It's never safe enough:-(

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This would depend on how many predators you have around, there's really no right or wrong just what your environment is like and how you need to adapt it for your chickens. Can you make an outside run that's protective enough that they might enjoy the outdoors?
 
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My ladies free range. They scramble over each other to get out every morning and resist coming in at night so I know they love it. I would rather they enjoy their life even if it is cut short by predation then be in lock up everyday. But you have to weigh the dangers and benefits for your self and come up with the best solution for your situation.
 
I think the most frustrating thing about it is that we were right there - and never heard anything. We saw tracks, but couldn't tell whether we were looking at a coyote or a bobcat. We are only semi-rural, but our drought has brought the predators closer and closer.

My hens are only truly happy when they are free-ranging and that's why I continue to let them out. I have a very secure pen for them but they are clearly bored in there. So for the time being, I spend a significant part of my day following chickens around outside...
 
Do you have dogs? Mine alerted me to a coyote about a hour ago. Was able to get the ladies into the pen before we had any problems.
 
If you click the link in the first post you will see a photo of my lovely and apparently inept dog who was outside at the time it happened. She never heard anything; never moved a muscle. Not a flock guard, that's for sure.
 
bawkbawkbawk said:
I only let my little flock free-range when I am home and within earshot. Turns out that's not good enough:

https://polloplayer.wordpress.com/2015/02/07/the-sky-really-is-falling-summer/

They love so much to be out poking around in the yard, but they are only truly safe in their pen and coop.

Pro or con? Free range or Fort Knox?
Click to expand...
We started with all out free range during day(cooped at night), then the hawks came...

We then bought aviary netting and covered every run with it, then the possums/racoons came....

I then bought 3/4' plywood and locks for all coops, then they ate thru the plywood so we got Sarge,
10946626_732925633488030_565473045_n.jpg

a Great Pyranees who's now 6mths old, over 50lbs already, and we haven't seen a predator since! He stays on chain during day as we train him to not squash chickens with his 5lb mitts, and at night, runs loose on the 2 acres we have fenced in for the ducks and chickens, patrolling! Again, since we've had him, zero problems, before, often enough to require therapy....
 
Wow! Sarge looks awesome! He could clearly give my Golden Retriever a lesson or two in flock-guarding!

I am so attuned to hawk cries that I whip my head around when I hear one call in Central Park when we are in NYC and I have to remind myself that my hens are 3,000 safe miles away. I can tell whether it's the red-tailed or the red-shouldered hawk flying overhead - the really scary times are when they don't make a sound and try to pounce silently.

When we built our coop I read somewhere that we should trench down a foot and a half and put in hardware cloth and that was a great plan - nothing can dig under the pen and the hardware cloth goes up a couple feet to keep the raccoons from having any success.

But when the hens are outside the pen and coop, all bets are off. I need a Great Pyrenees, stat!
 
bawkbawkbawk said:
Wow! Sarge looks awesome! He could clearly give my Golden Retriever a lesson or two in flock-guarding!

I am so attuned to hawk cries that I whip my head around when I hear one call in Central Park when we are in NYC and I have to remind myself that my hens are 3,000 safe miles away. I can tell whether it's the red-tailed or the red-shouldered hawk flying overhead - the really scary times are when they don't make a sound and try to pounce silently.

When we built our coop I read somewhere that we should trench down a foot and a half and put in hardware cloth and that was a great plan - nothing can dig under the pen and the hardware cloth goes up a couple feet to keep the raccoons from having any success.

But when the hens are outside the pen and coop, all bets are off. I need a Great Pyrenees, stat!
Click to expand...
He's been a godsend for sure and thankfully built for the cold, literally sleeps in the snow when he has a doghouse(ex-coop) and a barn he can bed down in...Both are set up for him with hay beds, food and water, he prefers the outdoors :LOL
 

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