Free Ranging - Cornfield?

[Araucana16]

My grandparents do not have chickens and live on a farm... with an empty barn, 5 acres of unused grazing land, it just seems criminal that they don't have chickens!
So I'm trying to convince them. I've gotten everything down. I'll raise the baby chicks, I'll show them how to make automatic feeder and waterers for when they travel, and all that.
Only thing is.. they farm. With a giant cornfield a few feet away, the both of us are concerned that young hens could wander off and never return. it happens to kids. Why not chickens?

Advice?

 

[bravevline]

no. especially if they are raised there. 99.9999 percent of the time they will come back to roost every night. they are loyal to one home and will come back.

 

[centrarchid]

We used to have 40-acre field corn plots adjacent to where some our flocks were kept. Such locations were poor on forage but did provide cover from heat. Birds did not get lost.

 

[Percheron chick]

Corn fields attract lots of raccoon and give coyotes cover while they stalk their dinner. You will lose hens to the corn field. I wouldn't let them out there until the stalks are cut and baled.