Free-Ranging

[Mattemma]

I have a 1 acre fenced lot and let them roam the entire lot(except by the house) in the fall and spring.In the summer they are kept in a far back location with some woods.We have hawks.I hear the dogs. I am sure there are possums and coons despite my killing many. You might have a lot more predators than I do.Would have to accept a loss or two.Hopefully never the whole flock all at once,but it does happen.

In the beginning I would let my girls out of the coop and walk with them for about an hour around the yard while they scratched and I pulled weeds.Then I would put them in a dinky run made of bird netting and plastice fencing close to the coop.Loss will happen eventually even with a good coop and run.

Best wishes whatever you decide.You are lucky to have so much land!

 

[AlbionWood]

Electric fence is relatively cheap and easy to put up. If you can put a couple strands of electric fencing (wire, hot rope, or tape) around the area, that will allow them to free-range without too much trouble from the ground-based predators. (Run a strand of wire as close to the ground as possible, then a hot rope or tape about knee-high. The lower wire discourages skunks, possums, and raccoons; the upper one helps with foxes, bobcats, dogs, and even bears.) But if you have Cooper's Hawks in those woods, you can expect to lose chickens, even big full-grown ones.

 

[featherz]

I have 25 acres of woods on my property. Until a few months ago, my girls free ranged all day, every day - no major predator losses in 2+ years and they did not go very deep into the woods - maybe only 20 or 30 feet! The rest of the time they stayed in the few cleared acres.

Occasionally lost one to a hawk, penned them up until the hawk moved on. However, the foxes have found the property and I started losing birds - so I had to put up electric netting.

Now they only have the netted in area (400 feet of netting plus coop and run area), but they seem happy and have plenty of room. Pricey, but so far it has worked.

 

[mychickenbrood]

I penned mine up until they were about four months old. They did have a big chicken yard to freely roam in and I used to shut the coop door at night.

I started letting them out for a few hours each day and gradually increased it. I was concerned they would not learn to lay in the nest boxes, but they returned to do that. However lately (they are 11 months old) some have started laying in the barn! I'm getting good at finding the nests, but it is only a few eggs.They are out until dark now and put themselves to bed. All I do is lock the chicken yard gate. I did train them to come for treats, so whenever I want them to come in early I just walk out there with something in my hand and they come running. They do not roam far.

As far as predators go, I've never had a problem, although our neighbor loses many to hawks. There are also coyotes in our area, but so far, so good. I attribute my lack of loss largely, to our large dog, who is on the alert for any intruders and chases them off. Love that dog!

 

[BaileyChick87]

I have 23 chickens total most of them are still quite young. I want start free ranging the bigger ones but I have two big dogs tied outside during the day and I'm worried that they will wander over to where the dogs could get them.

 

[shmccarthy]

Will they not come back if they go in the woods? I'm just asking because I live on 4 acres and live on the edge of 600 acres of heavily wooded property. Mine free range on my property and sometimes go into the woods (my friends property). I was worried at first because the predators live in the woods but at the end of the day when I go and put them back in their coop, they all come back.
I don't free range my chickens until they're full grown though, there's too many hawks and other predators around here and I'd rather not take any chances. I haven't lost any to predators yet *knock on wood* but I usually supervise them if possible and make sure their coop is predator proof.
If you don't feel comfortable letting them free range that's fine and it's your judgement, but I know mine always come back and don't wander too far.

 

[Fentress]

I have a flock of 17 within 1,600 square feet of electro-net. The net stops all four legged predators. I move the coop and netting every 2 weeks. When the compound is within 100 feet of the tree line then the hawks can be successful in their attacks. My theory on the hawks is that they have to almost completely ambush the chicken in order to be successful. I also let them roam the entire property when I am home and have now started letting them out a few days during the week. No incidents. The four legged predators don't seem interested in daytime raids, but again I don't do it everyday. I don't have a domestic dog problem, fortuntately. They would be more of a day time threat. And the hawks have not been successful either. The more room the chickens have to manuever the more difficult it is for the hawk to score a hit. Again that is my theory. Everybodys situation is going to be little different, but one thing is for sure, chickens were Born To Run. (thanks Bruce)

 

[EricaD]

We tried free ranging our chickens and wound up losing a chick, a hen and a rooster to predators, even with our dogs out in the dog run barking and us coming and going all day. We then tried using electric netting, which kept the predators out but the dumb chickens just kept flying over the net and free ranging themselves! I know we could have clipped their wings, but there are 18 of them and I don't like the idea of doing that. So we eventually had to build a fixed run and now we free range them on the weekends when the weather is nice and we feel like sitting outside supervising them. Not so much during fall and winter, but now that spring is here we have lots of yard work and gardening to do, so the chickens get out every weekend for hours at a time.

At dusk they put themselves to bed, but if we need to round them up earlier I simply shake a can of scratch and they all chase me into the run. They're also terrified of the string trimmer and lawnmower, so if I'm having trouble rounding them up (sometimes a few stragglers ignore my scratch can), then I can just start up the mower and they all high tail it into the run, lol.