Anybody have chickens live free range with no coop? where do they make eggs?

[Farmgirl47]

I haven't time to read through all of these posts so I don't know if someone has already asked this, but would it be possible for you to lure these chickens into the coop? With food or something?

Whenever we are getting our chickens used to a new coop/or newly bought chickens used to it, we lock them up in it for a few days, maybe even up to a week - so that they know where their home is and that there is nothing to be afraid of in there. If we don't do this we end up having our chickens sleep outside in the trees. We do have an LGD to protect them from predators, but it just gives me peace of mind to know that they are in the coop and warm and dry if it should rain during the night.

 

[alessadry]

I really wished luring them with food worked all the time. I was able to lure them in the coop area during the day when they were not scared. Today they were all acting fine, except for the cockerel complaining about us fixing the tarp on the coop earlier.

So they were all in the coop ready to sleep and then comes Mr Cockerel and herds them out or makes panic sounds that attract the chickens away. When they act this way, they are way too over treshold to take treats.

Update: My husband closed the coop, but actually it looks like all managed to get in last minute. Phewww... I hate to say this, but tomorrow I still have to add some overhang due to the heavy rain and fix the tarp a bit better.

These chickens have been sleeping in the coop since babies. Last week we installed an automatic door and we kept them locked up for 3 days to get them used to it. They did well, but now we had a severe storm and all the tarp came off and it rained sideways and we are forced to install an overhang to prevent this from happening again.

 

[centrarchid]

By totally free range do you mean they sleep outside at night without a coop? Well tonight, my cockerel managed to get some chickens out of the coop to roost on a tree. Actually, saw them practicing a rehearsal earlier when he saw has use a broom to remove water from the leaking roof and put back a misplaced tarp. They were already on the tree earlier.

Some smarter chickens decided to ignore his over reactivity and went inside the coop to sleep. They cared less about all the changes going on.

I am NOT going out to get this time. Last time I ended up getting scratched, almost killed myself tripping on a log. It is pitch dark and I am not in the mood to hunt them down with a flashlight when there are scorpions walking and black widows. I will let them be and will likely get rid of this rooster who is only causing stress to my pullets who just want to go to sleep in the coop.

By totally free-range I mean they can go as far as they want and they have control over time spent foraging. They are not penned even when roosting. None roosting in trees at currently but have had that going on for about 4 months since first of year. My trees not ideal for such except those near house and I am supposed to keep chickens away from house.