Can I free range 3.5 month olds?

[shellyga]

We just let out our 9 week old chicks - had not planned on it for a few more weeks but after watching the interaction - I am very pleased so far. We kept them in the house until feathered out and moved them to a brooder/grow pen in the coop. Ours free range during the day and are locked up at night so the real interesting test will come in the morning when they are released for the day. Based on my experience, your chicks should be fine.

Shelly

 

[Niss]

Thanks for the info. My birds are 5 weeks, and I've only been letting them out when we are home (even though I don't stay with them). The chicks all come in at bedtime (I feed them and turn the heat lamp on if it's been off in the day), and only the first few times did I have to fish a stupporn hen out from under the spruce tree.
So far no losses to preditors, but the dog (not a trained graurd) is out too and we are around. I'm still leery of letting them out alone while we are working.
Last night we drove the 6 ducklings to the streem that seperates the yard/field from the woods for the first time. I was so nervoius while making dinner the hubs when out to cheak on them. They came back to the general area of the coop with out must encuragement, but two stubborn mallards do NOT want to go in, even after dark. How long until the ducks will be as easy to lock up as the chickens? If I leave them out at night I'm guessing I should go ahead and put up "eat me"signs as well?
I've been poking around the site since before we got them, but I still have so much to learn!

 

[4Hchickenproject]

I've been turning out our 7-wk-old chicks for nearly a week now. We started with just three at a time, for a couple hours, then two days ago put out half one day and the other half yesterday. I was really afraid they'd be nervous and maybe panic, but when we set them on the ground they just went to scratching and pecking. This morning I just opened the coop door and sat in a lawn chair to see what happened.

Our coop is off the ground, and we have a series of steps made to help the chicks in and out. Only a handful came out at first, but this evening as the sun was setting all but three came out. They stayed close to the coop, and they stayed together. When one thought she saw a booger and ran, they all ran. So funny to watch! And they did run toward the coop, stopping in a bunch underneath it.

We've been handling ours since we got them, hand feeding, "leading" them, and the boys even playing football all around them, and they are proving to be very tolerant. They like my jewelry

and anything else shiny or moving.

I did have to put them into the coop this evening, all but the very last one, and she flew/climbed in on her own, but I expect once they figure out the routine they'll fly in on their own. I have enjoyed these chicks so much, more than I ever could have imagined! Our yard is not fenced, as our hens' primary job is eating bugs, ticks and fleas (laying is 2nd).

 

[judepardee]

I started letting my 5 hens free range this September when they were about 4 months old, and the veggie garden was harvested. They seem to love exploring, scratching and pecking and generally stay close together. They eat much less chicken food under this system. My yard is fenced, it's about 3/4 acre and no dogs or other predators have breached the fence though a motivated predator probably could. A feral cat did come by but I think the hens are too big to be taken down by a cat.