In answering the questions:
Re: Hours - Mine are let out of locked coop when we get up in a.m., usually 7:00 a.m. and return on their own and are locked back in by 8:00 p.m. (or when dark). They do return to nest boxes to lay their eggs or sometimes lay them in barn.
Re: Feed - They have a little food and water everywhere at all times. There are feed/water bins in coop, in run, and outside run in yard. Because sometimes I let the babies, or an injured hen, have the run of the coop, or the run, and lock everyone else out. I go out at least three times a day and put a little food in bins. I find this keeps them close to home and they come running to see what I'm putting out and if it's plain chicken feed and scratch or treats. Thus, they don't wander too far from view anymore and it seems to have put a stop to their wandering deep into woods and staying there all day.
Re: Broodiness - I had two go broody and lost both. The first because she laid her nest in old abandoned barn and kept going back there at night no matter how much I tried moving the nest into coop and building a pen in coop for her. She broke out and went back at night and got killed by a predator - my first loss in one year of free ranging. The second broody, at same time, went broody in coop in built-in wooden nest box, but was young and was freaking out at everyone coming and going from coop so she wouldn't leave the nest and wouldn't eat or drink for a month. She died of malnutrition despite all efforts to get her to eat and drink or get off nest. SOOO....I built new nest boxes using plastic file crates from dollar store that are set sideways on self and filled with straw with idea that if another goes broody, I can pick her up, nest and all and lock her in a kennel away from activity. Of course, haven't had one go broody since then.
Re: Losses - other than the two broodys the only losses I had were early this spring, shortly after moving here, when my original flock of hens started going deep into woods and not coming home. I've lost 3 out of 60 chickens this way. No other losses to date - almost two years of free ranging. My free ranging flock of DOGS helps tremendously in keeping predators at bay.
Like others have posted, they are chickens and are designed to forage, and scratch, and run and fly all day long. Except for short naps in heat of day, I rarely see my chickens standing still - they are energy in motion and on the go at all times. They have a wonderful life, lived the way it was meant to be lived, and if something gets one, it's not that I don't care and don't get upset, I do, but I'm hatching them daily and with life, death happens. Still think a life well lived, though possibly shorter, is better than a long life in captivity deprived of all the natural instincts.