Keeping Chickens Free Range

[duluthralphie]

I'm moving to a house surrounded by woods, all sides, I will be getting my first chickens in a month! The previous owners left a 24 box chicken coop, lucky me! I'm going to start small with 4. How many could I keep with 24 boxes?

I know there are many predators in the area but I want to let the chickens roam during the day. Any thoughts about safety?

Welcome to BYC!!!

Cross your fingers and pray.

I say that half tongue and cheek. I lose a lot to predators. I just accept the losses. I lock them up at night and keep them in until the morning sun is fairly high to avoid the deadly dawn feeding of the eagles, hawks and fox. Use lights on a motion detector. Hang stringers and cds. Let your dog run with the chickens. All my coops have covered runs attached to them so if I need to they can stay under cover or inside while I am gone.

I keep free ranging because. a short life of free ranging is better IMHO than a long one in a cage.

The 24 boxes does not tell us much, it is the size of the coop and attached run that counts.

 

[kit carson]

For cover for chickens, Hazel nut shrubs will grow 15' in one season once established. They have multiple trunks about an inch in diameter and grow quite wide too so provide nice cover. Easy to shape too. The shrub can be used as firewood as it grows so fast and has lovely catkins in Spring that birds love. Blue elderberry can reach 20' in three years.

My girls did not bother my new shrubs and I did not protect them. But I only have three. The girls do love areas of my yard with cover, a blessing as we have hawks here. We have also lots of Mediterranean bay which is an evergreen shrub. Smells lovely and can be used in cooking. Just planted high bush cranberry, Douglas spirea, twinberry, Indian plum and rhododendron.

I may leave a tree in my yard which appears to be dying. The woodpeckers and cedar waxwings love it. Apparently Audubon suggests having some snags. I know not everyone likes wild birds but woodpeckers are not a threat to my chickens. Will see if I can stand looking at it. Every time I decide to cut it down, Ibe seen some wonderful birds in it. I may plant something under it so if I do remove it the area won't be so bare.

 

[kit carson]

if you hate looking at a dead tree, but don't want to cut it down because the birds love it, you could plant a flowering vine next to it, or better yet, something edible like grapes or blackberries. It will be a win/win for you and the birds, and maybe the bees, too.

 

[potterycat]

Thank you for your thoughts. The coop is an old shed. Roughly 5x5 and 6' tall. On the right are the boxes, 24, 2 windows on the roof, a wire gate door for me to get in and shed doors to close after that and at the bottom back there is a small door about 1' tall, I think for the chickens to have access. There are no runs attached to the shed/coop. Should I make some?

 

[slordaz]

That's up to you if you want to do the work. what we think our chickens will like and what they do are two totally different things lol

we put ours in a insulated coop with run, but they are free ranged, so we had to move everything over cause they like the horse stall better

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm guessing those nest boxes are a metal set up? a 5 x 5 coop would house, at most 5 hens. You need to plan a minimum of 4 s.f./chicken.

 

[TalkALittle]

I'm guessing those nest boxes are a metal set up?  a 5 x 5 coop would house, at most 5 hens.  You need to plan a minimum of 4 s.f./chicken.

That would be 6 hens.
5' x 5' = 25sq.ft.
25sq.ft. ÷ 4sq.ft./hen = 6.25 hens

 

[lazy gardener]

I stand corrected. Thank you.

 

[TalkALittle]

I stand corrected.  Thank you.

It's not often I get the math right.

 

[Mrs. K]

@ Petterycat
I do think you will be happier with a run, predators can wipe you out. Sometimes it is nice to pen them up, but they can still get outside. I let mine free-range quite often, but not on real dark cloudy days, high wind days. Those just give too much advantage to the predator. If I have been recently hit with a predator, I keep them locked up for several days in a coop/run set up.

Being that your coop is 6 foot tall, I think that you could easily go as high as 8 hens. You would need two roosting poles, but I think you could get them in there. I had a 5 x 6 x 5 foot coop, and I set up roosts all at the same level, but in the far corner from the door, with the longest roost reaching across the coop, kitty corner. It worked fine.

In my opinion, we often forget the third dimension of space, and there is quite a difference between a 5 x 5 x 3 and a 5x5x6. Especially if they get outside in a safe run. If you start having behavioral problems, then you will need to cull.

MK