For those that don't have much land..

[Brahmamama4]

I'm curious about what others do that live in the city if they own chickens. I myself live in a development, but my property backs up to someone else's field and the back of our property line isn't fenced. I would LOVE to let my chickens out in our backyard for a while each day, but I'm afraid I woudn't be able to lure them back or catch them if they wandered into the field. I also don't want them to find their way into our neighbors yard on either side of us, or the front street. What does everyone else do? I cant wait to move to a place with more land! Someday

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Well my crazy child bought a harness/leash combo for her rabbit, then next thing I knew she had a "chicken on a string" walking a hen around the front yard where they are not allowed..on a leash..guess you could always do that

I warn you though...we live in rural Tennessee and folks were slowing down gawking at her with her leashed bird....it is a sight to see. you would surely be the Crazy chicken lady/man if you do that.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Fence the back of your property line - doing so will also help keep dogs and other wandering visitors to a minimum.

 

[Gonzo]

how many chickens do you have? and how big is your yard? You could always fence off a section for them..

 

[Brahmamama4]

I will probably end up with 3-4 Brahmas. They are about 3 weeks right now and I'm suspecting one is going to be a roo. They will have a coop that is 4x4 and a fenced run that is 6x12. I'm not sure how big our yard is. Maybe 50x30?

The run is placed on cement and the flooring will be sand so I'm sure my chickens would love to play in the grass sometimes. I don't think I could convince my DH to build another fence along the back because we still need to build a retaining wall there first.

 

[anniem]

We are in city limits, but on the edge. There's some protected land out behind us but I plan on our chickens staying in our yard (they'll also have a decent size run, I don't want to leave them out with the dog). OTOH, the neighbors on 1 side of us and the ones behind us (we're on a shared driveway, kind of like a cul-de-sac, there are 4 houses on it) do not have fenced yards and they've let their chickens free range. There were a couple of times in the last 6 years that i've seen them in or across the street and they sometimes go to the open land behind the houses but mostly they stay really close. And they always seemed to come back in the evening.
But i'd strongly suggest some kind of fence to keep them in your yard and, like someone else said, keeping dogs out.

 

[MotherJean]

Chicken on a string...

 

[Chickens-246]

I open free range and my crew generally roam 200 feet from the coop, sometimes 300 feet. I trained mine to come when called and not to enter the street.

Chickens will come back to their coop at dusk and/or for food/water.

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
Weeell, if you're just worried about getting them "back" from the area behind your yard...

Start feeding them just a *little* bit of scratch/corn but before you give it to them put it in a bucket and shake it up and down so that they can hear the scratch in the bucket bouncing around. After they've been conditioned to the sound of the scratch inside the bucket they should get excited at the sound and start running to you (if they don't simply run to you at the sight of you or the bucket). Anyhow, when you get ready for them to come home walk out their way and start shaking the bucket, when they start coming turn around and start heading back to the house. I've seen my father lead 50 head of cattle down and across a highway when he was changing pastures using just a handful of feed and a bucket.

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[ColoradoMike]

I live in town, and our 6' cedar fence has been sufficient to keep the birds contained...so far...