Freeranging unsupervised?

[Peppercorngal]

This is just my experience, not a recommendation.
We have about 2 fenced acres (it's chain link, thank the previous owners!) and my birds are out on it from sunrise (or as soon as I can get out there) to when they put themselves to bed at dusk. (My breeding pens have to rotate days, but everybody else is out.) They have lots of large bushes under which to hide and two pretty faithful dogs that roam the yard with them. We -once in a great while - will lose a bird to a hawk. It's one of those things we have learned to accept might happen as a result of our choice; but we have had many happy, healthy birds live out their lives enjoying the ability to roam free.
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Beautiful property, looks like Palermo or Bangor near me!

 

[Kabootar]

I let my two hens out every evening for an hour or two and I live in a neighborhood. I live on 3/4 of an acre and they stay on it mostly but do wander off it a bit briefly. They do especially like one of my neighbors yards and my neighbors love to see them when they visit. They even have their own different names for them. lol. I also give them eggs regularly. Now that I've added to the flock, it will be shorter. Maybe 45 min - hour max. People walking down the street see two chickens and think they are cute. Five may be a different story. I don't want any complaints.

I am really shocked I haven't lost one yet after two years of raising them. We have a small army of huge horned owls that live across the street in the pines, the occasional fox, lots of dogs off leashes, and a plethora of ospreys. I'm prepared for the inevitable.

We also have healthy population of great indian owls (bubo Bengalensis) they have an intimidating deep and resounding bu-bo call in the morning and in the dusk you can hear them calling from a mile. They will even attack and kill peacocks. By the way a group of owls is called Parliament not army.

 

[bruceha2000]

Wow, no chicken would be safe around them!

 

[Frazzemrat1]

My chickens only free range for a bit in the evenings, or most of the day during the weekend. So, only if somebody is home. If we leave and they're out, we call them in. If I have something in my hands and call out to my chickens, they come running and flapping. LOL. My family is amazed.
So far we haven't lost any to predation, although I'm prepared for it.

 

[Kabootar]

We let our birds go out at 9 AM and the come back around 5 PM. In lower latitudes the sun is pretty much up during that time. We never leave our chickens and ducks out in night. Apart from owls we also have a bunch of jackels, foxes because of sugarcane farms. Jackels are like coyotes only they roam in pairs. We also have stray dogs.But dogs are not much of a threat they I have never seen a stray dog attacking a free range chicken, they may however attack a Cornish X hen from a chicken farm.
We keep losing and gaining birds from time to time, it's part of life. Everyone deserve to live.

 

[KathryninQuebec]

I have. I have had coyotes come and wipe out half the flock. I had a mama raccoon come with her 4 babies in the middle of the day, go into the coop where my broody and her babies were and kill the broody (then the dog let DH know there was a problem and the raccoons were taken care of). I have had a few hawk kills, and a weasel got into my coop once in the middle of the day. Yet, I still free range. I had heavy predator losses last year with free ranging, but will do so again with my new flock this year. It's a risk I'm willing to take.

We too have high losses to predators. Stoats,fox, raccoon, coyote. None the less I agree with you. I just can't keep those birds penned up. We try to minimize with portable electric fence. Our problem was our 1st fence. We are on hilly ground and could not keep the sagging down so the larger holes were accessible by some long horn hens that just had to wander. Usually it was into the edges of the pine forest. That's when many of them would go in but never return. We got better fencing this year with 3" holes on the whole fence. I'm hoping for less losses

 

[Ch8ckenhelp]

I get hawks in my yard a lot, especially in the spring, and I still free-range. If i see one scaring the chickens, I'll run out there with a pot and bang on it with a stick, the noise scares them away and makes it less likely that they'll come back. I've lost a couple to hawks, but the real concern should be foxes and coyotes. Both of these animals have taken out my entire flock on separate occasions. I fenced in my yard about half a year ago, but I had chickens long before then. Like everyone else said, it's gotta be a risk you're willing to take.

 

[RodNTN]

My chickens free range dusk till dawn. I have four roosters that "keep track" of all of the girls Every hour or so I'll poke my head out the door and check on them.

 

[bruceha2000]

I presume you mean dawn till dusk? Otherwise that means they are out all night

 

[Mountain_artist]

My husband is building a Fort Knox coop and our chicks will not get to free range, probably ever. We live in the Smokies and have way too many predators. I can't even let my children free range! Because of the terrain, there are too many hiding spots for predators, and a bunch of neighbors let their dogs run free.