If you love your chickens, fence them in

[Beekissed]

I free range without fences but with a dog. Safe as houses.

 

[FrostBytn]

I free range but close them in at night.
I lost some to a neighbors coyote/husky cross.
But after 3 years, I haven't had much trouble.
My Roosters spot the hawks and vultures and give a warning cry/growl, and the chickens run for cover, I have plenty of cover for the chickens.
Keeping them penned up in a run would defeat part of the purpose of having them, they are our Tick catchers.

 

[aoxa]

What a shame it would be to stuff chickens in a pen IMO..
4 The Birds being the exception. That is a nice fence, and if you have a lot of ground predators without an LGD, it is essential.

For us, the only predator issue we have is hawks in the fall. The roosters tell them to take cover.. if they don't, well... it's a tough world, but I don't think losing one or two here and there constitutes a reason to confine them 24/7. Sure if you are having mass murders daily it makes sense.. If you have that issue, really look into an LGD... I can't imagine what a large area fenced in and covered would cost..

I have an acre fenced in with 5 strand electric to contain the goats. It does not contain the chickens.

But if it keeps goats in, it can keep a lot of ground predators at bay. Had a moose a month ago on the property that would not go through it.

I lost maybe 10 birds to hawks this year. They were all under 4 months old.

I provide cover, I have roosters who warn and protect their hens, so if they aren't smart enough to take cover - really don't need to breed that stupid gene into my flock. I know that may sound cruel to some.. I don't like to see my birds get killed, but I HATE to see them confined.

 

[Beekissed]

Yes. It's all in how you view quality of life. Would you prefer a safe life of confinement or would you rather leave your own home, drive in a car that may wreck, walk amongst the public that carry germs that may kill you and enjoy activities that may induce injury and death~like riding a bike, traveling by air, car, bus, or train, sitting out in the sun, swimming in the ocean, swimming at all, sports, eating certain foods or eating at all...there is a danger of choking when one does that.

It's called acceptable risk for a quality of life. I've seen more posts on this forum of predation happening inside coops and runs than I ever have when birds are free ranged, so keeping them in jail is not always the way to go "if you love your chickens". People get murdered while safely behind bars, chickens do too and they have no sporting chance to escape while confined to coops and runs.

I've had a grand total of 3 birds gone by predation in the last 10 yrs of free ranging, with and without a perimeter fencing that the chickens can just go through anyway.

 

[junglechicken25]

4 dogs, REAL game roosters,and turkeys have kept over 100 free ranging chickens alive and happy, I realize not all of you have those resources but theyre are ways to free range them safely, and my eggs are better than anyone around

 

[Coralietg]

The largest loss we have had at one time, was in a penned area. Some dogs managed to chew their way in, and killed 28 of our 32 chickens. The chicken had no-where to go, they couldn't get away and hide. I felt horribly guilty.

We free ranged with no issue, until someone hit one of our chickens in the road and killed it, then came after us to pay for damages to their car. We finished fencing them in to half an acre, with lots of hiding spots.

I think everyone has unique circumstances. We have a road in front of our house, and neighbourhood dogs. We put a fence along the front to block the dogs, and the road. We had to finish fencing when the chicken decided to loop around the house to get back to the ever appealing road. We've had one hawk attack in 5 years, we have excellent coverage with pine and sycamore trees.

 

[aoxa]

The largest loss we have had at one time, was in a penned area. Some dogs managed to chew their way in, and killed 28 of our 32 chickens. The chicken had no-where to go, they couldn't get away and hide. I felt horribly guilty.

We free ranged with no issue, until someone hit one of our chickens in the road and killed it, then came after us to pay for damages to their car. We finished fencing them in to half an acre, with lots of hiding spots.

I think everyone has unique circumstances. We have a road in front of our house, and neighbourhood dogs. We put a fence along the front to block the dogs, and the road. We had to finish fencing when the chicken decided to loop around the house to get back to the ever appealing road. We've had one hawk attack in 5 years, we have excellent coverage with pine and sycamore trees.

Oh I'd be so mad.

 

[waldeneffect]

Our dog Lucy does a good job keeping predators away which allows us to use this short green plastic fence material when we keep our chicks in a temporary enclosure.

The green Tenax is easy to move and makes it easy to rotate the chicks to fresh ground every few days.

It's been working out pretty good so far. Here's blog post on some of the things we learned along the way on temporary chicken fencing.

http://www.avianaquamiser.com/posts/Temporary_chicken_fencing_for_the_backyard/