How far from the road is safe to free range?

[autumnmfisher]

Our chickens free range and we have had no problems (had chickens two years now). But I think the peafowl will range further. we have 16 acres but the barn is maybe 200-250 feet from the road. is that far enough? People drive 50mph on our road Plus when we have let them out for the day they roosted in a tree in our front yard only about 50 feet from the road. that worries me. I don't want them getting hit.

If i could post a pict i would - ever since i upgraded to the new internet explorer i can't even get the buttons on the replys anyone know a fix for this? tried refreshing logging out and in. its been a week now. i think it was the upgrade

 

[zazouse]

It depends how fast you can run to catchy them when they are stalking something,
My road is 6/10's of a mile from a farm road it is pretty busy sometimes but so far i have only had to herd them back a few times when they are trying to follow something like a rabbit,deer,or cat . i have good intuition with them and allways seem to know when they are up to no good so none of mine have ever gotten off my 100 acres after 2 years of having them.



I do not know why you have no buttons, try to e-,mail Niftychicken the owner and see if he can help.

 

[autumnmfisher]

Thanks ZAZ, I think i may be to close i really would hate to see one get hit.

With my other problem of not having buttons/being able to do anything... i tried private messageing the administrator that didn't work so i replyed ot one of the pictures.. i typed a whole paragraph hit send/submit and it deleted it and poped up saying my reply was empty!

This is so frustrating. esp since i think a picture of how far the barn is from the road would really help here. i'm about to uninstall internet explorer and go to a different browser.

 

[autumnmfisher]

ok i grew a brain - we have this picture hanging in our house!!! its about 30 years old but the yard hasn't changed to much.
This is where the chickens hang out the most so i'd think they peas would hang out here too.
the little building on the left side is the chick/pea coop now. the little building to the right isn't there anymore - looks like it was the original coop tho.
also the thru way runs along our property. but there's a cow pasture inbetween the barn and thru way and to the south there's a whole grape vineyard so i'm not worried about that as much as the road out front.

does anyone else have a similar set up?/yard? i really want to free range them but i'm afraid this isn't enough space to keep them safe. I've heard of peas out in the road displaying at cars... this would not be good - ppl drive way to quick here.
Thank you.

 

[zazouse]

I would not risk it, you could let them out if you are there to supervise, they can be taught to stay away from the road but you have to be there 24/7 to catch them every time till they understand, mine see me comming when they are somewhere they are not supose to be they just stop dead in their tracks and then turn around and come back to me UNLESS they see something like anotther critter and that is what will get themj into trouble if im am not here to stop them.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

I agree with Zazouse, that road looks too close to be safe unless you are there to watch them all the time.
We live on a private road/driveway that our free range peas just stroll around on.
Usually people only drive 10-15 mph here, and they know to slow down for the peas.
However, the peas will just stand there in the road; they really don't seem to have any sense that cars are dangerous.

 

[autumnmfisher]

awww thanks guys. guess my husband wins. we'll build them a nice home. i'm still going to let them out on saturday and sundays tho