free ranging.....maybe

[dwilken]

folks. I am raising meat chickens. Specifically cornish hens in a movable tractor with automatic watering system. When they are big enough do you think I can put an automatic door on the coop and let them out? I don't want to just try it and loose them so here I am asking.

 

[Outta Here]

Do you have a lot of predators? Tractor Supply gave me a Cornish Cross instead of a leghorn, and I raised her with the rest of my free rangers, always guarded from nearby coyotes by my German Shepherd. But she got so fat she couldn't get over the little fence and into the coop at dusk. The German Shepherd was only inside a half hour at dinnertime, but a coyote came into the yard and snatched her 25' from our door. She was easy pickings....

 

[dwilken]

Do you have a lot of predators? Tractor Supply gave me a Cornish Cross instead of a leghorn, and I raised her with the rest of my free rangers, always guarded from nearby coyotes by my German Shepherd. But she got so fat she couldn't get over the little fence and into the coop at dusk. The German Shepherd was only inside a half hour at dinnertime, but a coyote came into the yard and snatched her 25' from our door. She was easy pickings....

coyote's won't be problem. I'm just wondering if they will naturally stay close to their pen and go in it at dusk.

 

[CluckerFamily]

You may be better to make a fenced in area and cover with a trap for some time. I don’t think they will go in at night, they get fat so fast, they find it challenging to get into the coop.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

CornishX are LAZY. They may not even leave the tractor, unless they have to to find food. They are also slow, ungainly, and (in my experience) almost completely predator ignorant. Even when they are warned of predators, they are the weakest link in the flock, slowest to move under shelter/into protection.

My first year with birds, a predator ripped the head off one of my CornishX while it was inside the run, by reaching thru the graduated livestock fence - it was too stupid to move out of reach.

Be aware also that the extra exercise will reduce weight gain rate and tend to toughen up the bird faster than typical CX management methods. If you like flavor, and don't like supermarket texture, that's a good thing - but if you think you are going to save feed bill by free ranging CX, the extra time to target weight plus potential predator losses will more than likely fully offset any savings. And I say that as someone with decent pasture and a long grow season.

 

[Outta Here]

Your delicious, fat, slow, clueless chickens would also be prey to foxes, bobcats, weasels and their relatives, birds of prey, (owls, hawks, etc.), racoons, opossums, skunks, rodents, and snakes. Oh, and of course dogs and cats. Years ago we lost a chicken every night, though they were locked inside the barn inside their coop. Discovered the neighbor's cat came down the roof rafters....Everybody loves chicken!! And predators, once they've found a source of dinner, always come back for the rest....

 

[iwltfum]

I've been free ranging several batches of freedom rangers for the past month or so. 390 in total. We have lost a few here and there. Mostly to owls (possibly a racoon as well). I chalk it up to mother nature taking her cut. We managed to bring a batch of 130 to butcher - brooded for 3 weeks then free range all day and night with only lifted pasture pens as over head protection. And we ended up butchering 120. So slightly less than 10% loss. It is significant loss, but on our scale it's worth it for how easy it is to manage. All I do is feed and water them once a day in the morning - and move the pens once a week if I have time

Cornish crosses may be a different story. Or might work great.

 

[iwltfum]

Forgot to add that

if you keep feed around and full all day, they will sit by the feeders and go nowhere

if you feed them just enough so they run out of feed for the last few hours of the day, they will stay close but still range out a bit from their pens and feeders at the end of the day.

If you feed them just enough to last an hour or two total they will range widely in search of forage. (This is what I've been doing as an experiment and mine regularly go 100+yards from their pens and back multiple times in a day. I have seen groups of them visiting my goats 50yrds away, visiting my laying hens 100yrds away, and even wandering into and across the road 100yrds in the other direction.)

It's my opinion that feed leftover from they day being left out over night is a bigger attractor of land predators than chickens themselves esp. with grower type feeds since they are high protein. Making sure feeders are empty over night is important. Whether you let them run out of feed by rationing or emptying feeders in the evening could be the difference between success and failure with this method.

 

[dwilken]

Forgot to add that

if you keep feed around and full all day, they will sit by the feeders and go nowhere

if you feed them just enough so they run out of feed for the last few hours of the day, they will stay close but still range out a bit from their pens and feeders at the end of the day.

If you feed them just enough to last an hour or two total they will range widely in search of forage. (This is what I've been doing as an experiment and mine regularly go 100+yards from their pens and back multiple times in a day. I have seen groups of them visiting my goats 50yrds away, visiting my laying hens 100yrds away, and even wandering into and across the road 100yrds in the other direction.)

It's my opinion that feed leftover from they day being left out over night is a bigger attractor of land predators than chickens themselves esp. with grower type feeds since they are high protein. Making sure feeders are empty over night is important. Whetheof feed by rationing or emptying feeders in the evening could be the difference between success and failure with this method.

folks. I am raising meat chickens. Specifically cornish hens in a movable tractor with automatic watering system. When they are big enough do you think I can put an automatic door on the coop and let them out? I don't want to just try it and loose them so here I am asking.

thanks everyone for the input. It sounds like an unnecessary experiment at this point. My cornish hens are def fat, slow and lazy. lol. I was only wanting to try it to cut down on feed and mess. letting them out maybe 6 hours a day. I'll just start moving my tractor/pen twice a day.