I'm about to start free-ranging.

[wren]

Do they run up to you when you give them a treat? You could train them to come when you call b/c they get something they love inside the coop.

 

[pattycake]

The first few weeks I freeranged, the chicks ran right into the brush and stayed there. They wouldn't come out until I banged on their dinner plate. It took them a while before they became comfortable out in the open.

Actually, I felt like they were safer in the brush. Now, out in the pasture, they're exposed to hawks and passing dogs....

 

[Theda's Mom]

I started letting my girls (and the gang of giddy guineas) out in the late afternoon (4:00 ish) about a week ago. The first day or two, we "babysat" them - totally nervous that they'd head south and never be seen again. Obviously, chicks are smarter than their keepers. Though the guineas have a tendency to wander further, they always go in a noisy pack, and they're always the first back into the coop come twilight. The chicks don't wander as far (to date they haven't gone more than 15 or 20 feet from their coop) but they're also the 'night owls' of the bunch, refusing to come in until the light is about gone.

I love watching them free range. They're exquisitely happy, making little chortling sounds as they wade through the brush and grass. Now that they've found their way into one of the horse pens (ahhh, all that BUGGY manure!), they're even happier.

Chickens are such fun. Everyone should have them!

Susan