BeeKissed on Free-Ranging:
It depends on your area and your resources. It really takes the proper dogs living in the range area to prevent such a thing...you need good, reliable dog(s) on their own free range(mine is on an electric confinement system). Not many foxes will brave a dog's territory in broad daylight to snatch a chicken..too risky and there are far easier game to be had. A good dog is alert, ranging, marking territory and is a real presence at night. Fat, overfed house dogs going out in the daytime to do their business just won't cut it.
Having areas of duck and cover for your chickens is also key to successful free range...these birds will always be on alert and need places to retreat to in a hurry if they are a distance from the coop.
Having breeds of chickens known for good foraging skills and survival on range is also key....Buff Orpingtons? Silkies? Not good choices. Ever. Too slow, too docile, too pet like. You need breeds that are naturally flighty and jumpy to any threats of danger. If you are free ranging a flock of pet Orps or other fat and docile breeds, you are just opening a buffet and ringing the dinner bell. Chicken breeds that flock well are important also....loners get picked off and there is safety in numbers. As with all animals that exist in flocks
A good, alert rooster is also helpful but a hen will take over that responsibility in the absence of a rooster and will call an alarm at signs of danger. The tuned in free ranging flock will instantly run to that call from wherever they may be.
Chickens that are handled a lot by humans and are used to being stooped over all the time and will immediately squat when this happens are also like offering free dinners to the predators. You can't condition chickens to freeze and squat for your attentions and not expect them to do the same over any shadow that approaches from above. Any chicken that can be easily caught by a human in the daytime is more readily so by any predator in the area.
Starting out chicks on range at 2 wks along with the experienced flock heightens their survival skills...those kept in the house until they are 4 months old are sitting ducks. That's like putting a house dog out in the Alaskan wilderness and expecting them to adapt quickly enough to survive the wild.
If you live in a neighborhood where there are many stray dogs, a perimeter fence around your property is essential...even if you can only fence in an acre or two, that is the average ranging area of a free range flock. This slows predators down a bit and requires some work to get under, over or around...this gives your dogs time to sound an alarm or confront the predator and gives your flock time to retreat to the coop.
Saying that people who have these systems in place, who do the work and plan for these events, and who develop their flocks to be predator wary are just "lucky" is like saying people who train for 4 years for the Olympics and win are just "lucky". It takes work, planning and refining to have a successful free range experience for your flock and those who don't put in the wrench time on such a system are those who claim it cannot be done~ because they did it with a faulty system and didn't work to make it better.
BK, I can't thank you enough for this input above. Once again, empirical evidence aligns with my 'gut feelings' as i've never felt the inner freedom to let my (yes) my dreaded BO's free-range. But much thanks to you about 'trusting' as well as the good sense above.....and.......DARN! Can't remember if it was DragonLady or Gargoyle who suggested 50# clear filament run overhead. (MANY THANKS FOR THIS!) Now my flock has a large run with this stuff run over the top. Twice since putting this up (what a snap) I have watched hawks do a U-turn or side detour (and that's just when I was out there) . It was the junior bald-headed eagle that was scouting them that really got my attention in the first place. Huge things they are.
So here's why I won't free-range
this flock:
1. No dog now.
2. Super-thick predator population...both ground and sky.
3. Buff Orpingtons (but really pot-bellied-pig-pets-with-feathers)
Would just LOVE to free-range but until those things you mentioned are in place and I have a real free-ranging flock, it justa-aint-a-gonna-be-happenin'. BTW, I got the fishing line cheap-cheap at Wally-World.
In the spring will be creating at least one parallel run to allow the other to recup its grass after the ravaging's done. Maybe even plant something more nutritious in the other (suggestions?)
Here they are at the back corner of the run foraging through some leaves we mulched with the lawn mower and threw in there. It's their daytime fav spot to be right now. If you look closely you can see the fishing line that's been run above them. Not so visible to us but the hawks can see it well and so can the people in the planes that fly over. The clear stuff creates a light reflection. As I was told...'No hawk wants to tangle its wings in that". This probably wouldn't stop a fox or such but they are rare in the daytime and the birds are in the fort-knox-coop at dusk.
I think Boaz and the White Sisters would be alright free-ranged.
Oh....and uh....Boaz.....well, he asked me to put a bit better shot of himself in here, too. The vanity, O the vanity. (He's a bit of a dufus-roo, but don't tell him that)
) and by the time I've finished all the morning stuff, the feed has drained to a thick, dryish paste. I dump that in the feeder, add warmish water to the bucket, stir, then add a measure of dry feed, stir and repeat the next day.
and I did not see your description until this post. Couldn't read the label on the photo of the bottle even though I tried.
