Letting the chickens out

They will love getting to run lose and will come back to coop before dark as others have said so start with letting them out just before sunset. One word of warning however....once you start letting them out and they have tasted freedom, they will DEMAND it from then on. They will no longer be satisfied and quiet with staying in their coop/run all day. Mine have access to free range over several acres of woods but normally keep pretty close to the coop and edge of woods and return every hour or so and "check in" for a bite to eat or a nap in their raised/ventilated wire-bottom coop if it's hot or a nap under bushes and shrubs just outside of coop area. By sunset they are all back and staying just outside of coop/run - no one wants to be the first to go in. They wait till it is almost practically dark before they get up and march into run, up ramp into coop and start the process of determining who gets which roost position. It's a funny thing to watch. Some will go in first and take their place on roost - another will come in and do the butt bump thing and make them move and on and on it goes till they settle down.
 
I started by letting a few out at a time, they almost always go back in on their own and if for some reason one doesn't then next time she gets to stay in, kinda like, "No Recess" for you today,
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I had 15 out one day last week and I thought to myself, Ok tonight I am going to wait a bit longer and see if they all make it in, what I didn't know was the door to the coop had been closed by my grandson and all 15 were roosted on the top of the run, needless to say I had to get them down one at a time and that wasn't much fun, for me anyway
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Good Luck!!!!!
 

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