Free ranging Q's

BrandonM

In the Brooder
6 Years
Joined
May 3, 2013
Messages
48
Reaction score
0
Points
32
If i were to free range my chickens on a 3 acre rectangle and my neighbor house is about a little over 200 feet from my on both sides, would my chicken be over at there property often? Is there a way i can train them to stay? Also alot of my property is woods, is that a problem? Not a problem with predators.
 
Also, the chicks i will be getting will probably be 5 barred rock, 5 dark cornish and 5 easter eggers. Any better at free ranger then others, what should i stay away from?
 
More then likely though you will need to fence. Two hundred feet is well within the range a chicken is capable of traveling. MIne have gone to the other side of my garden which is more then three hunderd feet from the pen with only an hour out of their fence. Of course there is no shurbs or trees for them to go through and distract them.
 
We have 7 acres, with a neighbor about 300 feet away on one side and nobody else around. The layer flock did wander over to the neighbor's a few times. Fixed it by corralling them for a few days and putting the feeders and kitchen scraps closer to our house versus their pen. They have to come toward the house to get a quick meal, and then they get distracted by the dust baths and the stuff going on on the property. It also helped that I fenced part of our property line to keep deer out of the garden.....and it really helped that the neighbors cleaned up some old feed they had laying in their driveway from their failed attempt at keeping ducks.

One of my friends gives eggs to her neighbor. Despite a fence, her chickens are over there a lot. Lucky her neighbors don't mind and actually feeds the chickens too.
 
We have 9 lawned/wooded acres with a neighboring house around 200 yds away. My six chickens will stay close to their coop when I let them out and have so far not even made eir way up to my house. They seem to run from one covered area to the next and are (wisely) leery of open spaces. They also always stay together.
I don't think you have to worry about yours wondering off.
 
They may visit the neighbors__or not__ depending on the lay of the land and trees/ shrub available as cover. Also, some breeds tend to be more adventurous. Yours are average that way, in my experience. Stay away from 'active fliers' as that will help. NEVER believe that predators won't be an issue!!! Everyone loves chicken! Mary
 
They may visit the neighbors__or not__ depending on the lay of the land and trees/ shrub available as cover. Also, some breeds tend to be more adventurous. Yours are average that way, in my experience. Stay away from 'active fliers' as that will help. NEVER believe that predators won't be an issue!!! Everyone loves chicken! Mary
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom