Free range question

[nao57]

You do say you have a run, that is good, it gives you options. I agree with Ridgerunner, it depends on the flock, and it really depends on the rooster if you have a flock master rooster, NOT a cockerel. A rooster over the age of 1 year can really help with daytime predators. Not all roosters are great roosters.

I have found, the more you let them out, the farther they roam. When you first start letting them out, they tend to be leary of getting too far from the coop and safety. The more often with no attacks, and they get braver.

I have a set up of coop/run, that I can keep my birds locked up 24/7. I need that cause I live on the prairies of SD, and have every predator and they all love chicken. I have found these tricks helps the odds.

• Do not have a set pattern of turning them out. Sometimes mine go out in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, and sometimes not at all.
• Don't let them out on high wind days or real cloudy days, gives too much advantage to the predators.
• When you get hit by a predator - go into lock down for several days and maybe even more days...so the predator moves on.
• Every time you feed birds, you should shake the can and call them. This can make rounding them up much easier and can be done quickly if you need to get them penned so you can leave.

I love watching my catch bugs, eat grass and scratch and dig and get good exercise, but I hate it when they get hit with a predator. Finding that balance is the key.

And I have never had chickens not come back to the coop as dark approaches from 3-4 weeks on. (Once I had them out, and a predator got a broody hen and a couple of her chicks. However, the chicks that escaped came to the coop that night.)

good luck,

Mrs K

Wow. Nice.

I like the bullet points and observations. It seems like you are trying to do it right.

This makes me curious...

You've been doing this quite a few years maybe? And what's the difference between people that do it short term, and people that have been doing it a long time? (practices, and habits)

I wanted to ask too with this can thing and calling them when you feed them does that work for other fowl besides chickens also? Like ducks, and others?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I grew up on a farm of about 75 acres where a flock of one rooster and 25 to 30 hens free ranged. Some even slept in trees but most were in a hen house at night. From the time I can remember until I left for college at 18 we had two serious predator attacks. Occasionally a broody hen would lose a chick to a snake but not that often, none most years but it happened. One attack was a dog that was immediately shot. A fox started taking one chicken every morning just after sunrise and they started foraging. It did not take Dad long to figure out that pattern and shoot it.

This flock did not stay together during the day. A small group of hens would stay with the rooster but the others would form "cliques' and roam on their own. Even with this practically all the eggs were fertile. Those chickens foraged for all they ate during the good weather months. We fed them some corn during winter. Most of those chickens stayed within 300 feet or so of the coop, mainly in an apple orchard. Occasionally some would wander further but not that often. Mostly in an open pasture field.

When I retired I got a flock and free ranged them. I owned two acres but was surrounded by pastures with horses and cattle. I free ranged a breeding/laying flock of one rooster and 6 to 8 hens, but hatched another 45 or so chicks every year to eat. If a broody hen raised them they immediately started free ranging with her after hatch. My brooder-raised chicks started free ranging at 8 weeks. I did that for three years and only lost two chickens to predators. I suspect a fox or coyote but never found any evidence so I can't be sure. After I lost one I'd keep them penned for a month so the predator learned there was not a free meal there. Then I had a dog attack, somebody abandoned two 100-pound dogs in the country. They killed eight chickens before I shot them. A few months later another dog was abandoned. That cost me five chickens. A neighbor shot it because it was after his calves. I then got electric netting to protect them. After that I lost one to an owl and one to a hawk. That's all. Well, I did lose a couple of baby chicks to a snake, almost forgot those.

When those were free ranging most flocks would stay with the rooster though one year I had a group of three hens that would wander off on their own, leaving the rooster an his four or five hens. Most of the time they would stay within 200 to 300 feet of the coop. That was letting them out every morning at daybreak and them putting themselves to bed in the coop at night. One year one group, the rooster and all adult hens, would sometimes travel about 1,000 feet to visit a neighbor's tornado shelter. It was a grassy mound to them, I think they enjoyed perching up there. He liked hearing the rooster crow, reminded him of his childhood.