Free Range or Not? What Does Everyone Prefer?

[LiLChicken]

Well I think the lady next-door is a bit overboard but all her birds are pets and Mine are cool and all but they are bug eaters and egg layers

My girls have free access to 1/2 acre and they will come up to you (mainly for food **** beggers

) but don't want to be touched and I put them out in the coop at 6-7 weeks and for the first 10 days I had a small temp run of 10' x 17' for them to learn where their new home was and then it was out in the world and they have a few things to hide out in and under and so far they have been doing very well and I am getting 8 eggs a day.

I look forward to learning from all of you and if I can offer up any useful input I will.

 

[Our Roost]

Sorry guys but I dont and wont free range to the extent some of you do. Between my coop size, Florida room and run area, my flock is more than content to preside within their present and more than ample surroundings. I have let them out to free range and they wont wander or leave the perimeter of the run knowing that is home and protection to them within it. I gave them their freedom to free range and they have chosen not to. Go figure! My florida room as I call it is both wired and covered but my run is not. I will admit that the run is not a safe haven as it is not covered, but the florida room and coop are.
I think because all my chicks have been raised together since birth has something to do with how close knit they are to each other. I only have a couple of birds that are really adventurous explorers. The rest are homies! The only thing I lack is greenage! My run turned barron after the first few weeks the birds were in it. So I have to supplement with grass clippings, garden vegetables, and lots more. I can now leave my birds in the florida room and coop unattended without worring about predators. There is plenty of room for them to get around without feeling pent up. They also know food, water, and a tasty cabbage head is there for them also! Well gang, thats my perspective. Do your own thing and what ever makes ya happy!

 

[chinzilla]

I have a good mix I work from home mostly so they are out when we are home - otherwise they are closed inside the coop/run if we are not around. The heavy machinery and equipment we have around the backyard provides nice shelter (they like to lay under the trailers). There is so much landscaping I think they would be sad angry chickens if we kept them in the run all the time.

I secretly think they play hide and seek with one another.

 

[Nickeyo]

Oh, please!

Just because you can't accomplish successful free ranging~or are afraid to try it~ and feel like it is dangerous for the chickens, there are many more people out there who do it for years and are quite successful at it and the chickens live happy and healthy lives. I can guarantee that I've had less chicken loss in free ranging over X amount of years than you have had from poor health issues in your pens and runs in the same amount of years.

im not afraid of free ranging i just have insight in what might happen. i also have a badger set very near my house which makes free ranging hard but i can garentee that when my hens are let out they probaly have a better time than yours

Also the fact i rescue battery hens means they dont have as much instinct as others so dont know much danger (the last group i had tryed to chase of a fox and suprisingly won but it was very weak and skinny and small. i was up stairs and in the time it took me to get down and outside they were chasing it down our garden)
I could accomplish successful free ranging because we have 17acres.

 

[Eg-Head]

Two weeks ago I had a Coopers Hawk show up but hhe could'nt get in the pen for food my girls were safe. He showed up for three days in a row finally I caught him and took him out to one of the lakes around here and let him go.

I live in the city also. How did you manage to catch a hawk??? We have a nest two doors down and I need to know for the safety of my girls.

 

[Beekissed]

It's pretty much against the law, I do believe. Can't trap migratory birds or otherwise lay a hand on them, far as I know, unless you have rescued one from injury, etc and are transporting it to a rescue center or vet.

 

[TXchickmum]

Quote: The thing that I "love" about this and other "social" forums is the fact that too many engage the mouth (or keyboard) before the brain processes all of the pertinent facts. Folks are quite passionate and opinionated about this topic. For many, free-ranging is the best scenario. For many others (urban settings AND specific circumstances like the above individual with rescued hens) supervision and limited ranging is much more appropriate.

Blessings to you, Nickeyo, for giving these hens a wonderful life (and looking after their well-being)!!!

 

[speckledhen]

Beekissed said:
Quote: I don't have a dog with my flock, never have, wish I did but cannot afford to keep another after my 15 year old lab/pointer girl dies, but I did exactly as you describe. We have 5.37 acres of wooded mountain land.

We did the first coop with attached pen, free ranged the original small flock without a rooster until they were almost a year old with us very close by, but one was a Dora the Explorer and we started fencing 2 of the 5 acres, one fence bundle at a time as we could afford it on our piddly military pension check, mainly to keep Ginger at home (she took 2-3 pals with her on her quests), but also to keep roaming n'hood dogs from being able to easily run across the property, grabbing a chicken along the way. And when they were almost a year old, we got our first wonderful rooster who saved the girls from hawk attack on several occasions, just by being more alert than they were. Once, I saw him literally push hens under a leyland cypress tree while he stood out in the open like a huge barred statue (big guy, that Hawkeye was).

So, the coops each have attached pens with dig barriers, though only one is covered (the bantam coop, to keep them from flying out) and those are within the 2 acre livestock-fenced perimeter with driveway gate which is closed 24/7, unless we are expecting a delivery. That is when the flocks would be vulnerable so we keep them penned most of the time when that gate is open--I find that local dogs have "gate radar".

We have free ranged here on the mountain for almost 7 years. Never had one single predator loss. I do credit my marvelous roosters as well as all the cover we have here. In winter, we have all the leyland cypress, hemlocks and rhododendron in various places that we planted which have proved excellent cover as well.

Cover is probably what has been the key, other than several super-alert roosters, to our so-far success, though I do realize that the odds are not in our favor--eventually, our number will be up and someone will fall to a predator. I have only one LF rooster now and one bantam rooster whereas, we in recent months had 8 total to watch the surroundings and the skies, if only from their pens when it wasn't their turn in the rotation to free range. Need to have 2-3 roosters in the large main flock so in spring, I will have to think about hatching again.


ETA: I would also be afraid to free range rescued battery hens, I must say. I guess they'd eventually learn and their instincts would kick in, but still...

 

[aoxa]

You are allowed to edit your posts. We would have NEVER known!

We in N.A. will ignore the additional misspelling (of spelled) since you are in England and spelt is an accepted alternate spelling there.   

Here, let me do it for you!   (I would be the one on the right of course) 



Bruce

Spelt is? Oh my auto correct isn't correcting it We use pretty much the same spelling as the UK here in Canada. I think those of you in the USA like to be original

 

[Eg-Head]

We have a very similar arrangement in winter, when we have to remove the fence around the chicken yard so we can plow the driveway. Our neighbors like to run their dogs (no leash law here), so they agree to run them only in the mornings, while chickens stay in. I figured they're busy laying eggs in morning, anyway, so they're not missing much by being locked in. In the afternoon, the neighbor's dogs go in, and we let our chickens out.

What a GREAT system! You are lucky to get along with your neighbores. Makes life so much easier!