Afraid to let my chickens free range

[TroutsChicks]

Heres how i work it out. I have 16 now (today ) 14 week old "tickens" that come out on the weekend when i am home. I let them out 3 or 4 hours if i have that much time out while i am out there to watch them. They don't go out of eye site of the coop, if i need to get them in i use bread/cheese. I do have one BR that knows this and i have to play "round n round" until i catch that lil booger!! But for the most part at 8 they are hopping back into the coop to roost. I stay out the whole time and watch them though.. no problems yet. If they get scared they run into /coop/run/under coop. I also have a dog that i am training (she wears a muzzle when they are out and hate it lol ) oh and i painted a sign to put in the driveway that lets the family know they are out so they wont let their dogs follow them. Hope this helps

 

[Jeffross1968]

I don't want to lose any chickens. That being said, I don't have chickens to have them locked up all day. We live on an acre deep in the woods in the mountains. They sleep locked up at night, spend the first few hours of every day in the run, and then the rest of the day, until they head in on their own at night, they free range. They rarely leave the clearing our house is on, but they do have a "circuit" that they walk a few times a day, up the hill behind our house and down the hill in front. Few times I've seen them in the dirt road next to our house, but we only have one house past us, so no worries really.

I know that eventually we could lose some chickens during the day. While that would suck, I think it would suck worse for them to be locked in a cage all day for their whole lives, eating layer food and scratch...

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have any fenced in area at all? I recently purchased some electric poultry netting, but it isn't electrified since I just wanted some mobile fencing that I could use where I needed it. It is only 42 inches high, and to my amazement, the flying chickens who go over my 4 foot chain link fence into my yard don't fly over it, I guess because they can't roost on the netting. Any way I think that is agood way to fence them in. Mine is 150 feet long, and I can put 2 or more together to make a big run. It won't protect from overhead predators, and I would electrify it to keep raccoons, foxes out. But I don't like mine to free range without being home anyway. Mine have a 5 acree field to range in, and they hardly ever go past an acre.