- Jan 9, 2010
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Similar to Nate, mine are free ranging our 7 acres from about 7:00 a.m. until dark. But I do keep a feeder filled with chicken feed which they can access at any time. I'd say my 9 hens go through maybe a bag of feed every two months. We have horses, so they spend a lot of happy time in the manure pile and the paddock. And they love being able to get into the garden.
The girls are big Buff Orpingtons, and some large Wyandottes, so I have not had any issues with hawks, although there have been a few times I have gotten nervous and scurried them into the coop. We did lose 6 hens to a fox until we started letting our dogs roam the property all of the time. They have been a great deterrant (our fencing keeps dogs out - and in - but not the foxes!)
The hens usually stay in about a 100 foot radius from their coop, but I have found the whole flock at the far end of our property - about a quarter mile. And they'll go a long ways if they think I have spread grass seed in the far pasture. They seem to have some kind of homing device for grass seed.
