I have 9 hens and they free range when I'm home to supervise. That may be 12 hours or 2 hours. I have feed and water in the coop at all times. I find that if they free range my feed bill is cut in half. I'm sure that if they free range full time the feed bill would be nothing. I do the deep litter method so I'm not spending hardly any time cleaning. I do check each hen out once a week and make sure they have no Bugs. I buy only Organic feed and the price I sell eggs at is too low I think. But I'm not in it to get rich. LOL