Free ranging...

[NewHopePoultry]

For those that free range your poultry(chickens, ducks,turkeys,etc) How do you do it?
Do you keep them penned up unless you are there?
Do they just roam around on their own all day long?
Do you shut them up at night? Or let them find their own place to sleep?

 

[FlashPointFarm]

Yes, lock them up tight at night.

Just let them out in the morning and it's best to have a rooster out with them.

 

[gritsar]

When my flock was younger I would only free range when I was home. Now that they are older I let them free range even if I have to be gone for awhile, unless I know that I won't be getting home before dark.
Mine are free to roam wherever they choose during the day. I go out to the coop a couple times a day to collect eggs and no matter where they happen to be, they always hear that kitchen door open and come running to see if I've brought treats. If I happen to go out and they don't come running, I know where their favorite places are and check those places.
Mine head back to the coop at dusk. I go out and do a head count and lock them up for the night. Repeat the next day.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
This is my approach. But I have only 4 hens left, of 20 chickens, including 3 roosters, born about May of last year. They are truly free range. We have 11 unfenced acres. They could go wherever they wanted, but as far as I know, have not ventured off the property. They do return to the coop at night and are locked in there, and lay their eggs in the coop. There is a dominant hen, but no roo left.

I saw foxes take 3, including my very protective roo. The rest just disappeared. There was usually some indication the culprit was a fox, but I really do not know.

After I added two more dogs last fall, who do not bother the chickens, as the first two do not, I stopped losing chickens. The new dogs are confirmed rat and mole killers; rats are evidently their hobby. My land is mostly open, weeds and young trees, but there are woods at the back, and a swamp off my property in the woods. I often see my dogs chasing critters into or in the woods. Traps have confirmed that coons and possum and fox live in the woods. We also have hawk, owls, coyote howling in the distance, skunk, and lord knows what else.

This year, I built a new coop and fenced yard with galvanized wire and electric, plus a secure coop for night, for 50 chicks. No losses; they are 12 weeks now. The coop is oversized, and the yard is 75x75. But I cannot bring myself to put last years' hens in this confined area. Free range means losses, but also means freedom. In the end, it is a personal choice.

 

[bluey]

Mine are locked up in a secured coop from dusk to dawn but have free run of our 10 acres all day. I have 9 hens and 1 rooster. No one is home all day but I have the area under constant surveillance with infra-red game cams. When a predator comes to visit, it is eliminated by the end of the week at worst.

Thst being said, I'm not a big believer in shooting folks' dogs with anything other than the paintball gun (I prefer bright orange...it gets the message across to the owners). I live rurally and do quite a bit of target shooting, so the neighbors probably are aware of the danger my property poses to any roaming dogs.

If you have lots of free roaming neighborhood dogs, I would not free range. They can decimate a flock in one incident.

But if you choose to free range, you must be proactive with varmint hunting (in my area this consists of mainly raccoons and possums). Also, you must be willing to accept some losses.

That being said, I'm at 2 years, 1 month without one loss to a predator and only have had to "paint" two neighborhood dogs.

 

[Uppity Peon]

My neighbor lets the chickens range all the time. He had trouble with hawks and his own dog at first, but now the dog is leaving the chickens alone and helping repel predators. One thing he believes is helping are a few mirror tiles he has on the hen houses. Apparently this confuses the hawks. Houses and bushes are always nearby so the chickens can take cover quickly. There are 2 roosters who are very brave. A few ducks and a goose also help defend the flock. Another problem he had were skunks who try to take eggs. He uses live traps and he thinks the skunks have learned to stay away.

 

[swampducks]

I only free range when I'm home. I live in the woods and have a short field fence but the chickens and guineas jump over or hop through the wider portions so they are often down by the pond across the drive way, etc. The only trouble I've had with them has been 2 known neighborhood dogs who keep escaping from a mile away and roaming town. They killed a chicken a muscovy and damaged my younger roo while the pond was frozen, so the duck couldn't escape. Unfortunately that day my gate was left open and though I was in the house I and my dog didn't hear anything till I heard feet running across the deck. I got outside too late to save my 2 birds. The roo survived.

But now I make sure that gate is shut all the time (though those dogs are known to climb fences).

I used to have puddle ducks, pekins, rouens, runners, but had to relocate them due to a mink I have not been able to trap, he just grabbed them at night while they slept on the pond. I have muscovies now since they don't seem to sleep on the water. Now I just have to figure out how to keep them within the fence in winter when they can't escape these dogs to water.

When I'm not home though, the chickens and guineas go into their closed covered run.

 

[cmom]

I fenced in my birds because they were getting in my gardens and scratching up and eating my newly planted plants and tearing up and spreading out my mulch piles. It was either fence in the gardens or the chickens. The chickens lost. They have a nice big yard. Also I put up some electric wire up around the outside of my fence after a neighborhood dog dug under my fence and killed one of my hens. There are pictures on my BYC Page.

 

[Jskip1]

I don't free range, but a friend of mine does
he locks the flock inside through the night and lets them out early in the morning, he had some problems with the dogs and even some foxes though, so sometimes he even put the chickens inside if he was away, but he doesn't do that anymore since he doesn't have many problems with predators nowadays

 

[Redsquirrel]

I free range my 4 chickens in my fenced in yard. They have their coop to go back to to lay eggs and rest. I locked them in at night when it gets dark. They all just go back there on their own at dusk. Let them out early in the morning.
Had no trouble with it so far. First few weeks I had them I had them out only when I was home. Got to be too much trouble herding them back in the coop after a while, so they are out all day now, whether I am home or not.