I got such a warm fuzzy reading about everyone's Hamburg experience. I will seriously consider this breed in future to add to my gentles flock but probably a golden laced or golden penciled Hamy so the silver laced doesn't stand out so bright in the yard - I discontinued white birds after they turned dingy from all the free-range dirt baths. I think the goldens are just as pretty as the silvers too.Free ranging is an awesome place for hamburgs. Mine hate being stuck in the run all the time.
Sadly last year we lost miss Bee. So now we only have Pea and Jay.
The getting away from predators is what these active non setting birds would do well at. Mine are very good at finding the best parts of the yard to forage in and return to the coop without fail. I have large trees and they have never gone into them. They lay a small to medium egg and are very good at it. The other hens I have that are older and some younger no longer lay much if at all but these are troopers at it.
Miss Jay will let me know about it loudly if I am a minute later in the morning than she thinks I should be.
Doesn't it seem like there's always one noisy bird squawking to notify you if you're not on time!
Our friends had a snotty neighbor that was always complaining about the chickens (of course she never bothered to keep her own plants from growing wild over our friends' fence or trees from littering over into other people's yards)! The snotty neighbor had called the city to complain so much that she got listed by the city as a nuisance caller! However the city still has to respond to calls and when they arrived at my friend's property they took measurements and said there was no room to keep a coop that complied with city ordnance measurements. Apparently there has to be a certain distance from any dwellings in all directions and our friends had to disband their chickeneering. Some cities portray themselves as good guys to allow chickens but make the coop housing so restrictive that ultimately you can't REALLY have chickens!Not sure. We did have to jump through hoops to build our coop and get a city OK for three chickens.
What a lovely open space for those happy chickens and toddler! I'm jealous! I wish I could have that many hens in our flock but we're only zoned for 5!
In all that open space scatter about some lawn furniture and/or tables or benches for the birds to hide under when a hawk flies by. A popup canopy set up for shade or hawk protection is useful too. We learned this all accidentally when we saw 3 hens huddle under a stickery rose bush when a Cooper's Hawk landed in the yard.
Today we have a cedar Adirondack rocker, 4 large recycled doghouses spaced around our yard, a popup canopy, and a couple plywood boards propped on cinderblocks. The hens use them all to snooze/hide and we haven't lost a hen to a hawk in 4 years (even our 2 Silkies know how to hide). Having all the lawn furniture spaced around the yard reduces open areas for hawks to swoop down on running hens trying to hurry back to the coop across an open field. Scattered shelters reduces the risk of a long run back to the coop. Hawks can see hiding hens but amazingly don't go after them. They prefer to swoop down on running hens in an open unobstructed area rather than struggle to attack a hiding hen.