How far will true free ranged chickens go?

[Shadrach]

No yard.
No perimeter fencing
Any fencing there is on the property has chicken pass through points.
An entire National Park at their disposal
They do roost in coops now but they didn't always
They range,taking the house as the central point (approximately) half an acre North up the mountain
An acre and a bit West
An acre East
A couple of acres South.
I've estimated that normal ranging is over four acres.
The more groups of chickens here the further they range.
Weather conditions also have an influence. There are cooler spots going up towards the ridges either side of the house. There are also more ground predators in these woolands so the chickens make a trade off I assume.
Given last year we had temperatures close to 40 degrees Centigrade and given chickens tend to drop dead at around 43 degrees I can appreciate a bit of a risk may be worth more comfort.
I think for most domestic chickens they prefer to keep within sight of their coops and of course, their food supply.

 

[Hihamburger]

When we had the boys with them, our chickens would go quite far. They'd go at least three houses down, and hide in the woods during the day. In the evening, they would go the other direction and end up in our other neighbors yard! The boys certainly gave them confidence. After a few arguments, and me being unhappy with the resulting decision, my parents decided to lock the boys up near the coop. Now, the girls don't go so far. But, in general, they travel about .5 mile each day

 

[TwistedSteel]

Well and good but the question was "HOW FAR WILL TRUE FREE RANGE CHICKENS GO?"

I consider the words TRUE FREE RANGE as meaning chickens that are never cooped, never fed (except perhaps for a few table scraps) or chickens that are lucky enough to forage all day while standing between the rear legs of the homestead's milk cow.

Chickens like humans are quite lazy and chickens will never go further or work harder than the minimum required to keep themselves fed.

Seems that is just your definition, kind of like Flock. I have never meet anyone who had chickens that didn`t have some kind of coop and didn`t feed them any type of feed.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

No yard.
No perimeter fencing
Any fencing there is on the property has chicken pass through points.
An entire National Park at their disposal
They do roost in coops now but they didn't always
They range,taking the house as the central point (approximately) half an acre North up the mountain
An acre and a bit West
An acre East
A couple of acres South.
I've estimated that normal ranging is over four acres.
The more groups of chickens here the further they range.
Weather conditions also have an influence. There are cooler spots going up towards the ridges either side of the house. There are also more ground predators in these woolands so the chickens make a trade off I assume.
Given last year we had temperatures close to 40 degrees Centigrade and given chickens tend to drop dead at around 43 degrees I can appreciate a bit of a risk may be worth more comfort.
I think for most domestic chickens they prefer to keep within sight of their coops and of course, their food supply.

Nice set up. I'd probably drop dead at those temps if I were out in them too long.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

When we had the boys with them, our chickens would go quite far. They'd go at least three houses down, and hide in the woods during the day. In the evening, they would go the other direction and end up in our other neighbors yard! The boys certainly gave them confidence. After a few arguments, and me being unhappy with the resulting decision, my parents decided to lock the boys up near the coop. Now, the girls don't go so far. But, in general, they travel about .5 mile each day

At a half a mile, my chickens would be at a neighbor's house.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Seems that is just your definition, kind of like Flock. I have never meet anyone who had chickens that didn`t have some kind of coop and didn`t feed them any type of feed.

Before I got these chickens they were free ranging - they slept in trees. But, I am not sure what other options they had. The owner just said he didn't coop them up anymore. He gave me some left over feed, so he did provide that. I know some farmers around here just let their chickens bed in the barn. So while it is enclosed, it might not offer all of the protection of a coop. I think they offer feed though.
So, that makes me wonder if any one free ranges with no boundaries and providing no food? I would think the chickens would be come wild and may resort to being like jungle fowl.

 

[AudieWarren]

How many acres in total and what type of fencing?

There is around 53 acres total, but the chickens don't go any further the front yard. The pen is probably 2 acres from the house. They like the flowers to here. The fence is several rounds of electric wire. It's about 5ft tall. It's more to keep chickens safe at night than to keep the chickens from roaming during the day.

 

[erkose]

I read a lot about free ranged birds and then notice most posts say "in my fenced in yard". I do not have a fence. My birds have a run and their coop is inside of the run. When I let them out they are truley free ranging, but I only let them out briefly while I am out in the yard to keep an eye on them and to wrangle them up before I go in.
We have corn and beans surrounding our property that they like to forage in. It is quite the adventure wrangling them out of the fields.
So, if you have no fenced in yard, how far do the chickens go from home base?
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Like you all our poultry free range-I let them out at sun up-and my wife locks into chook penthouses inside a chook run at night-if you ask me how far away from the roam I have seen them I would say a maximum 500 yards-that's a lot of area-they really wont go much further-they come back into bed themselves at sun down any new poultry just seem to learn quickly-the geese go further and the guinea fowls go further still ducks similar to geese

 

[erkose]

S I said somewhere else here-we loose a few to wild dogs(part dingo mostly)-foxes and who knows what-this is mostly when the silly buggers decide to nest and we cant find them-I built a small movable enclosure from scrap metal and chicken wire
If we find them we put this on them with water and food and a big log or rock or whatever is close-mostly works

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Before I got these chickens they were free ranging - they slept in trees. But, I am not sure what other options they had.... I think they offer feed... that makes me wonder if any one free ranges with no boundaries and providing no food? I would think the chickens would be come wild and may resort to being like jungle fowl.

If a flock of chickens moved .5 or 1/2 mile while free ranging, and they did that in all 4 cardinal directions, that flock of chickens would free-range over at least 640 acres.

It is unimportant to me how far a chicken goes before it has to cross the road. What is important is that you the new chicken shepherd understands his or her flock and can better make decisions that help, not hurt their birds.

Now, the girls don't go so far. But, in general, theWhen we had [roosters] our chickens would go quite far. They'd go at least three houses down, and hide in the woods during the day. In the evening, they would go the other direction and end up in our other neighbors yard! The boys certainly gave them confidence. After a few arguments, and me being unhappy with the resulting decision, my parents decided to lock the boys up near the cooy travel about .5 mile each day

Most of the hens that many new chicken shepards keep are incapable of being full on free range chickens. These chickens are physically incapable of successfully free ranging and living to tell the tail. I would be interested to hear from the people whose chickens range the farthest afield what the breed or strain is of the chickens that they run. I won't name names but lots of the chickens kept as free range birds are incapable of long surviving on their own. The only definition of free range is that the chickens make all of their own decisions about what and when they eat and when and where they sleep. I don't think that designer chickens are in any danger of becoming "[L]ike jungle fowl."