Do my chickens know the way home?

[MROO]

Awe. My fear is to lose one and I will be sure to cover the top because these chickens (sounds silly) have become family to me over just 2 months time.

Not silly at all. There's a reason they call a lot of us "Crazy Chicken Ladies." I wear the badge with no shame!

 

[Ryans5408]

I can totally relate, after raising day old birds sent in February, my biggest fear is that something will happen to them... I love them all, but worry most about the EE's oddly enough. Because they are unique, with all their differing personalities and colors, I wouldn't be able to replace them. They are good egg layers, too! But are demonstrating a huge desire to free range and I am going to have to cover their 6 foot run... It is under a cedar tree and I didn't think I would have too, but I find them roosting in the tree...

Same! We have a tree by ours that they roost in and I find it kind of dangerous. We will be making our own roof from pvc and high quality tarp.

 

[Folly's place]

It is best to have a covered run, but make sure that you plan for snow load, or heavy rain and wind, where ever you live.
Mary

 

[jvls1942]

View attachment 1509866 View attachment 1509867 Hi. I have been letting my chickens out free ranging while watching them play, and have noticed some get very far away. If I were to not scare them back home would they be able to find their way back by themselves? They are 8 weeks old.

yes

 

[BreanneRN]

Part of the trouble is that chicks raised from day old by people are predator naive... They do have some instincts for what is dangerous but no experienced mama bird or rooster to orient them to danger... Have thought about getting one older hen that has free ranged from someone to help the young ones learn, though know if you free range you run the risk of losing your birds, regardless. But they really seem to want to be free... and you can't cover 1/2 an acre.... During the day, I mostly worry about hawks. Know they can grab a bird in seconds and be gone.

 

[PouleChick]

I'd think your plans of fencing in a bit more so they still have lots of space but a bit more contained is a good one, especially until they are big chicken size! My little dudes have a big day run but the littles can all get out through the fence so the youngers are in the garden, they have a huge empty field at the back but choose to generally stay in the garden with lots of over head trees. I do understand I'll loose some occasionally but make that decision based on what I feel thier quality of life is. I'm blessed that our predators here are pretty minimal which of course helps my decision.

 

[wyoDreamer]

My chickens are in a run and only allowed to free-range when I am out and about. My Guiney hens however, are total free range and they return to their coop every night. From a flock of 8 guiney's that came with the place when we bought it, I am down to 3. They range through our fields, through our neighbors fields, the swamp across the road and down the road to the neighbors bird feeder. She puts out sunflower seeds for them, she says loves them to come visit. The last one we lost was from a hawk attack about 3 feet from the chicken run. My hubby got home from work to find a hawk eating on the guiney hen and the chickens all lined up on their porch (under cover) watching, lol.

 

[BreanneRN]

My chickens are in a run and only allowed to free-range when I am out and about. My Guiney hens however, are total free range and they return to their coop every night. From a flock of 8 guiney's that came with the place when we bought it, I am down to 3. They range through our fields, through our neighbors fields, the swamp across the road and down the road to the neighbors bird feeder. She puts out sunflower seeds for them, she says loves them to come visit. The last one we lost was from a hawk attack about 3 feet from the chicken run. My hubby got home from work to find a hawk eating on the guiney hen and the chickens all lined up on their porch (under cover) watching, lol.

Hope the watching ones learned something....

 

[wyoDreamer]

Hope the watching ones learned something....[/QUOTE]
I doubt it. This group is kinda dumb. They have learned that I am the Food Mama and will line up along the fence when I get home from work. We pulled up all the overgrown shrubs along the driveway so their favorite area is gone - the guineys gave us What-for about that one - so there really isn't enough cover for the chickens to be loose free-ranging on their own.
Funny story: I had let the flock loose one evening for a little bit and went into the house for a couple of minutes, I was going right back out to work in the garden. A friend showed up to borrow a tool from my Hubby, and brought his 2 young sons. The boys went to look at the chickens as usual, but the chickens were loose and scattered as the 2 boys barreled around the corner of the barn. I came out of the house just in time to see one of my chickens come flying over the roof of the milkhouse. Granted, the milkhouse is attached to the barn and is buried 3/4 into the ground by the dirt ramp to the haymow of the barn, so it was only a 3' jump to the roof of the building and she had just enough lift by frantically flapping to go up and over the roof. The front of the building is fully exposed though and she flapped all the way to the ground. It was just startling for me to see my chicken come flying over a building.
They felt so bad about scattering my chickens that they caught them and put them back into the run. I think having the guys chase them down and catch them was more traumatic than the initial scattering. I wish they would have just let them be and they would have gone back into the coop on their own - except for Stupid, that chicken gets stuck behind the door to the run every time and I have to grab her and carry her around the door and deposit her in the run.

 

[MissChick@dee]

Use a stick or rake anything really. You can gently herd them back. They’ll learn.