Free range or enclosed run?

[Big Red Roosters]

Really? Many will disagree? To that I have to disagree! It should be a no-brainer for literally everyone that chickens are happier free-ranging.

What I was getting at is in my short time here, I have read many posts by members stating they dont agree free ranged birds were happier, which I strongly disagree with. There are more people who believe that here than you think.

 

[Henrik Petersson]

What I was getting at is in my short time here, I have read many posts by members stating they dont agree free ranged birds were happier, which I strongly disagree with. There are more people who believe that here than you think.

I would love to hear some arguments from those people.

 

[Nats Chickens]

Get an inclosed run! Ours free range, but they cause no-end of trouble! Destroying the neighbors gardens, pooing everywhere, stealing our dogs dinner...But because they are used to this privelage, no ordonairy fence will keep them in. Me and my Dad have plans for a 1.8m high chicken run to build over the Christmas holidays....

 

[Henrik Petersson]

Get an inclosed run! Ours free range, but they cause no-end of trouble! Destroying the neighbors gardens, pooing everywhere, stealing our dogs dinner...But because they are used to this privelage, no ordonairy fence will keep them in. Me and my Dad have plans for a 1.8m high chicken run to build over the Christmas holidays....

Build a net roof on the run! Chickens won't fly out, raptors won't fly in.

 

[MissChick@dee]

I do both. I understand the risk. My “free range” is in my 1/3 acre 6’ fenced backyard. They have a fully enclosed run and they can come and go as they please when we are home.
I have locked them in. Especially when hawks are migrating. Or until I trap a 4 legged predator that’s around.

 

[Mrs. K]

Maybe not happier in a secure run, but alive. Dead chickens, missing chickens gets old and they ALWAYS get your favorite.

All of us will have different problems depending on where we are, the size of the flock. We ranch with my closest neighbor miles away, however with every predator known to the mid-west. I do like mine to be out and peck but need to have a happy medium.

I have found through trial and error one can free range but should follow these "rules" if you live on the prairies in SD.

• do not have a set schedule for free ranging, some days dawn to dark, some days late afternoons, some days not at all. Predators will figure it out if you let them out each day at the same time.
• do not let them out if it is very windy, or dark and rainy, gives too much advantage to the predators. I see this is questioned in the above posts, it is not the weather, but the advantage to the predators.
• A rooster more than 1 year old, can be very effective with a lot of day time predators, not real good against coyotes or bobcats. A rooster less than a year old, is not worth much in flock protection.
• Do have a fully enclosed run large enough to lock them up safely. When you do get hit by a predator, you need to go into lock down for several days. Until the predator moves on.
• Yearling cattle, the heifers are like teenage girls, running all over the pasture, I can really let the chickens out then, the predators must not like that commotion, (but I realize that many of you won't have that option).

Many people talk about free ranging in a back yard, which is probably just a backyard. Many people think that they can cheat on the size of their flock if they free range, and really you can't, especially going into the dark days of winter. A couple of hours in a backyard is not going to make up for a too small coop/run.

Mrs K

 

[townchicks]

Another way to think about it is that if a chicken were less happy free-ranging, it would simply stay in the run if the door was opened. But they don't. They tend to run out as if their butts were on fire.

Actually my chickens do NOT run out when the door is open. One will not come out at all, one will hang within a few feet of the door, and the third just follows me around looking for a hand out, exactly as she does when we are in the run. My girls have plenty of room and entertainment in their run. Maybe if yours are so eager to leave, your run is the problem.Just sayin'.

 

[Melky]

Actually my chickens do NOT run out when the door is open. One will not come out at all, one will hang within a few feet of the door, and the third just follows me around looking for a hand out, exactly as she does when we are in the run. My girls have plenty of room and entertainment in their run. Maybe if yours are so eager to leave, your run is the problem.Just sayin'.

Mine run out fast as well into run and when run door is open they run/fly over to my greenhouse house area and under my deck. Mostly for dust bath and insects found in soil.

 

[Henrik Petersson]

My girls have plenty of room and entertainment in their run. Maybe if yours are so eager to leave, your run is the problem.Just sayin'.

Again, I'm curious as to what "entertainment" one can present to a chicken that doesn't get boring to them after half an hour.

 

[townchicks]

Again, I'm curious as to what "entertainment" one can present to a chicken that doesn't get boring to them after half an hour.

My chickens do pretty much everything that a free range chicken does. They scratch in the dirt and eat bugs, peck at greens, and dust bathe and sun bathe, perch on things. They do this all day. They are not bored, they are busy little birds.