Keeping Chickens Free Range

[ChickyChickens]

So.....i can't wait till I get home (I am visiting my grandmother) 'cause 2 of,my broodies will have their chicks. When I left home the one broodies eggs were already hatching. The,others eggs were due the day after her. YAY......cant wait.

 

[QueenBubbles]

Hi! First time chicken owner here. I've had my girls for about a week. I plan on building them a run but for right now I want to let them free range. I'm scared they will get eaten or wander off. Opinion time! Should I let them out?

At a week old, They will stay close, both together and close to where you put them.
I put mine in my front yard, near the house which has very good cover.
After a week of being out, they have gravitated towards my hedge at the edge of the front yard as cats can't lie in wait for them and the wild birds don't go in there either. My cats do like to watch them, (and occasionally chase) as does my neighbor's cat, but they know how to hide!
I do check on them every couple hours to make sure they eat and drink and condition them to come to me, but they have amazingly good instincts. This do visit my neighbor on the other side of the hedge, but stay close to that house, too. They hide when they hear a car, too. I'm sure they will wander farther as they get older, but as babies they will stay close.
Good luck!

 

[QueenBubbles]

Even all girls will put themselves to bed. 2 different aged flocks, both brooded inside- would line up at the door at night. If we were late, they'd knock.
Open the door, and they would parade in through the sunroom, past the kitchen eating area, through the kitchen, through the living room, and then would hop up and put themselves to bed in the brooder. It only takes a little bit if repetition for them to figure it out.

Oh, that is adorable!! My biggies also go to the door and watch for me to come put them to bed (and love to come in to check out the cat food when the door gets left open). But no parade! I still have to "chase" my littles because the patio is Biggie territory, which is where the door is.

 

[lazy gardener]

. 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?

If they are not yet squatting, you should block off the nest boxes so they won't sleep in them. That can be a difficult habit to break, and when the girls do start laying, they won't want to lay in poopy boxes, and if they do, the eggs will be dirty. What I've done with my first flock was start locking them in the run when they started showing signs of being ready to lay: dark red fleshy combs, squatting, checking out the nest box, may sing the egg song before the first egg. if you have a rooster, he may make some practice nests and try to sweet talk the girls into using his nest. When you see signs of eggs soon to come, unblock the nest boxes, but keep them confined to the run (or at most, only let them free range late afternoon to bed time) until they are all using the nest boxes.

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

I keep hearing that hardware cloth is predator proof. Last week, we caught a raccoon in a hav-a-hart trap. We added an extra 2' of welded 1/2" hardware cloth to the end of it b/c he was too smart/big and would back out of the trap after tripping the foot plate... so we caught him. He rolled that trap 30' across the lawn, and then totally shredded the hardware cloth at the end. He didn't tear it at a seam, he just shredded through it like it was a rotten piece of cloth. Hardware cloth is still the choice, much sturdier than chicken wire, and a coon or rat can eat a chicken through chicken wire if he doesn't shred it first. But a truly determined predator can get through hardware cloth as well. Thankfully, most of the time, they are a bit on the lazy side, and will move on to where the meal is easier to get.

LOL What is: Too many pictures? I could have stood to see more of your hoop coop. I think I could do that almost by myself. Hubby won't do a project unless I start it. I think it embarrasses him that people might see me doing it.

Never too many pics. I built a 2 level hoop coop myself, except for about 5% of it.

No but with out the beards and the pea comb I doubt they will lay colored eggs. . The comb is said to carry the colored egg gene. Now none of that can be 100% until you get the eggs.

The EE in my flock who lays the prettiest blue egg has no beard or muffs. Not sure, but I believe the auto-sexing Leg-bars which lay a blue egg, have a straight comb. Chicken genetics is a lot of fun. Just when I think i have it figured out, i find that there is an other exception to the rule!! Totally agreed with EE, you won't know what color egg she will lay until she lays it, and even then, the color may change a bit from one season to the next.

Hi Everyone!

We are new chicken parents and this is my first post - hope I'm doing this right We have 14 chicken girls that we moved from the basement to their coop in the yard a couple of weeks ago. We'd like to start free ranging them soon for at least for a few hours every day. So, my question is: what's the best way to introduce them to our large and woodsy yard (fenced in with wire 4ft tall)? Should we just open the door and let them walk out? I've been reading about using treats to lure them back into the coop. Is there additional advice to make sure we get all 14 back to safety before dark? Thanks!

I love your coop! One thing you need to keep in mind is: younger birds are at more risk to predators than full sized, more seasoned birds. I'd suggest that initially, you stay with them when you let them out to range. Keep the treat bucket handy, and perhaps see if they will respond to a "danger" trill. If you see a big plane or bird fly over head, do a loud trill. Hopefully, they will see the object in the sky, hear your trill, and run for cover. If you can get them to respond to that, it may save them some day. You also want to train them to come to the treat bucket, and use a special verbal call for them. Eventually, they will come even just when you call them. Use that call when ever you give them a treat, or even when you feed them.

Like this thread!
We are very new to raising chickens, have barely an acre, most of which is the house and a bit of lake front yard. We have a little coop for our four girls (1 Wyandotte, 2 Buff Orpingtons, 1 Easter Egger), and then an open, but fenced in area bout 20 feet by 15 feet where part of our compost pile is and grass, dirt, etc. They seem to be very happy in their area, a few have hopped over the fence into our back yard and we've had to scoot 'em back over but they haven't done that in a while. We had our first egg on Tuesday and today is day 5 (one Orpington) - so we have a total of 5 eggs from one chicken who is just no a little over 19 weeks old. Soon, we'll have 4 eggs/day and I can stop buying eggs from our local organic farmer (which we love to support). I look so forward to them running up to me every day to eat the dried worms from my hand and then begin to scratch around.

We do have Eagles, Coopers Hawks, raccoons and the girls scoot into their coop whenever anything bigger than a crow flies overhead. The open area is near cedars that overhang, so I don't think the big birds will get close. We lock them up in their coop at night where they all end up around 8pm, letting them out in the morning around 8:00 am. I sure hope we're not nieve in thinking the Eagle won't come and try to take them. We've grown quite fond of them.

I have yet to see one eat a slug... does anyone know if they will eat a slug? I sure wish they would!
Mel

Some things that you can do to "help" with the predator issue are: Hang ammonia soaked rags or tennis balls around the edges of your property. Hang anything that is reflective and moves in the wind: old CD's, pinwheels, streamers, or string fish line overhead. Give the girls extra coverage in open spaces: a lawn chair, a pallet propped up on cinder blocks... anything they can dive under for cover from aerial attack. (also gives them extra shade) I put lots of fence posts randomly in the girls 1600 s.f. run. Hawks won't dive for a meal if it means they risk damaging their flight feathers. Unfortunately, having chickens, no matter how you keep them, even in a fort knox coop is a risk, as EVERYBODY likes chicken! When confronted with a predator, IMO, a free ranging chicken stands a better chance than she does if the predator is able to get in her coop or run!

Now, re: slugs: my older girls fight over slugs. They are especially fond of snails. Kind of like a good piece of candy: crunchy on the outside with a soft gooey center! The younger girls, not so much! But, I'm patient, I'm sure they will learn!

 

[Robinkay1]

My 7-week old chicks are happy as clams in their coop and run, but I do want to start letting them free-range for a couple of hours every evening. My backyard is about 1/4 grass, 3/4 wooded:: a 6 foot chainlink fence encloses my property around the wooded area, and 4 foot picket fence around the lawn (totally open between the lawn and woods). My question: will the chickens (I have 7) totally decimate my lawn before summer is over? Should I cordon-off a particular area where I want them to free-range so they don't destroy all of the grass? Or is 7 chickens a small enough flock that the lawn will survive? (I don't know how big my lawn is... maybe 50 feet x 175 feet?

This is my first time chicken'ing and I love these funny chicks! Next up: I want a goat

 

[QueenBubbles]

I think decimation happens when they are caged with plants. When plenty of space to wander, they aren't so destructive.

 

[birdlady79]

My 7-week old chicks are happy as clams in their coop and run, but I do want to start letting them free-range for a couple of hours every evening. My backyard is about 1/4 grass, 3/4 wooded:: a 6 foot chainlink fence encloses my property around the wooded area, and 4 foot picket fence around the lawn (totally open between the lawn and woods). My question: will the chickens (I have 7) totally decimate my lawn before summer is over? Should I cordon-off a particular area where I want them to free-range so they don't destroy all of the grass? Or is 7 chickens a small enough flock that the lawn will survive? (I don't know how big my lawn is... maybe 50 feet x 175 feet?

This is my first time chicken'ing and I love these funny chicks! Next up: I want a goat

Hi, I have 7 too .... They free range all day and put themselves to bed at night... Course I'm out there after work feeding and giving them treats. Lol...... Mine have not torn up our back yard..... We have had to put wire around 1 bush and my small garden in very back... They love staying underneath my DH trailer during they day, lots of bugs and shade..... They also rummage through my compost pile.... No grass being dug up or holes in yard so far.... .....

A goat will really eat your grass!! Haha.

 

[Goober1201]

Hi everyone. I have well over 2 dozen chickens.. most older hens.. 2 older roos.. 4.. 10 week olds 6.. 4 wweeks and another 5 few moth olds and the rest are all older. I have had all them pen up for almost a month now. All the older ones roost in my trees and I never knew where they were laying. Granted it wad like that for over 6 months as our house caught on fire and we were not living here and was 30min away.... anyway. I've had them all locked up in hopes that they will go back to the coop every night and stay in the one acre pasture they have. Please give me some

 

[bumpercarr]

If you put them in the coop for about a week, usually they will go back there every night if the coop is comfortable. However, I have found that my older cock bird will keep going back to his "old" roost. Get them used to treats at night and at least they will come running back to the coop if you go out there and encourage them. Then, just lock them in for the night. You may have to do this for a while, the older birds especially have a hard time adjusting to change. In the past, I've let the older birds roost where they want but have trained the younger ones to go to the coop. Eventually, natural attrition makes it so that all of your birds roost in the coop.

 

[QueenBubbles]

My biggies put themselves to bed last night -up the ladder and on the roost bar! Such a proud mama!
The littles (3 weeks) were so much more willing to be rounded up, too, it being almost dark. Sometimes you gotta use tough love and let them get a little scared!