Free-range chickens about to be not so free-range

[Pampered Hen]

Looks like we are all dealing with the same problem here. Happy free range hens make for destroyed gardens and grumpy spouses. Plus, happy free range hens hate to be confined! If they have tasted freedom once, they will not be happy with any sized run! My girls squawk and whine, cram by the door begging to be let out. They sent me on guilt trips and just know how to manipulate me! I either end up muttering apologies or break down and open up the gate...

For peace of mind, it might just be easier to provide them with a nice run and keep them in it. If they don't know anything else, they will be content with what they have. But if you offer them 10 minutes of freedom they want 24 hours!

 

[Noymira]

Quote:
I totally agree!! Build them a nice run with lots of things to climb on and dig in, maybe do the chicken salad bar someone else mentioned. They will be happier, and you will too!

 

[chuckzoo]

I had the same problem. I love top garden and have things look clean and neat to so I built them a "Range Rover" so they could be out in the garden where we can watch them and not have them destroy the place.

Here's the Range Rover;

They also have a large run:

Good luck

 

[schellie69]

I let my flock free range our back yard last year. I have no grass left, they completely destroyed it. This year we are growing new grass so the flock is locked in their nice run with roosts, a log plus I throw straw on the ground with scratch, I pick weeds and grass everyday. The get grass clippings once a week plus treats. When we move them to their new larger coop/pen I am making a salad bar with chicken prairie grass for them. They will still get weeds, grass clippings. Plus veggies from the garden they will also be allowed an hour or so a day to free range I planted some lettuce near the edge of the garden so they can eat those. I don't think that they are to unhappy they get plenty of treats and have different levels to scratch around in. Now when we get our farm depending on land size they will be able to free range more within a fenced in area.

 

[Heatherberry]

I just had to share what happened to me yesterday.

I am letting the girls out for no only 2 hours a day. My husband is gonna build the run soon. Busy man he is. Anyway they are happy.

I went yesterday to get some scratch to put in the coop so they have something to do. I told the guy at the feed store I needed it because my chickens were mad at me that I was confining them to their coop and not letting them run around wild anymore.

He just looked at me and he said, "Ma'am, chickens don't have a brain big enough to be mad at you." I said I know, but they act mad at me and I am struggling with them not having the run of the yard, they need their exercise. He told me, "Ma'am, they get 1 square foot per chicken in commercial chicken houses. Your chickens are just fine. They are just chickens."

Well, for one thing I personally feel the commercial chickens have a bad wrap and would never compare my chickens to those poor animals. But he was so cute how he said it. Little old country man with a suburban housewife coming in totally trying to appease her chickens. I must of seemed wacky to him. Anyway, it was cute.


I think a roving chicken ark would not work for me because in Florida, we get very hot. Very hot. 95% of my backyard in in the dead sun. We did have shade until about two months ago we had a 50 year old laurel oak fall in our back yard. So shaded yard gone in 20 seconds. The girls coop is in the only shaded part of the yard left. Anyway it would seem like more trouble than its worth trying to get them in there, move them around, get them back in their coop. IMO.

I was thinking, and let me know what ya'll think. What about putting a layer of pine bark in the run? They love that stuff. It wouldn't be able to get flicked out because I will use hardware cloth and the pine bark is too big to go through. So in essence they will just be continually flicking it all over just like they do in the beds.

 

[chuckzoo]

The pine bark would probably keep them entertained. Mine eat little bits of pine bark they find in their pine shaving bedding.

 

[flowergirl60]

Oh yes I am having the same problem with my 3 hens. I came home today and my pullet (clipped her wings once already) had got out of the run by flying over the 4ft part of the run to get in our yard. My other 2 are full grown and too fat.

Our yard has a 6 ft fence all around so not too worried about that. When I got home she was hanging out in front of the run looking at the other two still in the run like Ha Ha I'm out and your not.

Needless to say she got another wing clipping.

 

[eggsontoast]

I'm currently re-homing mine in their newer, larger coop that my husband is finishing up. While I know they love the extra space and big roosts, I can tell they want OUT into the yard. We were previously letting them free-range all day. Since our backyard gets too much shade to do any decent landscaping, I'm not worried about the holes they make for dustbaths or the poop. I mean, don't LOVE having poop on my deck, but it's worth it to see the chickens congregated outside our french doors staring at us all day. We get a kick out of it. My only problem is that they've been nibbling on my heirloom tomato and cucumber plants...not okay. I'm also worried that they may be laying outside their nesting box. While our yard, which is covered mostly in brown leaves, makes for great scratching for the chickens, it also provides excellent camouflage for eggs! I'm thinking of keeping them in their new coop until the afternoon and then letting them out around 3:30 or 4 until sunset to free-range. That way, we all win. My only question though...if a chicken has a place in the yard where she wants to lay, will she "hold" her egg until I let her out and she can find her spot???

 

[galanie]

I have one crazy hen that just has to get on top of a former chicken tractor that is now keeping them out of a bit of garden. It's higher than the fence but she can land about 2 feet up and walk the rest of the way. I'm hoping she doesn't discover she can easily fly up to the fence some day. I know they can - I've seen them fly that high. They just don't. Maybe I'm lucky.

 

[chuckzoo]

Quote:
Tomato plants belong to the nightshade family and are poisonous to chickens, so you definately want to keep them away from your vegetable garden.