Free ranging, be honest about losses

[Chickenaddict]

I have had chickens for 6 years now and have free ranged them for 5 years. In those 5 years I have lost (to a predator) a total of 3 chickens. Predators in the area are hawks, eagles, owls, possums, coons, mink, bear ect. The chickens go in at night and are locked up tight. The key here is to have as many hiding spots as possible. Trees, truck toppers, boats, trailers, bushes, dog houses, anything you can think of they hide under. Put em out in an open field and it will be an all u can eat buffet especially for the flying predators

 

[Domestic_goddess]

I have free ranged for 3 years now,I have 25 hens, 1 rooster. Right now we have a 6 foot high fence that's spans the whole property and they just run to thier hearts content during the day and I lock them up at night. I've had the neighbors dog attack one of my hens when she got out of the fence, but she survived and is fine now. I've never had a predator loss, unless you want to call a car a predator....one of my hens was hit after getting out of the fence and crossing the road. But I'm going to be moving in a month or so and I won't have my lucky fence to protect them, so they will be locked up most of the time after that point, unless I can fence in the 1/4 acre pasture that's part of our new property.

 

[bockbock2008]

I have about 40 birds that I freerange. 32 hens, 4 roos, and 4 guineas. The others do not get to due to high volume of predators. They have a 20 x 30 enclosed pen. I can go weeks of freeranging from 9 am to 8 pm and then they start to get picked off so they will stay penned up during the day and only let out for a few hours in the evening. I have lost 4 since last week so they start their jail sentance today. The high stress has also caused egg production to dop off by half. I have 4 broodies right now and was getting about 28 eggs a day from this pen and yesterday I got 12.

 

[gritsar]

I'm superstitious and afraid of jinxing myself but....no losses in two years. They're out from about 9 AM till they put themselves to bed. We have hawks, golden eagles, bobcats, coyotes, skunks, snakes, possums and raccoons, plus who knows what else.
Our dogs have always run off the occasional stray dog.

 

[Panhanle RIR]

ive free ranged 100% of the day for 4 years and lost 1 adult RIR hen who drowned and (1 guinea keet 1 turkey 2 ducks and a cupple chickens) who were all under 2 weeks old

 

[verlaj]

Free range my adult hens from about 8 a.m. to dusk. "Had" about 40 adults - lost 4 a few months ago, 1 at a time, to a coyote. Kept them fenced in for a while - took some shots at the coyote once, and heard shots from around the place - thought the trouble-maker had been taken out by a neighbor. Until yesterday - lost an old Buff Orpington, well before dusk. Surely a coyote - came up pretty close and carried off the entire big bird, except for the trail of feathers.

So - back to the stake-outs in the evening and have mine fenced in today.

The chickens are so much happier when they can get out and do chicken activities. I hate to lose any, but rationalize that it's the price we both pay (me and the chickens) of letting them have their freedom.

We have: coyotes, foxes, raccoons, bobcats, dogs, opossums, skunks, hawks, bald eagles.....

 

[briggate]

We got our birds just last year. We had 6 birds total, lost 4 this Feb to what we think was a fox - could have been a ferriginous hawk tho (we have one on our property regularly and they're the only hawk that could cart off a full grown bird). It is rare to have snow on the ground here, but we had just gotten 6 inches, went away for the weekend, and came home Monday afternoon to 4 missing - all were inside the coop at the time. (friends were tending the birds until Monday morning for us, and said they were all there in the a.m. Monday). Think the predator just couldn't find food in its usual places due to the snow. But the next day, a bird of prey killed another one inside our run (different kill- left the dead bird there). We have since put up some orange netting around the fenceline to discourage birds from flying into the run (and out!) but have no idea how to keep the foxes out.
Our chickies spent about 40% of their time freeranging on 2 acres, and there is plenty of cover on our property for them.