Free Range of Expensive Breeds

[kelly52862]

Do you or would you free range expensive chickens? Most of my girls are common breeds, but I would love to have some more expensive breeds.

 

[sourland]

Only if you could handle the potential loss. I used to fly Birmingham Rollers - performing birds. Primary rule was to never fly birds you could not afford to lose.

 

[SueT]

I probably would keep the expensive breeds confined, and let the common ones be the expendable characters....
I just got some brown leghorns because supposedly they are good at evading predators. My neighbor has dozens of them wandering all over the place, crossing the road, etc. Last year, I lost a couple of mine that were heavy dual purpose breeds, so I researched what my neighbor has and found there are breeds that are considered better at avoiding predation. The brown leghorn is very common and inexpensive. I'll see what happens. I believe that at least they will have a better chance at survival than my Buff Orpington did.
I got some bantams that will probably not be allowed freedom when they grow up.

 

[CascadiaRiver]

I free range all of my chicken, from my fancy $500 silkie to my $2 RIR/EE mix, you have to be more careful with fancier breeds with crests (the poof on the head) because 95% of them can't see up! Only forward and side to side, and sometimes not even that, so arial predators like hawks can be a much bigger problem for them. Also some with different feather types like Frizzles and Silkies can provide issues becuase of mud and rain can soak them and make a white bird turn brown! (I speak from experience, our white silkie was almost BLACK with mud!)