Keeping Chickens Free Range

[Tikkijane]

Do most of you let your chickens out as much in the winter? I don't mean in really bad weather.....but just in general. There wont be bugs out for them to eat so I wondered what most people do.

I have gotten braver since I first started letting them out. I love walking outside and hearing them scratching about in the leaves and seeing them around the yard. I love having them!

Yes. I don't have a run. They go out just fine.

 

[andreanar]

I am also on first egg watch, my hens are from  17 to 23 weeks old. Yesterday I left the one shed open for a little bit, a chicken went inside, I could not find her. I thought she had ran out.  About 10 minutes later I heard the egg song coming from in the shed. I went in just in time to see a hen crawling out of a pile of boxes and things piled in one corner.


I spent 10 minutes looking. my wife spent another 10 minutes looking. We decided we are not going to find a brown egg in all that junk in a semi dark corner of the shed....

I wish I knew if their was an egg in there!  I hate to move all that stuff for nothing....I hate to move it for one egg!


Dang Chickens!

Lol. Im so anxious for that first egg that I would move the entire garage searching! Haha, my girls are so sick of me stalking them that I think someone's gonna lay me an egg just to get rid of me!

 

[thechxwhisperer]

I free range my chickens and put them up at night.

 

[vpatt]

Now I have started worrying that if I let them out to range that the ones who are not laying yet will lay in the bushes instead of going back to the nest box.....is there any trick to getting the free rangers to lay in the nest. Earlier this week I thought it sounded so easy.....guess I needed something to worry about.

 

[vpatt]

Yes. I don't have a run. They go out just fine.

How do you teach them to use a nest box?

 

[hdbrat84]

I am not sure if I am going to free range I'm still on the fence but I am leaning towards it. We just bought this house and they had a 6 ft high chain link fence with a dog house in the middle with 3 hens and a guinea. So I aproned the outside of the fence with a strong chicken wire and buried it under the gates and I am building a 8 by 8 coop that is 2ft off the ground with hardware cloth over the windows. So I plan on locking them up in the coop at night and there are a lot of trees for cover too. I am going to get my chicks Saturday. What do you think?

Should I leave them in the run or free range we have alot of fox around here I would be heart broken if they died!?

 

[chaneyschickens]

all about the free range here for our girls....

 

[hdbrat84]

Have you lost any? Do you live in the city?

 

[duluthralphie]

I am not sure if I am going to free range I'm still on the fence but I am leaning towards it. We just bought this house and they had a 6 ft high chain link fence with a dog house in the middle with 3 hens and a guinea. So I aproned the outside of the fence with a strong chicken wire and buried it under the gates and I am building a 8 by 8 coop that is 2ft off the ground with hardware cloth over the windows. So I plan on locking them up in the coop at night and there are a lot of trees for cover too. I am going to get my chicks Saturday. What do you think?

Should I leave them in the run or free range we have alot of fox around here I would be heart broken if they died!?

If you cannot bear the idea of a chicken dying or being killed, it is best you never free range. There are some losses.

I try to limit my losses by locking them up every night and not letting them out until it has been light for a couple hours.

I want my chickens to live the life I would like, as a chicken. I know I would be safest never leaving my house, never driving, never seeing other people. Life would stink, but would be safe.

The chickens in my idea are the same. I could keep them locked in a closed fence and coop, and they would live to the ripe old age of 3-4. OR I can let them out. Keep them as safe as possible and allow them to live a good life. That is why I free range. I would rather live a good life than a long life.

Wow, I sound like a philosopher!

 

[hdbrat84]

You do!! HAHAHA

Thank you for your input I agree I am going to lock them up at night and let them free range in the day. And well..hope for the best.