Hawks, Fox, Coyotes, and Dogs will nab your chickens in a heart beat. Free range can be a free meal. Save yourself the heart ache.
Absolutely NOT! Cats, hawks, etc will eat them so fast. Dogs will kill them. Are the really only one week old???
My chickens free range all day, every day. When I first got chickens 6 years ago, I was so worried about predators that I put my fencing over a foot deep into the ground and placed concrete blocks all around the pen. I wouldn't let them out if I wasn't right there and would fuss over them every day. Then we ended up with a rooster. A very big rooster. Now I let him take care of his flock and I'm free of the stress "my pets" were giving me. Our rooster is a Barred Rock and is not aggressive with us or the kids and even lets our dogs wander around (who are only outside when we are.) If another dog comes on our property, he sounds the alert and all his girls run into their pen and he stands guard. Has actually scared off a dog or two. I figure it this way, chickens have been here for millions of years and managed to survive just fine. We just let our chickens be chickens. They didn't ask to be a pet, so I no longer treat them as such. I still care for them and give treats sometimes but generally, I just let Roger the Rooster take care of them. Bottom line is you are going to lose a chicken now and then to a predator, it's just the circle of life. But do what you can to protect them and let them just be chickens. It will all be ok and you can do what you like, when you like.
My chickens free range all day, every day. When I first got chickens 6 years ago, I was so worried about predators that I put my fencing over a foot deep into the ground and placed concrete blocks all around the pen. I wouldn't let them out if I wasn't right there and would fuss over them every day. Then we ended up with a rooster. A very big rooster. Now I let him take care of his flock and I'm free of the stress "my pets" were giving me. Our rooster is a Barred Rock and is not aggressive with us or the kids and even lets our dogs wander around (who are only outside when we are.) If another dog comes on our property, he sounds the alert and all his girls run into their pen and he stands guard. Has actually scared off a dog or two. I figure it this way, chickens have been here for millions of years and managed to survive just fine. We just let our chickens be chickens. They didn't ask to be a pet, so I no longer treat them as such. I still care for them and give treats sometimes but generally, I just let Roger the Rooster take care of them. Bottom line is you are going to lose a chicken now and then to a predator, it's just the circle of life. But do what you can to protect them and let them just be chickens. It will all be ok and you can do what you like, when you like.
We used to free range our chickens, hadn't seen a single predator for two whole years on the property or near by and free ranged many chickens happily all that time. One day when we weren't there a fox came and killed 9 chickens. My mother happened to be there looking at our chickens and garden and such, though not there specifically for that purpose. She tried to chase the fox. It paid no mind to her and killed those poor hens, and our oh so beautiful and sweet Speckled Sussex rooster. It ripped one up, moved to another ripped, and finally after the 9th catch grabbed one of the injured birds and ran off. It would come back after a bit to grab another one it had killed and run again, despite my mother and dogs chasing it (she let the dogs after it, which I totally wish she hadn't but it turned out they got nowhere near it). This was a huge property, it scattered our flocks everywhere. We no longer free range. I don't think it's wrong to free range, but what we do instead is we've made our coops mobile and use electric netting to offer them huge runs. So, we move the coop and fence very often to new ground.
It isn't wrong to free range and not be at home, it's totally up to you, they could get hurt or killed but they could also just be totally fine.
