How do you know if it's safe to free-range your chickens?

[Clay In Iowa]

The following steps may help you determine the relative safety of your flock while free ranging...

Step 1) Count your chickens in the morning (count 0ne)

Step 2) let them out to free range

Step 3) count them again when they come home to roost. (count 2)

Results:

If count 1 is equal are greater than count 2... it's safe

If count 1 is greater than count 2 ... it's not safe.

You may asses the degree of "unsafeness" by determining how much greater count 1 is than count 2. As count 2 approaches zero the relative safety of the flock decreases proportionally.

If they differ by 1 then is a little unsafe.

If count 1 is 2-4 greater than count 2 then it's pretty unsafe.

If count 1 is 5-10 greater than count 2 then it's very unsafe.

If count 1 is greater by 10 or more.. it's waaaaaayyyy unsafe start looking for smoke and sniffing for BBQd chicken.

 

[bluey]

Quote:
Well said BCB...if my chickens were "pets", I would not free range them.

 

[walkswithdog]

We free range. We have lost birds. The rest got better at noticing and avoiding the hawks. They go out between 9 and 10 and come in around 5 PM, except on the coldest of days here in TN.

No I don't supervise them, I do go out several times a day. I look for hawks, I check water, I sit for bird cuddles.

I drive off and leave when I need to.

When the hawk problem started I put up an area of netting and provided more cover. Some reflectors and once it's warm, more bushes for cover and vines over their primary area.

Fort Knox coops and yards still get breached at times but yes they are SAFER.

I let mine get out there and take their chances, the survivors are faster, smarter and I think, healthier for it. They're for food, I do care for them and pet them and hold them but they're not pets.

While I don't like the losses, I like to think I'm practical about them. The whole flock did seem to learn from them.

I have it set up, I think, so some birds can always avoid a predator. And I am raising a Great Pyr pup who will guard them when she's grown.

I'd rather lose some than coop them up. But that's just about me and what I want. Everyone has to choose the risks they're comfortable with.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Breed has a lot to do with it to. I haven't lost a game chicken in years an they free range an roost in the open. But a flock of silkies or polish would be gone in a week with out protection. Color has a lot to do with it to. Black chickens are harder to see at night an some say hawks think there crows an avoid them. Barring is pretty good camo. Lite colors is like a neon dinner sign.

 

[swampwander]

I agree with all the other posters, wholeheartedly. Mine stay inside our fenced back yard of 1/2 acre. We have had hawk issues, but never lost a bird. My dogs have free run of my yard and that has helped with stray dogs trying to get in. Coons have been more of an issue at night around the coop. Our coop/run is all one piece right now. We had to double wire, even the buried part and double latch and lock the door.

DH had a nice flock of RIR that he kept at his old house. They strayed on to a neighboring property and became a BBQ. Nothing we could do about it because they entered someone else's property.

 

[Whispering Winds]

Hi, this is the first time I have been on this site, and already love reading and looking and learning. I think you need to fence in your ladies and gents if you are going to let them have that much access. A movable pen might be a good idea, you see so many of them on wheels that doesn't look like you have to be a rocket scientist to build or Donald Trump to afford. I live in Southern Illinois, or Midwestern Illinois, about 60 miles east of St. Louis, and we have plans to get chickens this late spring, and we know we are going to have to have them contained. If its not a wild predator, and we have hawks, owls, coyotes and don't forget your coons and possums (had a coon in my attic two years running, don't even want to go there!!!!!

) One of our biggest threats could also be a neighbors dog. Even a cat can do great damage in the chicken house. Hope other seasoned chicken people have ideas too, to add to my new member thoughts!
I need to build a really economical chicken house, and am intriqued by the beliefs that you need to leave the south side open because of ventilation. It makes sense, and having had older parents, I found out a lot of their ideas and knowledge actually did turn out to be more than an old wives tale, and there was great truth in some of them. I would like to hear other people's ideas or experiments with this idea before we start to plan ours.