I have a flock of mostly cockerels. They are all dark cornish and are 4.5 weeks old. All but one of the cockerels will be in the freezer by 20 or so weeks. I began free ranging them the other day and day before yesterday I was setting some rat traps under my house when I heard the birds chirping loudly. When I looked over I saw a rather large bird fly away from the coop area and I could hear the victim chirping into the distance. I'm pretty sure it was a hawk or maybe even an owl. It was approaching sunset. My primary concern with this new project (it's a new house and I haven't done birds here yet) were ground predators (dogs, coyotes, etc.) and that's why I chose dark cornish because of their reputation as being feisty toward predators and their ability to protect themselves well. When is a good age to begin freeranging this breed? Should I have waited til when they are older and bigger. I mistook these birds to be 6 weeks of age probably because they are already getting pretty big but just before I posted this I double checked and realized that are just over a month old. For now they are back in the coop until I decide what to do. Any advice would be appreciated
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