Keeping Chickens Free Range

[cheeka]

my setup is a little different. the coops are attached to the runs and I don't close interior doors anymore, so if it the runs are penetrated, everyone is at risk, but I covered and skirted everything with hardware cloth, placed huge shale paving stones on top of the hw cloth that lines the ground to keep diggers out and chunks of maple tree trunk on top of the stones. nothing has ever been disturbed in the slightest. the runs all have roosts in them as well as the attached coops. but no one sleeps in the coops, or hardly anyone, during the warmer months especially. they sleep on the roosts in their pens. they have feed and water at all times, so when they wake before the crack of dawn, they aren't in small spaces, they have access to everything. currently, I'm running about 6-8 square feet per bird, depending on the pen. I have room for more, but like the fact that everyone has lots of space, I don't have bad behavior issues from crowding... I'm out early to bring more feed for breakfast, but they always have some left over from the night before... when I get home from work, I open the pen doors and let them into the yard. they forage like crazy, my other pets haven't had ticks or anything since we got chickens, and I have no problems with rodents now that I am down to one ancient female kitty and 2 lazy males... the chickens are the best pest control ever!

so, no pop doors here, and I don't have to worry about letting them out. just locking the human doors at the end of the day.

 

[bumpercarr]

I'm not currently free ranging, just because I'm adding so many chickens right now that I feel like I need to wait until everyone is a little settled to start up again.

My set up is that the coop has 4 apartments, with automatic doors that open when the sun comes up. The chickens can choose which apartment they want to sleep in, right now they all open into one big run. The run will eventually be split up so that I have separate runs to use as breeding pens, but that will probably wait until October when I hope I can begin breeding again. That is probably when I will begin a rotational free range program again. The recommendation is 10 square feet per bird for the run, 4 square feet for the coop. With the number of chickens that I currently have, I'm running about 30 square feet of run and 8 square feet of coop. I've got big breed birds (brahmas) so I prefer to err on the side of more room per bird. It will be nice when I can start letting them out again.

 

[Tikkijane]

New to backyard chicken keeping - I grew up on a larger property - soooo - I want to be able to let out my 2 white rocks & 1 call duck in the morning but I leave for work before the sun is up - I just wondered what everyone does - I KNOW ABOUT THE AUTO DOORS - and I am looking into that - I just wondered what others do that leave before sunrise - do you just open in the am when night time 'bad guys' could still be prowling around or not? The door to the coop goes into a small run but the run is enough to keep the birds in but not keep anything out if it really wanted to get in.  I live in a neighborhood... larger lots - .5 acres but still a neighborhood.

You can use an automatic door and put it on a timer.

 

[Tikkijane]

Hey cheeka - so you open the hen house door early  & let them in the run but don't let them out out until later in the day??

Which is a good option so long as the run is predator proof (hardware cloth, etc).

 

[Tikkijane]

@fancychick1

Your situation sounds like mine! almost exactly!  I have 6 nesting boxes but the 4 laying hens use the same one! they like laying the eggs together, but obviously one chicken at a time : )

Traffic jam....

 

[Tikkijane]

Morning; a few minutes after being let out. And tgere are some already gone out farther. ..

 

[Tikkijane]

Hello all and thank you chickychickens for suggesting this thread!

I am also new to chicken keeping. I ordered/hatched most of my flock in May with the exception of three EE that I introduced to the flock this Sunday. They are getting picked on mercilessly! I am hoping this stops soon as they spend most of their time in a huddle and very low. 
All of mine are right at 6 weeks and still in a kiddie pool in an unfinished bathroom in my house. We are ready for them to go outside! We started building the coop this weekend and really only need to finish the nesting boxes for it to be secure. I would also like to make the removable roosts before we move them out too. 
I take the whole flock out each day to a covered building. They are never left unsupervised as we have a hawk family on the edge of our property. They become braver each day and wander into the garden but always come back to the building to nap and dust bathe.

I feed them twice a day but am unsure they are getting enough. They always seem so ravenous! How much do you all feed your free rangers?

At that age, they are still growing rapidly. I leave food 24/7 for my littles (even my fermented feed- small portions- they eat; I replace.).

 

[Tikkijane]

I free range my flock. I let them out first thing in the morning and feed them and then they roam the rest of the day. In the evening I feed them again and then by dusk they all go in their coop on their own and I close them up for protection. I'm worried that once they start laying eggs I will be crawling under my back deck because that's where they like to hang out. I plan on upgrading their coop so maybe I can encourage them to hang out there. Do they all have to have their own nesting box because right now they have a few but they all try to hang in one?

The general rule of thumb is 1 nesting box to 3-4 girls. I have 15 nesting boxes total, and they still like to puppy pile into a few boxes. And it's not specific ones- the golden box changes from day to day. Silly chickens!

 

[fancychick1]

The general rule of thumb is 1 nesting box to 3-4 girls. I have 15 nesting boxes total, and they still like to puppy pile into a few boxes. And it's not specific ones- the golden box changes from day to day. Silly chickens!

It's funny to watch them all trying to get in the one box. I have a removable divider in the boxes so I pulled out one divider to give them more room.

 

[paintedChix]

We don't free range but they have a pretty huge run. The bad things about me free ranging is that;
1: We have a bird dog. He has been trained not to kill livestock but who knows. There has been a chicken out and he just stared at it.
2: Will they stick together?
3: Will they get into the road? We don't live to close to a road but could they get that far?
4: Will they put themselves up at night as usual?

1 - we too have dogs - in a chain link back yard off our house/carport. Usually they don't get loose - when they do - they "know" (not taught?) that our chickens and ducks are off limits. HOWEVER, let a bird develop flight and land in the yard - it's a play toy and usually dead of at least shock before I can get to it. Sometimes they will eat it (the aussies did anyway - the Finish Spitz bird dog and pitt mix mutt don't). Pic below - our daughter is against the back of the yard fence & you can see thru to 3 of our pastures. . .








2 - right now, ours roam both together and in 2 to 3 groups. We now have 2 roosters - 1 LF wleghornXameraucana and 1 bantam - maybe OEG?. For a while I saw certain girls running with one and then they seem to swap around and that group will be the other a few days later! The two boys have not fought to our knowledge - no missing feathers, no limping, no injuries. The two "fluffy" bantam hens usually run together on the outskirts of the two other two "groups". Currently, some of the birds roost in the open barn with "Din-Din" (LF) and 3 LF hens are roosting on the dog kennel in the carport with the Bantam - "Roo". The Maran hen has adopted a plastic shelving unit in the barn as her roost. I now clean up around it 1x week or more often if it's really messy...






3 - We lease 10 acres - narrow on the road and extending back quite a distance. Have neighbors on both sides. On the one side, we have a board fence with cattle/stock panel attached and heavy growth of trees, bushes, weeds and neighbors grape vines and on the other have 4 strands of hi-tensile wire. Neither fence keeps chickens on our property - they LIKE going over to the one on the wire side as it often has a "pond" (never dried up last year - our ducks spent some time over there). I noticed this morning that our "new mama" duck took her two ducklings over there, then turned and came right back. Currently "nesting" in our carport in an open large dog crate. The front of our property is open to the road and it is busy since it connect to Hwys and has a fire/rescue center on one end on the Hwy.

We are in the process of purchasing this property. Once it's ours, we plan on fencing with woven wire to 4' and will put up some type of bird wire to keep our guys home - not sure what yet. Didn't want to do that if we weren't staying... So far we haven't had a lot of problems - think the neighbors (an older couple) enjoy watching the ducks and the chickens when they go over there. I do take eggs over now and then.

The 2nd duck "hen" was just "flattened" in the road the other day - not sure why she was in the road - she'd been sitting a nest between the roots of one of our trees well away from the road. I've seen our chickens searching bugs out in the ditch by the road - especially after rain when worms would be out. BUT I've never "seen" ours in the road - but surely they could!! We've lost a few - but never found evidence that they'd been hit in the road. DO have hawks - today they all were out and then "flocked" into the barn on the run and stayed there while I was feeding the ponies. Saw more than 6 turkey vultures flying above...

4 - ROFLOL!!! We don't have a coop at the moment. Don't ask, can't answer the "why"... Sooo ours roost in the carport and the barn. I have to move things around to keep from them from getting buried in "soil" and to clean/compost their gifts. I "deep clean" several times a year and clean individual areas more often as needed. Lately in the carport have been cleaning up almost daily...

Now, I'm working on a coop/chicken tractor and hope to be able to train them to "coop" at night.





You can see the driveway to the main road and the shop to the left in the background and the barn is directly behind the "hoop coop" to the left of the picture... The shadow over the ducks is the barn, the trees are between us and the wire fence separated neighbors and the shop is to the right of the trees...


Currently they have open buckets of water in the barn, a waterer in the carport (mama duck and ducklings) and a waterer just outside the barn on a board. I fill these as needed. I have a kiddy pool from Wal-Mart for the ducks - keeps them happy! They "snack" from the ponies' feed buckets as I set them up individually with feed/water (feed wet) for each pasture. I feed chicken layer pellets (Nutrena) free choice in several containers in the barn - will move that out to the coop when it's finished. Once the first one is done, I will be building more. I hope to have the new chicks in the chicken hoop coop... It's on skids, too, so we can move it. It's 8x10.

O - currently have 4 Production Reds (can't tell them apart), 1 Cuckoo Maran, 3 EEs, 2 bantam hens (barnyard mix!), and two roosters. Also have 8 blue ameraucana chicks and 9 barnyard "mixes" from ours in a pen with another bantam hen (hatched late may and have not been turned loose to free range yet) and 4 young hens - EEs - in quarantine in a pen. 1 "Drake" and now 1 hen (Rouens?) w/ 2 ducklings...

Hope this isn't too many pictures.