hi from s carolina

[bradleyfarmgirl]

Hi everyone. Two months ago i purchased an old 10 acre farm with a farm house built in 1890. im in a little unincorporated town of only 178 people in upstate sc. Im in love with it all! .planted a small garden..some fruit trees and of course got 6 chicks at the tractor supply store in the closest big town. 3 red rangers not sexed,2 turned out to be roosters and 3 leghorn pullets. weve started to let them free range and sadly 2 of the leghorns have disappeared .. into thin air. I realized that in making the decision to free range that there could be potential casualties. Its sad though. I intend to order more pullets from a hatchery to have more variety. Anyone out there that free ranges have any suggestions?

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

I am so sorry about your lost free rangers. You take a chance of losing your birds when ever you free range. Everything eats chicken. Some rooster breeds can help with predators, but generally if predators are lurking, you will lose birds. I have way too many predators to free range all day long without supervision. But I do have a very large fenced off area that I let my birds free range in for a couple of hours a day. I let them out when I am home and check in on them while I am outside working in the yard or from the house windows. When they are not out free ranging, I keep them in a large run where they have plenty of room.

Good luck and I hope you can figure something out!

Welcome to our flock!

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[Michael OShay]

Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided join our flock. I'm sorry about the loss of your Leghorns. It's always sad to lose some of our flock. As Two Crows said, whenever you free range you're going to lose some birds. It will be up to you to decide whether or not the losses are acceptable. If not, you will need to build a predator proof enclosed run onto the coop. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your flock.

 

[drumstick diva]

So sorry for your losses, it's hard to take whenever they happen. That is why a lot of folks do not free range. If the birds have never done so, they do not miss it. Chickens don't really have any defense against predators - they can hide and they can fly ( some breeds cannot). If you had a livestock guardian dog with them 24/7 that would be a whole different story.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! There are some nice free range threads you might want to check out https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/897953/keeping-chickens-free-range/0_20

 

[bradleyfarmgirl]

Thanks everyone for the feedback

 

[nj2wv]

welcome to BYC !!