Free ranging pros and cons?

[acates]

I have mostly Japanese Bantams and also a flock of 9 leghorn X something. I also have a few mix breed standard size chickens. The Japanese ones are the best at flying... the hens can fly right across the garden and up into the bamboo. Even the roosters can fly vertically up to about 7 feet high up onto the back wall easily. They get into the trees by flying about 6 feet up and then jumping up a branch at a time. They used all roost right near the top.. but after several hard storms and some getting blown down in the night I decided they were better off sleeping under some bamboo baskets (we use them over here a lot specially for chickens). The larger breeds are not good at flying long distances.. but they can still cover a lot of ground over the yard. They also can fly / scramble up into the trees and onto the back wall with ease. There is a lake outside our garden and 2 of my game fowl hens were on the other side. As a man walked past to go fishing they got spooked and both flew right across the water to the other side (a distance of about 23 feet).

What beautiful chickens!

 

[jak2002003]

Its interesting about the layer feed and calcium in plants topic.

After reading in books and advise from other people, I become paranoid about my rooster and chicks (and broody hens) eating the layer feed in case they got too much calcium.

But, my other hobby of fancy pigeons got me thinking about it. I feed my pigeons on half seeds and half layer pellets all year round... cocks and hens.. young squabs. I realised it was not harming them at all eating the layer feed and they don't even need as much calcium as laying hens do.

So I decided to have 2 feeders in the chicken coop.. one with chick crumbs, and one with layer pellets. (My flock is always mixed ages and has many lots of roosters too).

That was over a year ago. They all eat everything.. chicks like the layer pellets and so do the roosters. The laying hens eat it, but also a lot of the chick crumbs. They all do really well and no health problems or sick chicks.

 

[sumi]

Its interesting about the layer feed and calcium in plants topic.

After reading in books and advise from other people, I become paranoid about my rooster and chicks (and broody hens) eating the layer feed in case they got too much calcium.

But, my other hobby of fancy pigeons got me thinking about it. I feed my pigeons on half seeds and half layer pellets all year round... cocks and hens.. young squabs. I realised it was not harming them at all eating the layer feed and they don't even need as much calcium as laying hens do.

Studies have shown that the high calcium content of layer feed harms chicks' kidneys. Your birds may seem healthy and happy, but just because the damage is not apparent, it that does not mean it's not happening.

Here is one of the studies and results: http://www.pvj.com.pk/pdf-files/24_3/113-116.pdf

It's better, when feeding a mixed age flock of layers and young chicks, to feed an all flock, or grower feed and offer calcium supplements free choice on the side. In my experience the chicks and cockerels in the flock do not eat the supplements and the hens help themselves to the supplement as needed.

 

[jak2002003]

Studies have shown that the high calcium content of layer feed harms chicks' kidneys. Your birds may seem healthy and happy, but just because the damage is not apparent, it that does not mean it's not happening.

Here is one of the studies and results: http://www.pvj.com.pk/pdf-files/24_3/113-116.pdf

It's better, when feeding a mixed age flock of layers and young chicks, to feed an all flock, or grower feed and offer calcium supplements free choice on the side. In my experience the chicks and cockerels in the flock do not eat the supplements and the hens help themselves to the supplement as needed.

Interesting read. However, these broiler chicks are fed only on the 3 feeds the scientists made up They had no choice to vary their diet according to what they need. They had no access to any other foods and had no access to plants or grit and other minerals. The bird were also housed indoors and had no access to natural sunlight.

Other things can influence the absorption rate of calcium into the body.. for example the size of the particles... large particles will stay longer in the birds gizzard and so more calcium will be taken in.. where as powdered calcium will be passed through the bird quickly and less is absorbed. It does not say in the experiment what the source of the calcium was... rocks or oyster shell, for example.

I would not advise people to feed their chicks or roosters etc solely on layer pellets. But its not going to harm their birds if they eat layer pellets as part of a varied diet and they are able to free range also.

Some of my chickens are over 8 years old and they are not suffering any ill effects from eating these pellets, or chick starter.

The birds will naturally know what they need and eat accordingly. Forcing any animals to eat only one kind of food is asking for problems.. despite the manufactures claim that they are complete diets. After all, they what to sell the most of their product they can.. so they don't want us using less by feeding other foods to our chickens.

 

[beach hens]

I have let my girls free range, sence we got them. I have not lost one, we have no Roos, but we have two dogs that are very protective of the girls!:cd

 

[EdmondNative]

We've only had hens since Feb. and we only coop them at night in a coop we purchased from Sam's Club.

We have 8 hens (2 are white Silkies).

We let them out each morning and they run around scratching all day. We also have 8 guinea fowl that are never coop'd.

So far we've never lost a hen to a predator. But our guineas have gone from 23 to 8 in about a few months - but have held at 8 for awhile now.

We know we have a fox or two and at least one good size coyote - seen them on our security cameras and in person. But they've never killed a chicken yet.

We are in a neighborhood where everyone is on 2-3 acres of land.

While our chickens mostly stick to our yard, they do venture over to a few of our neighbor's yards from time to time.

Personally, I prefer free ranging chickens. They do seem less stressed and their coop is hardly ever soiled.

The few times I've had to keep them in their coop they were very agitated and there was manure everywhere by the time we let them out.

We also don't get real attached to our chickens or guineas. If we lose one from time-to-time that's just how it goes.

 

[bruceha2000]

.... then we would keep them in a container inside the house at night to protect them from cats. ....

I don't know if house cats are a particular threat to full grown chickens or not. Our 3 cats are indoor only, they watch the birds (wild and chickens) from the windows and chirp away. But my neighbor across the road has a cat that ranges quite a ways. We see his tracks in the snow. He circles the house, goes to the barn, goes in the large uphill side of the barn under the door, comes out somewhere else, makes a pass down by the door on the downhill side where the coop is. I've never seen any sign he bothers the chickens.

Today my wife (we were inside) spotted him way out in the field, easily 300' behind the barn. Not too much later I saw him walking up toward the back of the house. He saw me and he saw 2 chickens about 30' off to his left. He didn't break stride or seem to show the slightest interest in the chickens nor they in him.

 

[ampho]

I have only had my chickens 8 months, and like you, read these pages constantly looking for thoughts! My plan was a cheap chicken tractor, two chickens, but I couldnt stand that they would be penned up all the time. We have every predator possible here in NJ (yes NJ) including daily bears and just yesterday a copperhead they were fascinated by! So my cheap chickens idea now turned into a fort knox coop with electric fencing, the run just went from 4x8 to 8x16, an electric door (probably 1500$ into a homemade coop/run). They are free when we are home to keep checking on them in about an acre of fenced yard. They have hopped the fencing a few times as they would love to all be in the woods! They are eating almost no regular food since they are outside so much (yes they eat frogs too). When they were babies I gave them wet feed which they still love and I give them that a few nights a week which seems to make the following days egg numbers bigger?! They will go in on their own at night but sunset being so late, we lure them in with mealy worms or scratch so we know they are locked up safe in the run. The only thing I am missing is a good guard dog, which would make me less paranoid about the hawks! As you read from everyone's posts, its about your tolerance and individual preferences! Good luck!

 

[Wingleader]

Anything I might add has probably already been said, but I'm still going to stress one thing. If you free range, make sure the area they will be in is clean and free of dangerous junk and trash!

I just lost three of my favorite girls and I think it's because they found a heaping pile of glass the horrible previous owner of my land had left sit under a thicket of bushes. He had a carpet spread over it and dirt and weeds had covered it so it was invisible until recently. Something pulled up an edge and BAM, glass everywhere before I could do anything about it. I found chicken droppings full of tiny pieces of glass and that just about coincides with three of my ladies growing mysteriously ill and passing shortly thereafter despite a ton of care and attention. (I'm awaiting the results of a necropsy, so we'll see if that was actually it).

Chickens like to eat small shiny or bright things and that includes bits of glass, metal, staples (be careful if you use them to tack up chicken wire! Don't leave any that may fall on the ground!), styrofoam, nails, screws, etc etc!!! And they really LOVE styrofoam.... I'm just thankful it has passed through their systems without issue.

You would not BELIEVE the junk that guy buried in the yard... It will take us years to clean it all up. It's unfortunate that the chickens are better at finding it than we are! These birds just do NOT know what's good for them. In a purely wild setting, maybe, but when you throw humans into the mix stuff goes downhill fast.

Otherwise, free ranging is GREAT! It cuts down the amount of food I have to buy during the summer months by over half, and aside from the rare injury (we haven't had an predation problems, KNOCK ON WOOD) my birds have been perfectly fine running amok in my yard and the neighboring fields.

 

[ampho]

This is so true, the prior owners of our house did the same thing! i find pieces glass and plastic all the time and I am constantly looking for it! There appears to be the back end of a row boat sticking up near the fence line! I know one of my birds ate an approx one cm square of plastic before I could get to it about a month ago, so far no ill effect but about a week ago my GLW had her tail down for two days, still not 100% and i was worried that was the cause. Wingleader, I would be interested to know if that is your "illness", if you remember can you pm me!