I'm five years (I think?) into having chickens. Right now I have 17 and a very nice roo, because third time's a charm I guess. It's a mixed flock of wyandottes, olive eggers, marans, ISA browns, calico princesses, and then a lone ancona and blue egger. I was planning on culling the wyandottes because they are mean when they go broody, one of the olive eggers, and the anconca, as they are older and not laying. Someone offered me free chicks and I said yes due to my plan on culling, before asking how many - 23 is how many. Oops. So now I have 23 chicks in a horse stall, a mix of white leghorn, red rhodies, and jersey giants. I found a home for the three jersey giants and three of the rhodies, and I've spotted a little cockrel rhodie in the bunch who will go with the culled hens, so that has me down to 16... I'll try to rehome a few more, I wanted to keep a few more than I culled but not that many.
It's been an experiment in keeping then safe from eagles. I have a big coop that opens into a main pen, then the main pen has four grassy paddocks off it that I rotate the birds through for grazing but they are still fenced in, so not truly free-range but open to the sky. I've done netting, which works until the first wind storm, but also catches robins and starlings, and the owls show no fear of the netting and try to bomb through it. I've done surveyor's tape, which was ugly as hell and I hated it. Right now I have pallets on blocks in the paddocks so the birds have a closer spot to run to and I hope that works