnyDawn]

Clip only 1 wing. Clipping both still gives them too much balance and they can hop pretty high even with only 1 clipped. If you have bantams or smaller chickens you probably need a taller fence. BoerneChickens has a small city lot, like me, so there is no issue with free ranging and losing eggs. I do envy you folks with room to roam though!

 

[BoerneChickens]

Quote:
I put up a 4 ft temporary deer fence to keep them out of the garden - so far they haven' gone over it but I think its just a matter of time

Tonight they decided to start digging up a geranium - but a quick shot with the hose and they decided maybe to leave it alone - for now anyway

 

[NewEnglandChick]

We live on a two acre lot that includes grass, gravel driveway, woods, and some lower lying "swamps" that grow lots of ferns. When my chickens get moved into the big girl coop it's usually during the winter & everyone stays indoors and has to get along. I have glass eggs in their nest boxes and they figure out very quickly where to lay. In the spring I let them out to their run and the older ones teach the younger ones how to get in & out of the coop and where the best scratching places are. After a couple weeks of being in the run, we open the run door to let them free range. It only gets better from there! They come and go as they please. Sometimes they hang out in the run, sometimes they're off in the woods (and you can hear them scratching in the dead leaves), or sometimes they're running through the ferns - which reminds me a little bit of Jurassic Park (

).

Anyways - from spring to late fall when they're free ranging are when I seem to get the most eggs AND they taste the best from all those yummy treats the girls are finding. I generally get 1 egg from each hen every day, with the occasional missed day every once in a great while. (It truly is rare.)


I think as long as they know where to lay before they're free range, you won't have any trouble with them laying in the woods...I've never had that problem and like I said....we live on two acres. That's without fences. And the girls have even found their way to my in-laws' birdfeeder next door. (I should mention that in rural Maine next door doesn't mean you can see your neighbors!) It seems instinctual that once they lay in those boxes for a period of time, they'll just know to return and keep doing it.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Sometimes, with people that don't know how to mind their own business, you just have to let them know that you appreciated them sharing whatever information, experience or opinion they have and that you've made your decision. If they bring it up again, just let them know that you'd rather not discuss it any more.

It's fine to give someone information, but then it's their decision. To continue to harp on it is rude, controlling and something a good therapist could help with. Not that you should suggest therapy for this person. Unless he makes you really mad sometime.

Good boundaries make good relationships...

 

[cybercat]

I only free range no pen at all. When they start laying out of coop they get locked up for a day and that fixes the problem for a while till they start it again. Most of mine lay in coop all the time. leaving a fake egg in nest boxes helps alot with getting them to lay in coop.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

Mine free range, and most lay in the coop. I have 7 layers and generally get 6 eggs a day, with one or two cropping up every couple of days in a weird place, like a flowerpot...

 

[gryeyes]

chickensducks&agoose :

Mine free range, and most lay in the coop. I have 7 layers and generally get 6 eggs a day, with one or two cropping up every couple of days in a weird place, like a flowerpot...

The first time I found an egg in one of my flower pots, I had to laugh. There was this little pinkish-brown egg tucked under a nibbled-on geranium and some dwarf carnations. Awwwwww. Wish I'd taken a picture of it.

It's only happened twice, and both times BEFORE I started free ranging the chickens on weekends. My SLW had gotten out some time during the day and couldn't find her way back into the run. Guess that spot looked like a safe place to lay her egg, both times. Finally, I found where she was getting out (but not back in again) and fixed that spot in the fence where two sections of wire over-lapped, but one had bowed out.

Now that they free range on weekends and evenings, the eggs are ALMOST always laid in the nest boxes. 8 layers, always six eggs a day, sometimes seven, occasionally eight.​