Free range unattended?

[U_Stormcrow]

I'm a free-ranger, with an electric fence protecting a few acres (4.5?) from ground-based predation, and two dogs too lazy to go outside, much less protect the flock. Plus three uncaring goats.

By three weeks, my hatchlings are already outside in a sheltered area to see and be seen by the main flock. Assuming no integration problems (sometimes, there are individual and singular issues where a particular bird is rejected), the hatchlings are fully integrated in the main flock by seven weeks on average.

The main flock free ranges w/o supervision about 12 hours daily. The littlest integrated birds have a secure house where they can roost/nest, but I usually leave the door open. Its inside a fenced run. The eldest integrated birds sleep in an open sided shelter, also in a fenced run, with the goats.

I do take losses, so far one ever 6 months or so, but its a short timeframe for me from which to derive averages - at this point its anecdote, not data. Ask me again in a decade.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

2 of my groups free range. 1 during the day, 1 technically 24/7/365. They've been that way for 10 and 4 years respectively and I have lost birds to predation. Heck, lost a whole turkey flock in less than a week when we* had a bobcat come in. However most of my hens are good at blending in (straw and light brown on dirt and yellow grass) in my permanent free range group which I know has lessened the body count (2 adults (1 hen to a cat and 1 dumb rooster to a neighbors dog). My other flock has lost many more, most when they weren't in the coop at night. However both flocks have amazing flockmaster that warn about any bird in the sky larger than a sparrow which are the main daytime predators here apart from dogs.

All in all, it's a risk. The flightier the bird in my experience, the better they do because they spook easily and dart to safety

 

[U_Stormcrow]

However most of my hens are good at blending in (straw and light brown on dirt and yellow grass) in my permanent free range group which I know has lessened the body count (2 adults (1 hen to a cat and 1 dumb rooster to a neighbors dog).

My other flock has lost many more, most when they weren't in the coop at night. However both flocks have amazing flockmaster that warn about any bird in the sky larger than a sparrow which are the main daytime predators here apart from dogs.

All in all, it's a risk. The flightier the bird in my experience, the better they do because they spook easily and dart to safety

The first sentence is the reason for my breed project. A flock that blends in is worth the effort to achieve, if you plan to free-range.

The second two are also important - docile, ground-focused birds should not be your first choice in this situation. This is a livestock method, not a "pet" method of management - which isn't to say that they don't follow me religiously to the barn in the evenings when I go to fill the feed buckets, and flock around me when I'm working on the area inside the fence (mix of pasture and under-brushed tree cover) or checking the lines.

Great post, @JacinLarkwell !

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The first sentence is the reason for my breed project. A flock that blends in is worth the effort to achieve, if you plan to free-range.

The second two are also important - docile, ground-focused birds should not be your first choice in this situation. This is a livestock method, not a "pet" method of management - which isn't to say that they don't follow me religiously to the barn in the evenings when I go to fill the feed buckets, and flock around me when I'm working on the area inside the fence (mix of pasture and under-brushed tree cover) or checking the lines.

Great post, @JacinLarkwell !

It also helps when the pattern is easy on the eyes too. Seems to help when you have a white or purple bird running around too, since they almost have spies to warn of danger

 

[U_Stormcrow]

It also helps when the pattern is easy on the eyes too. Seems to help when you have a white or purple bird running around too, since they almost have spies to warn of danger

Trying to add red to my penciled or laced birds - or lacing/penciling to my red birds. Don't care how I get there, so long as the goal is achieved. At worst, barred red birds. I've Georgia clay and Florida sands, so that tawny orange/red is the ideal, then any pattern of penciling, lacing, or barring (in that order of preference, personal aesthetics) from the Brahma, the Wyandotte, or the barred Roo I once had would be acceptable. There's a thread on it, I had three more birds in the project hatch overnight - but I won't hijack further. Its been a learning experience, and has a LONG way to go.

 

[Snooky doodle]

The quicker they can go out safely and start digging in the dirt eating worms and bugs the faster they'll grow. I keep a real good eye on mine- they're about 6-10 weeks old now.I've had coons show up in the daytime looking for catfood...

 

[Banana01]

It's fun letting them free range, but it is double the stress. Every night when I sit in my coop waiting for them to come home is stressful and time consuming. And the anxiety of when they don't come home at night never goes away. I do nightly headcounts and talk to them. That feeling when there should be eight but only six come home isn't even the end of it. Then you have to diagnose if maybe they were sick, and you have to do health checkups on the rest. All that and where I live predators are pigs, dogs, and of course other people robbing them but illness is way more common than a predator, I think. Sometimes you never even get the answer to what happened.

 

[Folly's place]

I'll add that temperament and experience, and size, matter much more than feather colors. My all white Chanteclers are taken way less often than some of the 'camo colored' birds in the flock. Rapters are taking bantams or young birds, and all mine are very hard to spot in the landscape. For me, not for a hawk, who can see a mouse from a great distance!
Our fox and dog attacks were about availability and individual behaviors, not color either.
Mary

 

[Tonyroo]

Consider this, they are very young with no experience how to handle a predator or an attack. And chickens learn from other chickens, you don't have any adults to learn from. Letting them free range unsupervised, might be a death sentence for the entire group.

Giving them time to see different predators on your property in a safe predator proof run will give them a chance to learn what they need to avoid and do.

Eventually you can leave them unattended with some safety net with a guard dog, electric wire, 2 or 3 adult roosters.

 

[Blue Raptor]

Hello all. I have 7 week old chickens that I just started letting free range this weekend. They are doing really well so far but I was wondering if you can leave them unattended while free ranging? My husband and I like to take the UTV out on the trails but not sure if it's ok to leave them out while we're gone? Do people who let their chickens free range run errands and just live life as usual with their chickens loose? Thanks!

They should be decently safe if you have a fence and somewhere they can hide under, even then they would only be safe for about and hour or two.