Keeping Chickens Free Range

[nvdirtfreak]

Hello all! I am a new chicken mama with 10 hens and 1 rooster. I am thinking about letting them free range - they have a pretty large run, but we don't use the majority of our 2.5 acres, so I thought it would be nice for them to get out and nice for me to get some free weed control! Some questions though...

1) All of my chickens are 19 weeks old, and only one of them (a Gold Sex-Link) has started laying. Her first egg was on the ground in the coop, all of her eggs since (reliably 1 egg/day) have been in a nesting box. Will she continue to lay in the nesting box? Will the other girls lay wherever they feel like it? I don't like the idea of searching over 2 acres for eggs...

2) How reliably do they usually come back to the coop at night? I live in the high desert, and right now it gets in the 80s during the day and drops to the 40s at night. Will they come back in at dark? I have noticed in the mornings, on my way to work at 645AM (and every day the days are getting shorter), they aren't really out of their coop yet - just the rooster. Is this a good indication that they will come into the coop at night?

3) Two of my girls (the two Black Australorps) are quite the bullies, to the point that I may need to separate them. Although their run is pretty large, could letting them free range "cure" this behavior?

Thanks in advance!

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm surprised your rooster allows 2 of your girls to be bullies. My roo will not tolerate having his gals bickering. Yes, if they have been living in their coop for any length of time, they view it as their home, and will return there to roost. You might start by letting them out for a couple of hours before dark. They'll stay fairly close to the coop, and this will give you a chance to see how well it goes. Some folks allow free ranging when they're not home, but there's always the risk of predators... of course there's that risk even in a run.

 

[gander007]

Question - I'd love to let my five (18 week old) Chickens free to run around our back yard, however, there are a couple of falcons in the vicinity, and I've seen them stalking the coop. I'm hoping at one point the chickens will be big enough to trick the falcons into thinking they cannot pick them up. Am I dreaming over here? what deters falcons?

Falcons are the Altamont Predator's an if they can't carry their dinners away then the Falco will just eat it emplace so the best thing to dos keep your poultry undercover of some kind ......

 

[S5apiotrowski]

Our Black Australorp is quite a bully to our other hens (at least at night on the roost). However, we let them free range during the day, and the hens are happy and have space. They do much better in the open. Our hens started laying after being allowed to free-range, and they have always come back to the nesting boxes to lay. They typically always return to the coop at night (we close it).

We had a brief problem after being gone for a weekend (we left the coop completely open) and something got in (feeder was busted and empty and a huge clump of rooster feathers found down) and the hens wanted to roost on garden fence. We brought them back to the coop area and closed it in and after a few days everything was back to normal.

 

[heiditam]

My chickens are free ranging for first time all day today! They did well in fence and the outside of fence at dusk, and they appear to be doing well today...but they do not appear to be the best scavengers. Will they get better? Everytime I go outside they come running for food, and they keep going to their food bowl...

 

[ChickyChickens]

My chickens are free ranging for first time all day today! They did well in fence and the outside of fence at dusk, and they appear to be doing well today...but they do not appear to be the best scavengers. Will they get better? Everytime I go outside they come running for food, and they keep going to their food bowl...

Cute and congrats!

 

[blkjak]

Some of the chickens will get better at scavenging but all my chickens come running when it is time to fill the feed dishes. We fill at dawn and just before dusk. We have some chickens that will range a lot further from the coop than is comfortable for me. One brown layer will be by herself out in the pasture with the horses. Our barred rocks are on the lawn always. Some of them never leave the area around the coop and just wait for the easy meal.

 

[SmColorInDaPan]

Hello all! I am a new chicken mama with 10 hens and 1 rooster. I am thinking about letting them free range - they have a pretty large run, but we don't use the majority of our 2.5 acres, so I thought it would be nice for them to get out and nice for me to get some free weed control! Some questions though...

1) All of my chickens are 19 weeks old, and only one of them (a Gold Sex-Link) has started laying. Her first egg was on the ground in the coop, all of her eggs since (reliably 1 egg/day) have been in a nesting box. Will she continue to lay in the nesting box? Will the other girls lay wherever they feel like it? I don't like the idea of searching over 2 acres for eggs...

2) How reliably do they usually come back to the coop at night? I live in the high desert, and right now it gets in the 80s during the day and drops to the 40s at night. Will they come back in at dark? I have noticed in the mornings, on my way to work at 645AM (and every day the days are getting shorter), they aren't really out of their coop yet - just the rooster. Is this a good indication that they will come into the coop at night?

3) Two of my girls (the two Black Australorps) are quite the bullies, to the point that I may need to separate them. Although their run is pretty large, could letting them free range "cure" this behavior?

Thanks in advance!

An old cowboy/rancher saying is that if you leave them in until they lay, you guarantee, they will lay there almost FOREVER. However, pulling out to work before they are out and about, doesn't sound like that will work for you. If you leave them in all day, MAYBE TOO HOT, (I'm SURPRISED the hi desert ONLY gets to the 80s this time of year!!) let them out that evening, in a week, you should have them 'trained' to lay in the boxes. That way, letting them out in the morning, you SHOULD have eggs int he boxes each night. NO guarantees, nature is like that….
I have 2 boxes that the girls go back and forth on. Sometimes 3 eggs in one box, 1 in another, sometimes 2 in each, sometimes, 2 in one, 1 in another. They're critters and only The Big Guy knows what, when, where they do……
Pretty much same with the roosting; as long as they feel comfortable, not threatened by predators, they will go back to their 'home' to sleep. Like we humans, we sleep best @ home?
******Heidi, In my observations, chickens are like many; if you have food for them, WHY WORK FOR IT? I have 3 roos, 2 lil men, 1 full grown & 4 hens. 1 3/4 full lrg cottage cheese container of scratch, morning & Evening, maybe veggie scraps, egg shells, caught moths, through out the day. The rest of the time, they are on their own. IT IS HARD TO BLV HOW much LESS I have of grasshoppers, NOW as opposed to before i brought home the girls!

 

[K Epp]

I don't leave free choice food out for my free ranging chickens. They roam around and eat off the land. I throw some feed out to top them off in the evenings. I haven't seen grasshoppers slugs or ticks since I've had the birds. I have a few ducks do they may get credit for the slugs.

 

[ChickyChickens]

I don't leave free choice food out for my free ranging chickens. They roam around and eat off the land. I throw some feed out to top them off in the evenings. I haven't seen grasshoppers slugs or ticks since I've had the birds. I have a few ducks do they may get credit for the slugs.

Same here! I don't leave choice food out! I just feed in the morning one cup and the evening one cup.