We have 7 chickens. They are basically free-range and roost in our barn at night. Our neighbor has started to complain that the chickens are going to his house every day (it's basically next to my barn) and tearing up his landscape. And we want them to roost outside of the barn, so we are going to build them a coop and a yard for them to live in full time. Will they learn to no longer be "free range"? Or will they be miserable and have issues? They are just about a year old.
Read my post about the hen with her feathers pecked on this forum, from just a few moments ago. I have the same issue. In fact, my girls and the roo are also wanderers, and spend more time in my neighbor's barn than on our 20 acres. Luckily for us, the barn is for sale, so no one has been on the property to complain. Lucky maybe...we have to pray that someone moves in who likes chickens! I am certainly not an expert, but our chickens are about the same age, so I am thinking yours may have a similar reaction. You could be the lucky one and maybe they will adapt better than mine did, but at the very least try to set up your coop so that it is interesting and give them things to play with. Mine were definitely not miserable, even though it gets very cold here. I think they are just picking on (pecking at) Red Momma because they are bored. Maybe I need to get them a cable hook-up!
You'll likely face building a large run for them to go outside for exercise and scratching about. Chickens who enjoy ranging will travel 1/4 mile in their pursuits of areas to scratch and peck. If one has close neighbors, free ranging often cannot be done. Being a good neighbor is always important and let's face it, chickens dig holes, they scratch up plants, they poop everywhere they go. Not everyone enjoys having this "bonus" on their property from someone else's chickens.
If they start pecking each other you can give them this: http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/avian_charge_2000.html it helps reduce pecking.
My neighbor went through the same thing with her free range flock. Her flock went from total freedom during the daytime to a 16 x 16 pen attached to their coop. The chickens got used to it, but boy were the vocal for many weeks on end about how much they hated it initially. I could hear them from across the street everyday. They are fine now. Best wishes!
I free ranged my flock for years until I got tired of chicken poo on the porch. They now have a large (48x16) run and I never had any problems with them. But even if they are miserable and pout a little, it's just like kids. Sometimes you have to do what's best for them, like it or not, and they'll just deal.
I put some pellets and keep water by a coop and they eventually figured out that that's where they are supposed to go, where they live. Now though, they don't like to stray too far from that general area! HAH
I spent my saturday chasing wild chickens to start a new flock. A guy that bought some chickens and they just went wild on his property. Anyway I was able to catch 8 or them one being a rooster and locked them in my coop. It's tuesday and they are starting to settle down when I enter the coop, I plan to keep them in for a week or so and then they'll be free range. Lots of available foods and a variety of treats helps condition them.
