Chickens free-ranging for the first time

[BrewedInNh]

Quote:
We don't have a fence. We have 3 acres with only 1 acre of lawn, the rest is heavily wooded. The house is back from the road about 125 feet and the coop is in the back corner of the yard. Our girls range over most of the lawn, but never too close to the road. We can't see our neighbor's houses through the trees during summer, but we can hear their German Shepards which are fenced in. Doesn't seem to bother our girls, but they've never met.

I'd be concerned about the neighbor's dogs if I were you. Maybe a chat with the neighbor is due.

 

[PamB]

Quote:
We don't have a fence. We have 3 acres with only 1 acre of lawn, the rest is heavily wooded. The house is back from the road about 125 feet and the coop is in the back corner of the yard. Our girls range over most of the lawn, but never too close to the road. We can't see our neighbor's houses through the trees during summer, but we can hear their German Shepards which are fenced in. Doesn't seem to bother our girls, but they've never met.

I'd be concerned about the neighbor's dogs if I were you. Maybe a chat with the neighbor is due.

Thanks for your response. My set up sounds a lot like yours. We also have about an acre of grass and the other 4 is heavily wooded. I can't see our neighbors house either. I guess their dogs get loose a lot. It is actually pretty annoying because they will scratch at our screen door to try to get our attention and stuff like that. I think I may take your advice and talk to them about the chickens. Maybe they can be more careful...but I don't know if I could ever be certain they won't escape over to our property.

 

[kchopper]

Your story made me chuckle. I got home today from work and my wife (who is due in 3 weeks) told me she forgot to shut the coop door and 8 chickens got out. How she described herself waddling and having our 2 year old son help chase them back into the coop was hilarious. She also had to ask the guy that is spraying insulation in our house come out to help her. Good Luck, your not the only one.

 

[AmyJ]

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Hi AmyH ! I'm AmyJ!

Mine are more of 9:00 chickens too, they are all in and out until they find thier favorite roosting spot and get settled in. A few of the younger ones apparently like the window box on the outside of the coop as thier roosting spot for the night. I usually have to put them in the coop.