My 9 1/2 week old chickens are now hanging happily in their small run. They moved in on Saturday of last week and now have gotten the hang of heading in at the right time of day, so I am not worried about that. At what age would you recommend letting them free range? How much time being in just the run & coop is appropriate before letting them run free? The run ultimately be too small for them, so I want to free range when I can. we live in a rural setting and there are predators around, though we have seen none so far. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. CS Here's my coop https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=806736#p806736
Two weeks is usally a good number. I left mine in the coop for two weeks...then let them in their run for two weeks now that they are 11 weeks they are totally free ranging and they all went in on their own from the first day! I was so proud of them. They LOVE free ranging. WE DO watch them right now because they are still pretty small and they are out for three hours before bed. Later...maybe a month they will be out for the day. Good luck!
Mine started free ranging in the evenings at about five weeks because I have them in with my adults and they get to run late afternoon/evening. At seven weeks they still stay pretty close to the run, or mingle with the adult birds--whether for safety or because that's where the food is I don't know. lol I try to keep an eye on them while they are out, but I still count heads obsessively at bedtime to make sure everyone made it back in.