Any such thing as too many black soldier fly larvae

[TaylorGlade]

If you give them food they'll never leave you. I have a lot of borderline feral chickens such as Egyptian Fayoumi, and while they do go explore the forest every day they always return here to eat the free food, lay their eggs somewhere safe and raise their children somewhere safe. Your domestic breeds probably won't venture more than 100 feet from your house if you opened the doors up for them. My RIR are fat and lazy and just like to sit outside waiting for scraps all the time

I have foxes, possums, racoons, stray dogs, hawks, owls, minks, bobcats and even a Florida panther. My chickens evade them all without difficulty, largely because my land is heavily forested. It's large empty fields that get chickens murdered, not forests. The Red Junglefowl is primarily a forest dwelling animal

Most humans seem to think of chickens as fragile dolls that need constant attention, but in my experience if you trust them and their instincts, they won't let you down. Even my one silkie is doing fine out there in the forest, and I literally hear the foxes doing their black metal shrieking at night as they prowl my land looking for prey

Black metal shrieking - love that very accurate description.

We have a sturdy, secure coop and run if they came back at night. I'll have to think about it. I know when we first moved here, there were always someone else's chickens in our yard. Not sure who they belonged to. I would not want ours to annoy the neighbors or tear up their garden.

Maybe to get used to the idea I can try while I am out there with them to see how it goes. It just seems almost daily on here I see someone losing a chicken to a dog or something.

I don't have adults yet. At what age do you start free range

 

[Red Mangrove]

Black metal shrieking - love that very accurate description.

We have a sturdy, secure coop and run if they came back at night. I'll have to think about it. I know when we first moved here, there were always someone else's chickens in our yard. Not sure who they belonged to. I would not want ours to annoy the neighbors or tear up their garden.

Maybe to get used to the idea I can try while I am out there with them to see how it goes. It just seems almost daily on here I see someone losing a chicken to a dog or something.

I don't have adults yet. At what age do you start free range

I let my original generation outdoors when they were probably around four months old and they hung around my house for a few months after that as they acclimated to being outdoors

Keep a close eye on them. The beginning is always the roughest phase but they do learn and adapt, or at least my gamefowl, junglefowl and RIR I started with did

Good fences and an LGD are also invaluable assets. My perimeter fence alone has eliminated the majority of ground predator attacks. Only things that can climb the fence and foxes still make it into my land on foot

 

[TaylorGlade]

I let my original generation outdoors when they were probably around four months old and they hung around my house for a few months after that as they acclimated to being outdoors

Keep a close eye on them. The beginning is always the roughest phase but they do learn and adapt, or at least my gamefowl, junglefowl and RIR I started with did

Good fences and an LGD are also invaluable assets. My perimeter fence alone has eliminated the majority of ground predator attacks. Only things that can climb the fence and foxes still make it into my land on foot

What is an lgd

 

[Red Mangrove]

What is an lgd

Livestock guard dog

I was having occasional nocturnal attacks on my chickens as they sleep in trees (with zero casualties because they just scream and fly to another tree, leaving the predator empty handed and surprised looking) but I got a proper LGD a couple of months ago and she's driven away all nocturnal predators. Very wonderful animals

 

[TaylorGlade]

Fencing in my property would be cost prohibitive and require clearing more trees than I want to. Which is why we have a large fence chicken run with a significant predator apron. And it's covered to guard from hawks. This fall, we plan on almost tripling the run size. The chickens will then have more yard than we do. If it's fenced, it's still considered free range?

 

[Debbie292d]

Mostly agree - though there are a few areas which are remarkably low in certain micronutrients. Selenium, for instance.
View attachment 3622091

But something you only need to check once (and possibly get your soil tested - once).

Its the "sufficiently large and natural area" that's doing all the work there. Most of the nation won't support a feral flock without human intervention, and most of the people in this nation do not have a sufficiently large and natural area to call their own. South Florida, South Texas, Hawaii are the obvious exceptions to the general rule.

/edit and yes, I ignore most of the micronutrients - I have land, its deficiencies are largely obvious to those willing to spend a few momoents looking - and I have had it tested (once). Likewise my water. Do try to make sure the macros are met, however.

I never realized selenium levels in our soil were so different. Do you know if there is a study done on the number of adult chickens getting wry neck or other selenium deficiency-related ailments? I would wonder if the amount is higher where selenium is lower. For chicks in brooders, this wouldn't matter though.

I have silkies and figured mine will never suffer anything because there is a plethora of BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) which are high in selenium and E on the ground beneath a half dozen wild bird feeders. Years of raising them and never have had issues.

 

[Debbie292d]

What is an lgd

Our border collie and corgi are not "official" LGDs, but they sure keep our chickens safe. We have farmers' fields on three sides of us and a forest behind us. The border collie will herd the chickens back from the fields, and the corgi for some odd reason can detect and warn everyone of a hawk or eagle. She watches the skies. They both keep the riff raff from coming here. We have a ton of twirlies in the yard too, some giant metal ones, and some cheapy plastic ones. We also put solar motion lights along the edge of the forest, so if the dogs were sleeping and something crept up into our yard, they'd be lit up.

 

[Perris]

The rest is wild woodland. It has very thick underbrush that would require a hatchet to get through. But the land is deep - not wide, so the neighbors are close. If I let the chickens out, I have no way of keeping them out of the woods or the neighbors yards.

It's large empty fields that get chickens murdered, not forests. The Red Junglefowl is primarily a forest dwelling animal

Woods are good, as Red Mangrove said. Some commercial enterprises are even doing it now, e.g. https://en.engormix.com/poultry-industry/articles/silvopasture-based-poultry-production-t48987.htm

They do have a very large covered run though. And we are going to expand it come fall.

If it's fenced, it's still considered free range?

Free range means different things to different people and in different countries. The bar is set so low it's little more than a marketing term for commercial egg producers: birds need access to the outdoors, they don't actually need to go outdoors, nor does there need to be anything worth going out for, like real edible grass, if they did venture out of the shed. What matters is that the area is not overstocked to the extent that the plants cannot survive and regenerate, so it becomes a bare patch of dirt + poop (as most coops become within weeks of too many chickens arriving in them).

At what age do you start free range

Mine start at 2 days old, when their broody brings them off the nest for foraging lesson 1.

The beginning is always the roughest phase but they do learn and adapt

And the keeper learns and adapts too. There will be losses; those best suited to freedom will survive and thrive. There will be losses from assorted causes in a coop and run situation too. Generally birds that are confined suffer more illness - not least because they're standing in their own shit and breathing their own dust and ammonia 24/7, and because they're entirely dependent on the competence of their keeper to provide all they need. If they are free to range they at least have chance to rectify some of any deficiencies on the keeper's part.

Your domestic breeds probably won't venture more than 100 feet from your house if you opened the doors up for them.

Many people can confirm this, myself included. The less food you provide, the further they will need to go to find adequate forage.

It just seems almost daily on here I see someone losing a chicken to a dog or something.

a large fence chicken run with a significant predator apron. And it's covered to guard from hawks.

A dog or something might get one or some from a flock at liberty, but the rest will escape, and you'll find as many posts from people who've lost the whole flock because a predator got into their coop and run and none of the chickens could escape. A jail cell both protects and traps its occupants.

the corgi for some odd reason can detect and warn everyone of a hawk or eagle

the corgi was bred to be a cattle herding dog; a few still are.

 

[TaylorGlade]

Mine start at 2 days old, when their broody brings them off the nest for foraging lesson

Mine don't have broodies to teach and protect them. So that's probably a bit early for them. I have 3 pullets that were hatched 31 March, we have 12 pullets and a roo hatched on 13 June. Those are all in a 300 square foot run. Then we have 17 more babies that are 4 weeks old in the brooder. We take them out to a run adjacent to the big run so they can start getting to know the flock. We have 1/4 acre of yard that is cleared and all the back will be fenced this fall except for the area over the septic.

However Even if wildlife aren't the problem, they'll be all up in the neighbor's yard. I don't know how to prevent that.

I do know what you mean about marketing terms though. That is part of the reason that I wanted to start having my own chicken. Most Commercial entities abuse animals and whitewash it for the public eye. I do not like the USDAs minimal care standards. Our chickens are not laying eggs yet. Until they do, I either buy from another local person with chickens or I only buy certified humane. We also try to exceed the standards of a certified humane and the care of our chickens.

I don't want to feed them GMO food. But it's hard to find anything else. Currently we order it from chewy. But I would really be interested in making our own. We would also be willing to entertain free-ranging if I have a way to keep them out of my neighbor's yards.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Mine go out into a protected area about 2 weeks, seasonally, and join the free rangers fully by about 7 weeks, +/-

Mine forage several hundred feet from the the coop. When there is a predator attack, they will range less far, then as they become more comfortable, they will re-extend their forage. I have one that goes maybe 500-600 foot towards a neighbor, but in the main, about 300 foot in any direction is the extent of the range of most of the birds, most of the days.

There is no one right way - the key is finding the way that works best for you.