Through alot of research on my own part theres alot of things that have completely opposite answers which confuses me. Some say chickens should have food at all times other said twice a day or even smaller meals 3-4 times a day. What does people on here say?
The reason you get opposite answers is that opposite things work. We have different goals and manage them differently. We feed them differently. Some, like the meat birds raised especially for meat might do better with a different feeding regimen than a flock of laying chickens. One of the challenges for someone new on here is to find someone that kind of matches your situation and pay more attention to what they say. Most new people and a lot of older people on here don't understand that we are all different. What works well for me might not work at all for you.
Free ranging. Our property is almost 10 acres not fenced in but its more long than wide. I keep telling my sister in law since the chicken run isn't that big that she should let them free range a couple hours a day but she only does it for 10-15 minutes long enough to feed them peas or corn. How far will a chicken go from the coop? I know their food motivated so im just curious does anyone free range during the day and do you do it supervised or just let them go free and they come back at night?
There is nothing new about keeping chickens. The ancient Chinese and Egyptians were incubating eggs and raising chicks without broody hens. For thousands of years before that people were keeping flocks of free ranging chickens. Even then some were managing them differently but a real common model was that the chickens would feed themselves by foraging in the better weather months. The quality of forage was important, they could not sustain themselves if all they had was a manicured lawn. You are in Michigan, you'd have to supplement their feed in winter even if you had great forage. Down here in Louisiana they could forage year around. They were not kept as pets, but were livestock. On the farm in Tennessee where I grew up our cattle fed themselves in the good weather months but in winter we fed them hay. We treated our chickens the same way. The milk cow and the plow horses did get daily grain but not the beef cattle or chickens.
Nobody was assigned to watch the chickens full time while they foraged on those ancient farms. I understand the farm I grew up on is considered ancient by most of the people on this forum. Predators were a danger but people knew how to manage predators. If they needed to kill a fox, raccoon, or whatever, they could and did kill a fox, raccoon, or whatever. Many people on this forum can't free range chickens or manage predators, they live too close to other people. You may find that your biggest risk for a predator is a dog, maybe a neighbor's or one that was abandoned. When I was in Arkansas I shot two abandoned dogs that were killing my chickens. I hated doing that, it wasn't the dogs' fault they were abandoned and they were hungry.
All this probably doesn't help you but maybe you can understand why you might get different answers for different people. We have different situations and different experiences. There are people in this country and around the world that still keep chickens the old fashioned way.
So now to your questions. They do not have to free range, that can lead to issues like predators. They will do fine contained if you feed them an appropriate feed. They enjoy free ranging but as long as you have enough room in the coop and run they can be very happy in there. If you want them to get greens or bugs, give it to them in the run.
Most of the time my chickens stayed within 300 feet or so of the coop though I had one group that would occasionally roam about 1,000 feet. The hens returned to the coop to lay eggs when they needed to. As it got dark they returned to the coop to sleep so I could lock them in safe from predators.
Any time they free range you have a risk of a predator attack. Don't believe anybody that tells you predators only attack at night. Certain ones are more active at night, that's why locking them up at night is pretty important, but people lose chickens in the middle of the day. A lady I got my blue egg laying stock from watched a bobcat take her rooster as she was looking out of the window washing the lunch time dishes. Different people on this forum have had a fox or hawk take a chicken while they were out with the flock, within 15 feet of where they were. Your being there reduces the risk but doesn't eliminate it.
I don't know if any of this helps you or not. Good luck!
