Free-Ranging

[Bantimna]

Our garden is a really a bushland, with all sorts of indegeous trees.
Will my chickens leave the not so good stuff alone or will they need to be penned up?
How much range time will be enough?
Do chickens get easily bored when they don't get out of their coops and runs?
Will I have a problem, if one of my chickens goes missing into the bush?
Here is the view from the 1st of the 5 garden paths we have of our backyard.

 

[Bluemoon420]

My birds free range. I have mostly pine trees, swamp in back of us, brush etc. They are outside from morning til dusk. They know when to come in, and haven't ever had an issue. Our dogs have their own fenced area on property, so I don't worry about the dogs. They are more relaxed when they are free ranging. During the winter they get antsy when the snow is too deep to go out, or it's just too cold. Some of our birds will go out in the snow, but they know when it's too deep or too cold and will choose to stay in. They eat less feed when they free range also.

Hope that helps.

Bluemoon

 

[Tala]

Quote:

 

[SummerChick]

I finally let mine out to free range but i keep watch over them just because i worry about them. While i work in the garden i let them out to scratch around. They love it and i let them as long as i can or until they seem ready to go back in. They have a yard to free range in but its not as large an area as the field. Its so much fun watching them scratch around and catch bugs and even little frogs and worms! They really enjoy being out, they play and act silly.