free ranging and neighbors flock

[chickengirl1193]

okay thank you so much for the info! im going to look into it. thanks!

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

Oh and just to give you options, Premier1 Fencing also has electric net fence.

 

[chickengirl1193]

does it have to be plugged in or do they have solar power options? im new to chickens so this is all new to me!

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

I have mine on a 25 mile solar charger. Or you can run an electric one. Just remember that a strong charge is useless without a good ground.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

My next door neighbor has 22 birds, and they all fly over her fence to free range. Some of them wander into our yard. Have since we moved in 3 yrs ago. Her chickens share some of the same spaces as our free ranging birds, and there have been no problems, no diseases passed, etc. I consider our flocks, for bio-security reasons, to almost be the same flock.
We live on 1 acre, and the neighbor has several acres. But there have been NO problems. The coops/pens are quite close, just back through the woods. The neighbors house and coop/pen are quite close to ours.
If your neighbors birds are healthy, have been healthy, I wouldn't recommend going to all of that expense and trouble with fencing. Likewise goes with your birds. Have them been healthy? No upper respiratory diseases? No mites?
I had the neighbor lady come over to help feed my flock while we were out of town in Oct. She went into the coop to feed and check the water. There were no incidences of compromised bio-security issues. I have also been inside of her coop and pen. Both flocks are exposed to the same environment.
IMHO

 

[chickengirl1193]

Okay, yeah my flock is healthy with no history and their flock is healthy as far as I know, but I wanted to fence in my goats anyway so if the chickens stay in that area it will be a bonus lol I guess I will also talk to my neighbors and see if they have had any major problems. thanks guys!

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

Moxies_chickienuggets, after going through what I have in the last year with my flocks, I would not feel comfortable with mixing my flock with one that I have no control over. Most people think that the big diseases will never effect them because our chickens live in good conditions unlike the big farms. I can tell you that's what I thought for five years as I've been really lucky and never had an issue. This year is different. I lost 50+ birds in my flock because of a disease one of my neighbors has down the road. Bio security is VERY important but people brush it off. I dont enter my friends' coops or runs, I wear a different pair of shoes to my mothers house because she free ranges her birds and I refuse to take the chance of either infecting her flock or vice versa.
It would scare me to have no control over what my birds are exposed to, which in your case is happening. What if she/he were to bring in a chicken from an outside source, say an auction that possibly/probably is harbouring something. You can't tell him/her not to put that bird in the flock.
And that is why that kind of setup bothers me. Way too easy for disease to pass. I would not take that risk with my flock.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

Moxies_chickienuggets, after going through what I have in the last year with my flocks, I would not feel comfortable with mixing my flock with one that I have no control over. Most people think that the big diseases will never effect them because our chickens live in good conditions unlike the big farms. I can tell you that's what I thought for five years as I've been really lucky and never had an issue. This year is different. I lost 50+ birds in my flock because of a disease one of my neighbors has down the road. Bio security is VERY important but people brush it off. I dont enter my friends' coops or runs, I wear a different pair of shoes to my mothers house because she free ranges her birds and I refuse to take the chance of either infecting her flock or vice versa.
It would scare me to have no control over what my birds are exposed to, which in your case is happening. What if she/he were to bring in a chicken from an outside source, say an auction that possibly/probably is harbouring something. You can't tell him/her not to put that bird in the flock.
And that is why that kind of setup bothers me. Way too easy for disease to pass. I would not take that risk with my flock.

She, like me, doesn't bring in outside birds to add to her flock. She keeps a closed flock also. They broody hatch two or three times a year, just as we do.

And like our children, we cannot expect to protect them from every single bacteria and virus out there. They still have the need to be chickens. Keeping them cooped up all the time is not healthy for them. Super sanitizing everything they come in contact with is not healthy either. Expecting to keep wild birds from flying over and living in trees on our acreage, is unrealistic. Force feeding a flock anti-biotics and medications is not a healthy way to manage a flock either, as it just creates more problems.

I am in no way brushing off bio-security. Not everyone who visits this website can deal with the same situations in the same way.

We also have numerous commercial chicken operations within our own neighboring area. I worry more about what comes from them. They use the enormous fan blowers to blow out the chicken houses every six weeks. Semi trucks loaded with chicken cages on their way to processing drive down our road weekly. What are we to do about those? When I cross the road to go to my mailbox, who knows what is on the road from those chicken operations.

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

I'm not saying wrap them in bubble wrap. It is good that your neighbor keeps a closed flock, some of us are not so lucky. Those are the people I am trying to warn. My flock free ranges and I accept those risks, but I keep them on my property and keep the neighbor's out.
Also I didn't ever suggest force feeding anti biotics or medicines. Or sanitizing anything. Those are assumptions you made.
I am sorry if you feel that I was reprimanding you, that was not my intent. I just want to make a point that not every chicken owner makes the decision to keep a closed flock or might not know enough to be proactive about their chickens' health. Keeping backyard chickens has grown immensely in the last few years and that means many new owners that may or may not exactly know what they are doing.

 

[chickengirl1193]

i have one more question... i let my girls out yesterday afternoon for the first time for a half hour of supervised free ranging because i noticed they are eating more layer feed and getting less from the run so it was time to let them have fresh ground, anyway i thought i could get them back easily because they always come running when i have scratch but i guess they valued the grass much more than the scratch i had so i had a very hard time getting them to come back into the run, especially because they couldn't figure out how to go through the gate rather than trying to fit through the fence... Eventually i got them all back but i was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to make it a smoother process, rather than basically chasing the chickens around the run until they got to the open gate...
Thanks!