Hi. Welcome to the forum from Louisiana. Glad you joined.
First, we cannot give you guarantees about chicken behaviors. We can tell you what we expect to happen most of the time but there are always going to be exceptions.
We have 6 Rhode Island Reds and they are starting to lay eggs. One question we have is, should we only let them out of the coop/run area for short period of time or for a certain time each day?
Some people always keep them confined to the coop/run. Some people let them have total access outside the coop/run after they wake up in the morning. Some let them out for a portion of the day, sometimes supervised, sometimes without supervision.
Any time you let them free range there is a risk that you can lose one to a predator. Some of us can go years without a loss. Some people lose chickens the first time they try it. You may get lucky but if you free range you are at high risk to lose one or more chickens to a predator over time.
We are worried the chickens will lay outside the coop if they are out and about. Or is this a non issue cause they can "hold" it?
Once a chicken learns to lay in a certain spot she normally returns there every time to lay in that spot. If that spot is in your coop she returns to the coop if she has access. If that spot is in the woods she returns to the woods as long as she has access. When she is ready to lay the egg she will travel a long way to get back to her nest. So you want them to learn to lay in the nests in the coop. You might keep them locked up in the coop/run until they are in that habit. I find that if I have hens laying in the nests the new pullets just starting to lay usually learn from those hens where to lay. Not always, but usually.
There are exceptions to this. A hen might stop laying in her nest in the coop and start laying somewhere else in the coop, in the run, or in the woods. She can lay somewhere else in the coop or run even if she does not have access to the woods. You see a lot of posts on here where people think their hens are not laying. One reason people think that is that the hens are laying, but they've hidden a nest from them.
Once mine learn to lay in a nest in the coop they practically always return there to lay. But as I said above, I can't give you guarantees as to what they will do. There can always be exceptions.
if you leave the coop door open when they are running around isnt there a danger that squirells and things steal their food?
Yes, if the coop door is open anything that can get in the run can get in the coop. If the run gate is open anything can get in there. That can be things like squirrels, and chipmunks after the food to raccoons possum, and skunks that might want the eggs, chickens, or the food, or snakes that might eat the eggs baby chicks if you have babies. A typical problem is wild birds getting the food. Wild birds are worse if you feed the chickens in the run but I have them come into my coop after feed too. Some of us worry about this kind of thing more than others.
