Free range unattended?

[Lemon-Drop]

For a while I let my chickens free range while I was inside, our out doing an errand. But now I always watch them, as I have come home to feathers everywhere and dead chickens.

I now watch them all the time when they are free ranging, and put them in even to go up to the house to grab a glass of water, even though I’m leaving them for only 5 minutes. (I learned this the hard way, I left for 5 minutes and a chicken was dead)

Of course, where I am there are cougars, bears, Wild ferrets, hawks, eagles, and many other predators.

I think it’s your judgement.

 

[RooStar Chicken Gang]

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

This is a good point, some think, including myself in the past why get white chickens they are so much easier to spot.. but hawks can see everything from high up and eagles, we did have some bird fly over the other day not sure what it was, but there are kites around here so maybe one of them, anyway the rooster did something and they all ran following him under cover, one of the girls ran the wrong way tho. But even foxes smell things out, animals use different censes then us... People forget or don't realise, dogs don't even see colours like humans do apparently.. so white chook means nothing. Even if you had a black chook in the tree at night owls could most likely spot it as they spot tiny brown mice.

 

[RooStar Chicken Gang]

But then again.... In nature there are animals that actually use camoflauge as a safety mechanism soooo.....

 

[Banana01]

They can't be left alone in an unsecured coop at night, or you could lose them all. During the day they can fend for themselves, but you may still lose a few to predators.

If you know the type of predator you are facing, do as much counter measure as you can. Get your own dogs, lots of human and urine scents, scare crows, etc. Build them a tree house.

 

[Eden83_haaretz]

We have a flock of 19 that are just over 7 weeks. They are Dixie Rainbows so they are very fast growing birds and quite large. We do have a coop with a large fly pen attached. I leave the pen door open so they come and go as they please. If we go riding, we go for a couple hours and then we come back home but we do go a few times a week.

I agree with most posts, if you don't have a rooster on the look out and don't have places where they could hide under (bushes or even trees) then I wouldn't personally free range.
We've had looses with hawks, eagles, and dogs during the day, luckily we've managed to scare off most dogs. Our rooster is an excellent lookout and defense, last time a pair of hawks came down they tried to take a pullet (7 weeks old) and he ran right up to them and spurred them away, the pullet wasn't even injured. On multiple occasions he gives the alert and the girls and their chicks run for cover quickly (we also run out to scare the bird off, since we are mostly at home) but before when we had a smaller flock and had to leave we had the unfortunate and sad surprise to find that chicks went missing.
I guess that right now we are also kind of lucky because we have so many chickens with chicks that the birds have a hard time deciding who's an easier pray and it gives us and the rooster time to do something about it

 

[Itybit]

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!

Mine are free range all day. They get locked in the coop at night. Go about your normal day. You do need to be aware of fox,coyote,hawks,etc. Even stray dogs. It's just the risk that is real.

 

[Ann With A Plan]

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!

I refuse to let my chickens outside the fencing to free range. We have hawks that fly around here. Once in awhile the chickens will get out where there's a breach under the fencing, so I had to reinforce with more stakes. A few years ago when my daughter had half a dozen chickens, she put them in a 10x10 fenced enclosure but nothing at the top. A little while later, she found all the chickens crouching in the corner but one, because a hawk had come down in there and was eating her in the other corner. My chickens have a large fenced area, and I'm putting bird netting over the top of it tomorrow.

 

[Yardmom]

We free range all ages during the day. Yes even week old chicks. Do we get losses? Yes of course we do, it is always a risk. Most losses have been to a fox. We have not had problems with Arial predatorsers. We lose more adults than little ones. Bushes, roosters, and dogs keep loses to a minimum.

 

[leslielbk]

Oh HELL no. Not unless you're ok with the risk, which is coming home to dead chickens. Just because you don't see predators doesn't mean they aren't there, and loose chickens are like ringing a dinner bell. They are extremely vulnerable and need to be protected.

 

[Dottie Ferrell]

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!

I wouldn't leave them unattended. There are so many critters around (we live in a small town and have a double fenced yard). I have observed one of our neighbors chickens nabbed by a raccoon right in front of us when I was having a yard sale, and a lot of people around. Not only critters on the ground but there are hawks and eagles that are a threat, especially to young foul. Even town, we have a couple cougars that we see on our streets quite often. I know a lot of rural or farm chickens are free ranged all the time, but I think they take more of a chance of losing them more often. Good luck. Ours are spoiled pets as much as egg producers, and I cry each time one dies.