Giving up on Free Ranging.... Baaahhhh!!!

[Little Chicken Farmers]

Quote:
That was the compromise we finally made...... We clipped one wing on everybody (Very easy to do) and now they are in a pen with a 5 foot fence untill about 2-3pm.... everyone has laid there eggs ( got 4 last two days!!!) and then they get the rest of the day to free range. Since they now appreciate the time out they have they have even been staying off the porch!!!!!

 

[LuvinMyPeeps]

Great, thanks! I think I'll do both - give them a run and also free range part of the day. I just finished a small mobile run with wheels and now I'll wanna do a larger one....things are already swimming in my head....images of toys for them to play with and nibble....split levels of grandeur like the Taj Mahal.....oh the obsession really never ends.... muh hahahahahahaha....

*wicked smile*

Well, off to bed - I think I'm getting loopy! Thanks for all the great advice y'all!

 

[Mrs. Foghorn Leghorn]

Quote:
LOL!! We went through the same conversation about 3-4 mo ago. We downsized our coop to being only $150 plus had some stuff already. BUT, the hens still free-range most the day. I wash the back porch once if not twice a day. Not cost-effective but sure is a lot of fun for the kids.

I also garden and it is not cost effective either but I like having my own organic food. Of course, it should get better this year as I have less costs compared to last year's start-up costs. I had to bring in a lot of dirt.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Hubby compromised with me!

I get to let them free range for a few hours everyday, then pen them up in the evening.

 

[Pecked2Death]

We were having hawk propblems - but before that - I was told to keep the birds in the coop and run, until they settled into where they LAID and then started l letting them out once at leat 50% of the birds were laying.

 

[rebbetzin]

I NEVER let my chickens out to "free range"... We have many hawks that just sit in the pine trees waiting for a nice chicken dinner. I was thinking it might be nice to let them out for a bit once and while when I am outside. I have changed my mind!!

One day last week, I forgot to latch the door to the chicken run. And they got out into a part of the yard that is fenced off for my desert tortoise. Thankfully I had shut the gates to my newly planted winter vegetable garden,and the rest of the backyard, so they were confined to a area with only well established bushes and ground cover. !

Anyhow, I was shocked to see that amount of damage four hens were able to do in just a few hours. They dug holes under all the bushes, scratched up most of my wild violets! I am so glad I had this happen so I could see what would happen if they were out in the yard for any length of time. I am thankful they didn't get eaten by the hawks!!

 

[heybarb]

My chickens free range and I do get tired of the poop on the sidewalk (although my dog does do a pretty good job of cleaning it up). We do not wear our shoes into the house anymore! Everyone must take them off before coming on the backporch. I even purchased cute little baskets to slide under a bench to keep our shoes in. My flower boxes and gardens are shot - no flowers at all this year!! My four big girls DO lay in the nest boxes religiously, although the bantam girls will try out new places every once in a while. We have lost 3 chickens to predators over the past 7 months, but none in the past 3 months...so overall we are happy that we are a free-ranging family. My son loves it when then follow me to the end of the driveway to meet the school bus!! I heard one boy yell out the window - "COOL!! LOOK at the chickens!" That pretty much sealed the deal for me!!

 

[mark wayne]

I keep my girls in until around 10:00 in the morning. That's about the time I wake up. They have laid their eggs by that time so I don't have to hunt them down. I let them out of the coop to free range, where they stay close to the house, but far enough away so there is not a lot of poop that we have to watch out for. There are a lot of trees, bushes, and just overgrown places to explore around the house, that sometimes I don't know where they are. I'll clap my hands and whistle real loud and they come running. I lost some to raccoons, one to a Hawk, and now some dogs are coming around today trying to catch my chickens. Well I can't shoot the Hawk, I bought an plastic owl put it on a pole, hung some cd's in the trees around the house. Saw the hawk from a distance hasn't been back close. Crows were after him, need to keep crows! 12 birds I have in total, 16 eggs incubating atm. I have no run!

 

[coffeenutdesign]

Every time I am hosing off my patio, and patio furniture, I keep saying I'm going to lock them up and not let them free range as much because they are way too messy....and then I go out in the morning to check on them and my boy Spartacus is demanding very loudly to be let out and the girls are all pecking at the wire begging for freedom and I just can't seem to keep myself from opening the coop door and letting them all out. They really are more fun to watch in the yard anyway.

I have a coop I can lock them in and when they were first starting to lay I just kept them locked up so they had to stay in the coop and lay in the nesting box. Now they go back to the coop to lay eggs and I have never had a problem with them laying somewhere outside. I might occasionally find one on the floor of the coop if for some reason one nesting box is so full of hens that one more can't fit and NONE of the other boxes could possibly work, but it is in the coop at least.

 

[Boichik86]

Try building a hoop house chicken tractor. Its way cheaper/easier than a permanent coop, its portable, your chooks get fresh grass every time you move it, and you can let them out to free range under your supervision. You can build nest boxes for it, put wheels on it, it can be as elaborate or as simple as you want.