Evening Folks,
- Thread starter JMJ62
- Start date
Hello, Janet and family, and welcome to the BYC community.
Boppo
Crossing the Road
Glad to meet you, Janet! Best wishes keeping your free ranging chickens safe! I suppose it depends on how available you guys are to keep an eye on the flock, and how much risk you are willing to tolerate (will it devastate you, Charlie and/or CJ to lose a bird?)
During daytime hours, the biggest risk is hawks. At night, you have a large number of predators who just love chickens: raccoons (who live in very urban as well as suburban and rural places now), rats (everywhere, of course), weasels, foxes, coyotes, and, depending on where you live, things like bears
So letting them out in the daytime and offering them shelters around the yard where they can run quickly from a hawk attack (picnic tables, lawnchairs, bushes, wheelbarrows) is a good deal. You can keep an eye on them from your house, or if you feel better about it, you can set a time in the afternoon for free range, and sit out there with them. that is actually kind of a nice way to interact with your flock. You can garden, landscape, work on projects, or just hang out.
Be sure you get them used to coming in when you call! A regular routine with a bowl of treats is a good way to do this.
And then, be sure you have a well secured coop and run to shut them into.
During daytime hours, the biggest risk is hawks. At night, you have a large number of predators who just love chickens: raccoons (who live in very urban as well as suburban and rural places now), rats (everywhere, of course), weasels, foxes, coyotes, and, depending on where you live, things like bears
So letting them out in the daytime and offering them shelters around the yard where they can run quickly from a hawk attack (picnic tables, lawnchairs, bushes, wheelbarrows) is a good deal. You can keep an eye on them from your house, or if you feel better about it, you can set a time in the afternoon for free range, and sit out there with them. that is actually kind of a nice way to interact with your flock. You can garden, landscape, work on projects, or just hang out.
Be sure you get them used to coming in when you call! A regular routine with a bowl of treats is a good way to do this.
And then, be sure you have a well secured coop and run to shut them into.
Hi Janet and welcome to BYC 
We're so happy you've decided to join us 
We're so happy you've decided to join us 
Welcome to BackYard Chickens. The Best of Luck with your Flock! And a Big Hello from Eastern Nebraska.
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