We have 36 chickens. Two full grown roosters, and 34 hens. Some are 2 1/2, some 1 1/2, some 8 months and some chicks that are 6wks. We have free ranged ours since getting the first, 2 1/2 years ago. We have family land, which means that between three families, we have about 8 acres. They range all over. We even have one that is a loner that goes across the street and up the mountain. They all come home at dark and we have never had any issues with predators. If we walk out in the yard and call "here chick, chick, chick" they all come running. If we need to put them in the run for whatever reason, we call and throw a couple of hands full of scratch in the run. We offer organic feed in self pvc feeders that we have made and go through a 50# bag every two weeks. We have a 5 gal bucket with water nipples that we keep full and even have an old hospital basin that we keep full of water for them. Our coop is 12x10 and the run is 12x30. We do have issues with finding the eggs. We will find a hidden nest but notice that once we remove the eggs, they won't lay there again! Most of them lay in the nest boxes in the coop, but the 8 mo old seem to like to wander into the woods. Right now, most of them are molting. Frightening isn't the word for how they look! Our youngest daughter is mildly impaired and the chickens were something that she wanted to get. They love her! To watch how they react when she is here is nothing more than a miracle. They will follow her anywhere she goes and love for her to cuddle with them. Even though they are soooooo messy, it is worth all the cleaning and spraying to watch them together! I also was told by an "old timer" that we should watch the crows. He said the chickens watch the crows. When the crows sense danger and take flight, the chickens will do the same. A few days after he told us this, we were looking out the window and watching the mother hen and babies. Sure enough, when the crows that were a little way off startled and took flight, the mother hen ran with the babies under the porch. I have noticed this procedure several times since then.
