Letting hens out of Run

[lonesomme]

Hello everyone!
I have a question about letting the chickens out of their run.
I have eight hens who are about 20 weeks old now. They have a run that is fully fenced that is 8'x16' that they stay in during the day. I have never let them out but have been thinking about letting free about an hour before they roost in the evening to forage around. I live on ten acres that is not fenced and I have neighbors that do have dogs so I plan to watch them while they are out. I usually don't have an issue with the dogs coming to my house but that is why I built Fort Knox for them to live in.

So my questions are:

1. Should I get this started? Or should I just let them continue to live in the coop/run? One note is I can't do this everyday.

2. These are my first chickens so I'm learning every day. I'm guessing they will go back in when it's time to roost?

Thanks again in advance for opinions and advice. This is my first post but I been reading on here for a year, great place!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I think once you let them out for the first time you'll have your answer. They will LOVE it. Do it late in the day so they will head home to roost by themselves, then sweep any stragglers in.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Whether or not you let them free range is a personal decision. Your being with them will be a deterrent but several people still report a fox or something else grabbed a chicken while they were supervising. Anytime you free range, even when you are present, you have a risk. For some of us it is low risk, for some high, and your being present will make the risk a lot lower.

Still, many people free range all day with no supervision and no fences at all. My parents raised chickens like that and would go years between attacks. But eventually a dog, fox, or something would find the chickens and have to be dealt with. I can’t do that. It’s not wild animals or even neighbor’s dogs. People abandon dogs out here quite often, even when they could take them to the county pound and drop them off for no charge. I lost too many too many times so I finally put up electric netting. That’s worked for 2-1/2 years.

If you do decide to try it, your plan sounds reasonable. Just because you open the gate doesn’t mean they will immediately go outside. They may immediately rush out when you open it or they may just stand there looking out for quite a while. But eventually one will try it and the rest will soon follow.

They will greatly enjoy being outside once they get used to it. Don’t feel guilty if you can’t do it every day. Do you never take your kids to the park or never visit relatives because you can’t do it every day?

When it gets dark they will want to go to their normal roosting area in the worst way. But chickens don’t have much of a concept of “gate”. Even if they may have gone through a gate many times during the day, if they are on the far side of the run when they want to go to roost, they may pace the fence desperately looking for a way through instead of walking around to the gate. That’s happened to me several times. Most make it back through the gate but there are often a few that I had to herd around the run to the gate. They catch on after doing that once or twice but they really don’t have much of a concept of gate.

 

[TundraRose]

I'm so afraid to let mine free range. We have so many predators here.