The ideal solution is to start by putting them in a covered run - like a rabbit run or something similar. My hubby made me a square cage out of a few bits of old timber. I covered the sides with mesh (I think you call it hardware cloth in the US?) and when I put the chicks in I covered the top with pieces of mesh / old cold-frame glass etc. so nothing could get in and they couldn't get out. That way I could go inside, knowing that they were safe from predators. It was so light that I could move it on my own each day, to give them a fresh patch of grass with the best bits of clover etc in to eat! I was so confident in it that I even went shopping one day and left them for over two hours. I only used it for a couple of weeks to get them used to the outdoors - they are now 7 weeks old and free ranging with the 'big' girls.
I know that there is always a risk associated with free ranging birds, but I believe it gives them a far better quality of life. Touch wood - through three clutches of broody raised chicks that have free-ranged from day one, to date I have never lost one to predators, even though there are birds of prey here that I have seen catch and take a blackbird. Fingers crossed that it stays that way!
I know that there is always a risk associated with free ranging birds, but I believe it gives them a far better quality of life. Touch wood - through three clutches of broody raised chicks that have free-ranged from day one, to date I have never lost one to predators, even though there are birds of prey here that I have seen catch and take a blackbird. Fingers crossed that it stays that way!
