Free Range or Not? What Does Everyone Prefer?

[Red Barn Farms]

The chickens are natures natural fertilizer. Plus, they eat the bugs that harm the plants, so the farmer doesn't have to spray...IF he has enough chickens. The eggs are usually larger, they definitely taste better, and you are much more apt to find double yolks. The chickens are usually locked in the hen house at night, so no critters can get them. Normally, you will see some big old farm dogs, whose job is to protect them. Even having a few chickens to have enough eggs for your home is economical and easy! They have a blast in our smallish kitchen garden!

The disadvantages of raising chickens and farming them out to major distributers, for their eggs or the meat....is usually horrendous! They are jammed into inadequate spaces, fed hormones, antibiotics...if they did not give them those additives, the chicken would most likely die from disease. Most can't even walk, they have no stamina, they have been trapped for so long. Sometimes you can find breasts or thighs that looks like they were from giant chickens! Those are the hormones in action!!

I have raised chickens for awhile now. The eggs and chickens taste noticeably better and allowing them to forage greatly reduces their food bill. I have no way of knowing about chicken happiness, but they certainly look happier in their little flock pecking and scratching, and they certainly make me happier watching them, they are such silly birds.


So, really? In the sea of life and looking at the big picture......there aren't really any disadvantages to having free range chickens!

 

[kristenm1975]

I keep my hens in their coop and run 100% of the time for three reasons:

1. Predation (I chose each girl for particular reasons and the flock would not be the same if one or two got picked off by coyote or raccoon)

2. Eggs (I don't have either the time or the inclination to spend all evening hunting eggs)

3. Parasites (my coop and run are kept 100% tight so that my birds are totally isolated from rodents and wild birds, which drops the chances of a mite or lice infestation down hugely, especially since I got hatchery chicks as day olds and have not introduced other stock and have practiced good clean care of the coops since day one)

 

[CatUT]

My chickens free range my yard most of the time. When I keep them in the run, I think they resent me and let me know that they are not happy not running around the yard. If they start laying in the yard I just leave them in the run for a couple of days and they figure out that they need to lay in the nesting boxes. If I do it, I don't have any bugs in my yard however, I don't have any low hanging fruit or strawberries either. I'm working on that problem.

 

[speckledhen]

I keep my hens in their coop and run 100% of the time for three reasons:
1. Predation (I chose each girl for particular reasons and the flock would not be the same if one or two got picked off by coyote or raccoon)
2. Eggs (I don't have either the time or the inclination to spend all evening hunting eggs)
3. Parasites (my coop and run are kept 100% tight so that my birds are totally isolated from rodents and wild birds, which drops the chances of a mite or lice infestation down hugely, especially since I got hatchery chicks as day olds and have not introduced other stock and have practiced good clean care of the coops since day one)

I just wanted to touch on a couple of your points, if I may:

Actually, parasites and worms are more likely in penned flocks. Mine have free ranged for almost 7 years and there has never been lice or mites on any of my birds and I only worm them every 1 11/2 -2 years. They eat natural wormers while out on range.

Also, my hens never lay eggs out on range, not any of my hens have found a secret place under some bush. No matter where they are, they run back to the coop to lay and that goes for all groups who've been raised here over the years.

Just three or four times in almost 7 years, a free ranging hen did not lay in the coop: My black Ameraucana would lay next to my crippled rooster's cage when she was let in, but they were attached to each other. Her mother laid an egg in the same place one time. Once another hen laid her egg in the top of a bag of shavings in the storage area of a different coop, but she has never done that since that one time, even when she had the opportunity. And once the coop door shut unbeknownst to me and five hens laid their eggs in a straw bale because they could not get back inside. Laying outside the coop is not usually a problem for hens trained to lay in a nest.

Now, if you have only a handful of hens, I can see how losing just one would be a problem, but eventually, you will lose one to something. If they are hatchery hens, it will most likely be to reproductive issues.

 

[fowlsessed]

I just wanted to touch on a couple of your points, if I may:

Actually, parasites and worms are more likely in penned flocks. Mine have free ranged for almost 7 years and there has never been lice or mites on any of my birds and I only worm them every 1 11/2 -2 years. They eat natural wormers while out on range.

Also, my hens never lay eggs out on range, not any of my hens have found a secret place under some bush. No matter where they are, they run back to the coop to lay and that goes for all groups who've been raised here over the years.

Just three or four times in almost 7 years, a free ranging hen did not lay in the coop: My black Ameraucana would lay next to my crippled rooster's cage when she was let in, but they were attached to each other. Her mother laid an egg in the same place one time. Once another hen laid her egg in the top of a bag of shavings in the storage area of a different coop, but she has never done that since that one time, even when she had the opportunity. And once the coop door shut unbeknownst to me and five hens laid their eggs in a straw bale because they could not get back inside. Laying outside the coop is not usually a problem for hens trained to lay in a nest.

Now, if you have only a handful of hens, I can see how losing just one would be a problem, but eventually, you will lose one to something. If they are hatchery hens, it will most likely be to reproductive issues.

x 2, exactly .

 

[Mtn Laurel]

I only have 3 girls so it's a bit easier for me. I do a "modified free range" where I put a temp fence up in a part of my yard and let them have at it. I will then move the fence in about 2 weeks - which is how long it will take them to eat everything in the region.

I'm in the woods and I know I have a fox that takes a daily walk on the outskirts of my property. That's why I don't let them totally free range. The temp fence probably won't keep the fox from them but it does keep them from going into the woods to the fox.

If I'm going to be away from the house for any period of time, they're put back into their coop and the permanent run that is attached to it.

 

[Mattemma]

I let mine roam fall and spring.Winter they hang by the coop.Summer the are put in the far back yard.We have hawks,so I know it is a risk.

 

[boochaces]

free range 100%... the chickens are so much happier being chickens... having freedom. only in their coop at night.

i accept the possible losses. i love them. i name them. but i want them to live the best life and that is free ranging.

 

[OnceAroundTheBlock]

Mine stay in their 20' by 20' covered run most of the time but I will let them out maybe two or three times a week for a couple of hours and only if I'm home.

 

[Red Barn Farms]

Adding to the topic in more detail, We have three different flocks of chickens at two separate locations and all free range as much as possible which is at least 8 hours per day. All our flocks are provided with vegetation cover as in trees, hedges and shrubs for protection from hawks, etc. Each flock is provided with around an acre of land to forage on which is mostly grass. We have no fencing around the land they free range on but they never venture any farther than 1/2 acre from the hen house. The run area is always kept open so the flock may come and go back into the hen house as they please for egg laying, roosting, etc, Every evening at dusk like clockwork they all make their way back inside their hen house where they jump on the roost for the evening. As night approaches we then shut all the hen house doors. We have let ours free range since January of this year and luckily we have never lost a single bird to any predators. We are lucky with our working hours that someone is always home at different hours to oversee the flocks.

So far we have not found a single parasite, mite, lice or worms on any of our chickens like at times may occur if a flock is kept penned up. Our hen houses are cleaned on a weekly bases. All feeders, waterers, roosts, etc are also cleaned weekly with either a water/bleach or water/ammonia solution. Our flock only spends a few hours a day in the run areas. Every two weeks the run areas will be raked clean of all 'debris' and the dirt turned over using either a hoe or tiller. This helps greatly to control mold, fungus, etc from growing. You do not want your chickens running in an area which has became 'hot'. If you have the option to have two or three separate run areas to rotate your flock all the better!

It's so nice seeing our flocks free ranging, digging and scratching in the dirt and dust bathing, just being happy and healthy chickens!