I too love to let my flocks free range. One of the cons I would add is worry. I worry about them when they are free ranging. I have not had any trouble for two years, then a couple of weeks ago I had a hawk get one of my prize BLRW's girls. I have mixed feelings about it.
I commit my free range flock to the Lord and let Him worry about them. Last fall I was getting hit hard by GHOs and lost more in one season than I had in 40 yrs of free ranging combined...the dogs foiled three attacks and one of them got a cut on his face in the fracas. I could feel that anger and worry start to well up inside me about it all. I felt helpless to stop it other than penning my birds....I did that for all of a few days before I could get a handle on what I was doing~not giving that worry over to God and letting him handle it.
So, I let them out and let God have them once again. The predation stopped. Earlier in the year I had lost 20 chicks to blacksnakes right after they hatched, so the losses from the owls were not the only losses this year. Never in all my years had I lost birds to predators like that. I think maybe God was testing my faith and I had failed the test for a bit....but the Holy Spirit reminded me that these were and always will be God's birds anyway and He decides who lives and dies. That calmed me and I stopped feeling like such a failure about it all.
God replaced all that I had lost that year~I got 17 birds from my sister, who was getting out of chickens altogether, and I received 6 cockerels for free from other sources. So, God provided my fall meat needs after all and also replaced the hens I had lost this year with new pullets of the best laying breed from my sister's flock. My flock had been pared down to survivors that are more wary out on range, laying has been stellar for most of the winter and is now peaking out~this week I started getting 11 out of 12 numbers.
I can't say I'll never worry again about them out there on free range...I think there is always that first twinge of worry when one hears the alarm call and sees the hawks, but I've done all I can for them with cover and with the dogs guarding them, so the rest is up to God and I just need to keep that fact in my mind. As long as I can remember that, I sleep a peaceful sleep and my days are filled with peace as well.
I know that "free range with God" is not something you'll likely ever see on advice about free ranging, but it's worked well for me for a long, long time and after this past year's trial by predator, that resolve is even stronger. God provides.
