Question about free ranging

[Kasey]

Do you let your chickens free range when you are gone during the day?

I have 8- 7 week old pullets and have been letting them out in the run and intend on letting them free range when they are older and bigger.

How safe is it to leave them out when you are gone for the day at work, etc?

I don't have a rooster but have considered getting one to help protect them.

Should I leave them in during the day and let them out in the evenings?

 

[JackE]

It depends on what kind of predator threats you have in your area. I got away with freeranging for almost a full year. The chickens were let out first thing every day. They wandered all over the place. They would come up onto the back deck to look in and visit. Everything was going perfectly. Then one day my daughter came home from school to find different colored piles of feathers all over the yard. We lost 9 out of 11 to the fox. We got more birds, and would only let them out if somebody was out there with them. Then we got a bit sloppy and careless over time, and the fox caught them unwatched and we lost 7 more. This time my daughter interrupted the attack, and was able to save one from the fox. But the pullet ended up dying from the injuries anyway. I ended up getting 300' of electrified poultry netting. It worked so good, I have bought 300' more. The chickens can come out everyday, and I don't have to worry about them.
Some people freerange with no problems, some like me, get away with it for a while, then disaster hits. It all depends on what threats you have. It can be a fox, hawk, or even a stray dog. Chickens are really pretty helpless. They count on you.
Jack

 

[keirys]

We free range but they like to hang out on the back deck. There is poop everywhere I even slipped on ducks poop last night!!!

So we are gonna put them all in a huge run and free range them 2 hours a day. I would only let them out when I am home.

 

[Rowdie]

I've only had problems with nocturnal predators. Biggest threat around here in the day time is the random loose dog.

 

[Kasey]

I live in Texas so we have fox, coyotes, hawks, raccoons, skunks and I even had a couple bald eagles flying over the pasture behind us.

Sounds like maybe I just need to let them out when I'm home.

 

[cgmccary]

I live in a National Forest and have many predators. I free range my birds as young as about 8-9 weeks and some hens with new chicks -- I never lose anything BECAUSE I have a good dog on the premises -- a good guardian dog is the key to free ranging chickens. My dog is just a mutt but is a shepherd / collie mix of some sort -- a stray, we were lucky to find such a dog!

 

[Kasey]

I do have two dogs but they are fenced in our back yard which isn't too far from the coop. Maybe 50 yards. They would bark at anything that came into the property.

 

[lahowardjr]

I wouldn't let them free range without any supervision at first. let them out in the evenings, an hour or two, and they will go back in to roost at night. If you don't have problems and lose any to predation, you may let them out after you get in for the day. I would just hate to lose a chicken and scratch my head trying to figure out who killed it and how.

 

[SSAcres]

Ours free range the majority of the day, but we are usually home. We have let them be while we've gone to town for a few hours w/out problems, but that's not a daily event either. We usually let our three dogs run the property real good before we let them out and then we leave the two big ones in the kennel outside. We have hawks, bald eagles, coons, opposums, skunks, fox and coyotes... so far so good.