How do I free range my flock

[pattgal]

We live on just over an acre of land and i would like to be able to free range the birds but we have alot of other visitors here like the skunk and the coyotes which we never see but leave a lot of evidence to prove it. our 5 dear that cross our property to the river. Aaaaaaannnd the dear eagles flying around
right now all I have is a 10x10 run. any tips on how to free range your flock would be really appreciated

 

[The Chicken People]

I wouldnt unless you are out with them!

 

[schmije]

If you want to free range them, you have to be prepared to have losses. We've lost some to a dog, a coyote, and a number that just didn't come home one night. One option is to do what Chicken People said and only let them out if you're able to watch them. Another thing to consider is your neighbors. If you're on about an acre, it's likely that they'll wander off your property. Do you have neighbors that would be ok with this?

 

[teach1rusl]

I take it your property/land is not fenced? There's NO safe way to free range. My girls are out right now (huddled on the porch currently because it raining here). I only let them out of the run when I'm (or DH or DS are) home...my property IS fenced...and it's STILL a risk. Yes, I could run out there if I heard problems, but there's a good chance that it would be too late. I do have two large dogs, so that helps. But they LOVE being able to walk around the property, and I love seeing them out and about when I'm working outside, or even from my kitchen window. When I go to work, or if we're off doing errands, then they go back into the run. Most of the predators (coyotes, raccoons, etc.) in my area only come out and about at night time, when my girls are safely penned up. My biggest daytime worry is dogs (I've actually had one squeeze under my field fence) and hawks. My girls are very good about going to cover when they see hawks. I'm not sure what they would do if a strange dog made it onto the property.
So there's no set way to free range...just do it knowing that you do run the risk of losing one or more of your birds.

 

[Motherof4]

I have 13 chickens and three dogs. I also have about the same set up as you. At first I put the dogs in the house and let the chickens out about 1 to 2 hours before dark. at sun down they all went into the run/coop on their on most of the time. Then I introduced the dogs to them and now the dogs and the chickens share the back yard all day long. dogs help protect the chickens. I also got a plastic owl from Wal-mart. filled it up with dirt and put it on top of my shed. My husband moves it around to a new location about once a week.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree with Teach1rusl, including the part that their will always be a risk. My parents totally free ranged a flock and would go years without a loss, but then a fox, dog, or something would find them and would have to be dealt with. Some people have losses the day that they first let them out. I have seen predators (including foxes and coyotes recently) out during the day, but the risk is much greater at night. To me, the best way to improve your odds is to safely lock them up at night. Your deer are not predators as far as chickens go. Now what they might do to your trees or garden is a different story but they will not harm your chickens.

How can you improve your odds. First of all, a good fence around where you want them to range is a great idea. A regular fence will not keep a lot of predators out but it will help keep the chickens in. That does help. Predators can climb over or dig under pretty easily. One way to improve on a regular fence is to electrify it. Many different ways to do that. I'll give you a link to one possibility. There are many others.

Plastic electric fencing
http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=20170&cat_id=118

This will not help with airborne predators. The best you can do there is give them something to hide under if they spot a hawk, owl, or eagle. Bushes help. Some outbuildings may give places for them to hide. You can prop an old satellite dish up off the ground to give them something to hide under. I don't know your specific circumstances or what is available or acceptable to you. Use your imagination.

Depending on your circumstances and the number of chickens you have, you might build a chicken tractor and move it around when they strip the ground as much as you will allow them to. This greatly improves their safety but also increases your work load to move them around and care for them. Or maybe you can keep them in a tractor during the day and in their coop at night.

There are several different ways to approach this problem. Each of us have different circumstances and risk tolerances. I don't free range mine because they will not stay out of the road, not because of the predators. Hope you or someone gets some useful ideas out of this.

Good luck!!!

 

[pattgal]

Quote:
No my property is not fenced, Im not sure what the neighbors and their cats would think of it. if I was to free range them i would have to fence off an area for them but it would be far away from the coop because of the way the yard is set up. the garden is right behind the coop so i can't use that area for expansion

 

[pattgal]

Quote:
my only idea is to fence off an area at the back of the yard and heard them in during the daytime.
I am at home with the kids (2 under two years of age and lovin every minute of it

) all day anyway so keeping an eye on them wouldn't be a big problem
I could never leave them out at night here. i wouldn't even leave the cat out

and the day that happened we never saw him again

question is (ive never heard of a smart chicken till I found BYC) how do you heard them in without having them wander off.
I could always train the kids as sheepdogs haha ok that probably wouldn't turn out good

 

[teach1rusl]

Get them use to their coop/run first...for many weeks. I wouldn't try freeranging until they were at least 3-4 months old anyhow. While they're still little, train them to come to you. Put scratch in a container that makes a lot of noise when shaken. Teach them your call while shaking the container (then give them a few pieces of scratch). Teach them consistantly, and they will continue RUNNING to you when you call them or when they hear that container shaking after they are free rangers.
You don't want to fence off an area away from their coop, because then how are they supposed to get back to the coop to lay eggs once they're old enough to do so??? You will need to find out how your neighbor would feel if a chicken ended up on his/her property, possibly digging around in their flower bed. If you just have a neighbor on one side, you could try just fencing off (with field fence or anything...even deer netting) THAT side of your property...maybe Uing off about 10 ft. or so on each end. We have about 3 acres, and the girls usually stay pretty close to the house. But there are times when they will walk along the fence over the entire property. So odds are that your birds would end up off your property eventually. The question is, will they end up on someone else's property who doesn't want them there.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm pretty sure you are talking about getting them to and from the separate fenced in area during daylight.

Two kids under two. You can try trainng them but I'd think you would do better in the short term training the chickens. In a few years maybe.

One way is to catch them and carry them. Depends on your chickens and the number, that may be easy or difficult.

Maybe getting them used to coming when you feed them treats, shaking a can of scratch and calling chicky, chicky or whatever, so they get used to coming when called.

If you can time it right, they will go to their beds when it is bedtime. Just open the gate and let them go back to the coop. This one can get tricky with getting the timing right. They might find your garden on the way home too. That would not be good unless you have your garden fenced.

Maybe use that electric fencing and make a safe passageway for them to get to and from the fenced in area. That way they would be free to go back to the coop to lay their eggs without getting in your garden. I finally decided to go with a tractor instead, but I toyed with the idea of the electric fencing, running a passage to their run and moving the big fenced in area when they had the grass mowed the way I wanted it.

I don't have any really cheap or easy answers for you. That garden right there makes it more difficult.