How far will chickens venture from their coop?

[GC-Raptor]

Im not sure if they like the brush more or open yards when foraging.

My Golden Comets like mowed lawns and leaves to forage through. I have an acre of cut lawn on a corner lot with woods on two sides.
My hens wouldn't forage in grass that was over 4 or 5 inches, yet they would go into the woods to forage. .
I had no issues when I free ranged for 2 hours before sunset daily. But when I started to let them out around 1 pm to forage, they started to cross the street. I got a text from my neighbor saying my hens were in her backyard. I shooed them back to their pen and kept them in there for a couple weeks.
Then I let them out to free range an hour before sunset. And have continued daily, weather permitting for months now. So far they have stayed on this side of the road and on our property. GC

 

[dalasgalas]

The go fairly far to be honest. We have 19 acres and apparently that isn't enough because our hens wander over to the neighbor's yard and roost on their swing set.
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Because of COURSE they do!

 

[Mrs. K]

The more you let them out, the farther they will roam. Often in the winter, mine do not get out much, when I do let them out, they tend to stay closer to the set up. We have had better weather lately and they are going farther, course I have a different rooster, and he seems to take the farther away too.

Do you have a rooster? They can help. But I think it is important to have a set up big enough that you can keep them confined in case you want to be gone or get hit by predators.

 

[TheRealWitwiki]

We let our chickens out and they stay on our property for the most part...occasionally taking a stroll through the woods to the neighbors green grass. If you let them out right before dark like most people have said they will stay close to the coop. I started when they were about 7 or 8 weeks old. We have a light in our coop that is on a timer and normally when it starts to get dark they head for the little bright chicken door opening. My chickens also know my call when I want them back in our yard, I mostly convince them by banging on a container with food scraps and yelling "here chickie chickies" lol

 

[Blondi27]

My Golden Comets like mowed lawns and leaves to forage through.View attachment 1743100 I have an acre of cut lawn on a corner lot with woods on two sides.
My hens wouldn't forage in grass that was over 4 or 5 inches, yet they would go into the woods to forage.View attachment 1743123.
I had no issues when I free ranged for 2 hours before sunset daily. But when I started to let them out around 1 pm to forage, they started to cross the street. I got a text from my neighbor saying my hens were in her backyard. I shooed them back to their pen and kept them in there for a couple weeks.
Then I let them out to free range an hour before sunset. And have continued daily, weather permitting for months now. So far they have stayed on this side of the road and on our property. GC

I will have to try that and see how they do.

 

[Blondi27]

The more you let them out, the farther they will roam. Often in the winter, mine do not get out much, when I do let them out, they tend to stay closer to the set up. We have had better weather lately and they are going farther, course I have a different rooster, and he seems to take the farther away too.

Do you have a rooster? They can help. But I think it is important to have a set up big enough that you can keep them confined in case you want to be gone or get hit by predators.

I do not have a rooster, but we did make a big run for them in case free ranging doesn’t work out. Since this is my first year with chickens I will see how they do. If I end up losing a lot of hens to predators I might consider keeping them in their run and getting a rooster.

 

[Blondi27]

We let our chickens out and they stay on our property for the most part...occasionally taking a stroll through the woods to the neighbors green grass. If you let them out right before dark like most people have said they will stay close to the coop. I started when they were about 7 or 8 weeks old. We have a light in our coop that is on a timer and normally when it starts to get dark they head for the little bright chicken door opening. My chickens also know my call when I want them back in our yard, I mostly convince them by banging on a container with food scraps and yelling "here chickie chickies" lol

That sounds like something I would do lol. My chicks are 2 weeks old right now. How many weeks should they be before I let them out to free range? The coop that we bought has an enclosed roofed run. I was planning on keeping them in that once their ready to be moved into the coop. I feel like once their moved out to their coop full time that their still pretty small and more prone to predators for their size.

 

[Trux]

That sounds like something I would do lol. My chicks are 2 weeks old right now. How many weeks should they be before I let them out to free range? The coop that we bought has an enclosed roofed run. I was planning on keeping them in that once their ready to be moved into the coop. I feel like once their moved out to their coop full time that their still pretty small and more prone to predators for their size.

When you bring them outside should depend on where you are and weather/temps. I am in SoCal and right now would have my chicks outside in a small coop with a brooder plate. It has it's own run attached so when they get to full feather stage I open up the coop and let them in the run, and at about 7-8 weeks let them out to meander around the backyard while I watch...and they get to meet the older girls through the run fence.

 

[TheRealWitwiki]

That sounds like something I would do lol. My chicks are 2 weeks old right now. How many weeks should they be before I let them out to free range? The coop that we bought has an enclosed roofed run. I was planning on keeping them in that once their ready to be moved into the coop. I feel like once their moved out to their coop full time that their still pretty small and more prone to predators for their size.

I would say between 6-8 weeks. Make sure to supervise while they are small. The only reason I let my chickens loose on our property is because we have an aggressive rooster who protects the hens. We have never had an attack from a predator and I have been letting them out to roam for over a year. I am always home as well when they are out. I can look out the windows or be working in the yard. Our outside cats won't even mess with the chickens because of the rooster.

 

[Blondi27]

When you bring them outside should depend on where you are and weather/temps. I am in SoCal and right now would have my chicks outside in a small coop with a brooder plate. It has it's own run attached so when they get to full feather stage I open up the coop and let them in the run, and at about 7-8 weeks let them out to meander around the backyard while I watch...and they get to meet the older girls through the run fence.

I believed I read that once their fully feathered they can go out to the coop full time as long at the temps stay above freezing. It’s been 60 here in the day and high 30s low 40s at night. They should be fine right?