My chickies are about six weeks old, and as of yesterday, now live full time in the tractor/run I"ve made for them. The bottom is wired, so they can't scratch and dirt-bath etc so I let them out to walk around the yard when I'm home watching them. (They LOVE it, of course.)
We live in town, on Main Street, so I'm not worried about most predators during the day - dogs are usually leashed, I keep my cats inside, and anything bigger than that isn't going to show up in my back yard until after dark. I did see a couple of crows gathering in a tree the other day and figured they'd take a little chick pretty easily, but I haven't seen them since.
So my 10 year old daughter wants to know if it's OK to let them out by themselves "unsupervised" at this age. They're about the size of a robin or maybe pigeon - not close to full size yet. They come running to me at bedtime - they're still used to me putting them to bed and haven't learned how to go up into their coop by themselves. (Working on that!)
We live in town, on Main Street, so I'm not worried about most predators during the day - dogs are usually leashed, I keep my cats inside, and anything bigger than that isn't going to show up in my back yard until after dark. I did see a couple of crows gathering in a tree the other day and figured they'd take a little chick pretty easily, but I haven't seen them since.
So my 10 year old daughter wants to know if it's OK to let them out by themselves "unsupervised" at this age. They're about the size of a robin or maybe pigeon - not close to full size yet. They come running to me at bedtime - they're still used to me putting them to bed and haven't learned how to go up into their coop by themselves. (Working on that!)
