Do you free range your chickens?

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

I watched a couple red tailed hawks mate right above the chicken coop! What a sight as they spiraled down down down and smacked the ground! Amazing site!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Approach may need to be tailored to resources you have. I addition to dogs and fencing, which are very expensive, I have various types of vegetation that provide visual cover as well as refuges when hawks do come in to cause trouble. This means a structurally varied plant community with lots of edges/boundaries between plant types. For me, the ideal situation has cover patches scattered all over the place and easy for chickens to get to in a hurry and in good places for loafing. I also like so the chickens are able to get food resources they need without going too far away. Raptors like Red-tailed Hawks do seem intimidated by close proximity of places they normally see us walking around. If the chickens go too far away, especially with minimal cover, then odds improve for something like a Red-tailed being able to tackle a chicken and eat without being disturbed. The having adult standard-sized roosters also complicates life for the hawk which conflicts with what many people can support in restrictive neighborhoods or where smaller flock makes supporting even a small number of roosters costly and a potential complication for chicken keepers that do not know their way around roosters. That latter point is easy to see on this site.

Coopers Hawks which in many ways operates like a Goshawk is not an issue with adult standard-sized roosters.

Losses to raptors are not zero, although they are negligible when things going well.

And to restate, I have dogs and fencing.

If I had to restart, then I would be also farming a lot of blackberries organized in rows and patches. And I am gearing up for that too.

Thank you, this makes good sense. We are on basically two acres, but surrounded by 80 or so of pasture with no other people to speak of, have abt 25 chickens and at the mo only 1 excellent rooster. For this many hens I prefer two roos but I think this one killed my younger one. We do have clutter and vegetation which may explain why we have not lost any to aerial predators in a couple of years, guess we are accidentally doing things right. Again, thank you for the explanation, always good the know what works.

 

[Perris]

Things I see as ideal for keeping free-range chickens make yard management more challenging

borders of mature shrubs patrolled by chickens are remarkably easy to maintain; the chickens' constant scratching under them effectively weeds the ground beneath the shrubs. Elsewhere I'm prepared to live with an untidy garden, which is all the rage here if you call it 'rewilding'

 

[Brizi]

We had ours in a 30x20 setup surrounded by electric netting. It didn't work out. Hawks nearly got our girls twice, and dogs ended up killing them all in the end. The dogs didn't care about the electric netting, they just jumped over it. I wouldn't ever do it again. We're doing a fully enclosed 30x10 run, and they will get supervised time within the electric netting on fresh grass.

 

[Nomadicus]

Everyday when weather permits I open the coop up to a free range area that is about 2 acres in size. The Delaware flock likes the wooded part and the RIR's seem to prefer the open grass area that was overseeded last fall with white clover. So far no losses to the hawks. Once their large runs are constructed the actual free ranging will only be when I can sit and watch over them.

 

[centrarchid]

borders of mature shrubs patrolled by chickens are remarkably easy to maintain; the chickens' constant scratching under them effectively weeds the ground beneath the shrubs. Elsewhere I'm prepared to live with an untidy garden, which is all the rage here if you call it 'rewilding'

Agreed, the shrubs/plantings good for chickens are easy, although here at least most homeowners manage property to look in some way consistent with neighbors. The is especially true with the well-manicured lawns which my chickens tend to spend disproportionately little time on while foraging. It is those lawns that promote chickens going off property resulting in need for containing the chickens.

We had ours in a 30x20 setup surrounded by electric netting. It didn't work out. Hawks nearly got our girls twice, and dogs ended up killing them all in the end. The dogs didn't care about the electric netting, they just jumped over it. I wouldn't ever do it again. We're doing a fully enclosed 30x10 run, and they will get supervised time within the electric netting on fresh grass.

I use electrified fencing although found that by itself it is not effective at keeping out wild canids and raptors. It does not even stop a lot of domestic dogs. The area I can enclose with electrified netting is too small for keeping free-range chickens on so the birds can meet most of their nutritional needs. I still see benefit in the netting when my dogs patrol around it and the chickens have cover patches within the fenced area.

Keeping chickens sustainably in a free-range environment is a major departure from what current human population in my area has cultural tolerances for. My yard is a total standout in my area even though zoned as agriculture. Very few of my neighbors even garden and most maintain even several acres totally as lawn that needs to be mowed at least weekly during growing season. Most here do not even make room for wildlife.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

I haven't lost a lot of birds to hawks, but enough that it's an issue -- especially during migration season.

The resident hawks that nest on the property don't seem to take my birds the way the travelers do.

The hawks are no doubt familiar with the old adage, "Don't poop on your own doorstep", or more accurately, "Don't attack chickens that belong to a guy who knows where you live".

 

[Tired old Rooster]

I have four little hens. At night, they sleep in a coop that is very secure. From sunrise to sunset, they are free to run around as they please. My dog is fine around them and just yesterday, she spotted a cat nearby and chased it all the way back to its home. So far, so good.

 

[centrarchid]

The hawks are no doubt familiar with the old adage, "Don't poop on your own doorstep", or more accurately, "Don't attack chickens that belong to a guy who knows where you live".

Hawks and owls not doing a lot of hunting near active nest seems typical and many prey species can benefit. A family I’m working with has Red-Shouldered Hawks nest in tree 10 feet behind back door and over uncovered run. They in my experience do not typical go after chickens but will provide daytime protection from those that do by protecting nest site

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Birds of prey are so rare here that I'd gladly donate a couple of chickens just to see one.

Currently sitting outside with the flock of 5, them poking around and me with my cup of coffee, eyes closed facing the sun. I look up, SIX hawks overhead. I jump up and make sure the girls know whats up. They do. The huddle, i stand tall, hoot and hollar, clap and stomp. Eventually the hawks become uninterested in my show and fly off. I look and the hens are all staring at me with humor or hero. Score another for team chicken! Chickens score 10, hawks remain ZERO!!