We have less than a 1/3 acre, they roam throughout the yard inside the privacy fence keeping us and our blue heeler entertained, there have been several times when one of them have flown out of the yard ( I did not clip their wings as we have a large green belt with many predators which I wanted them to be able to evade) at dusk they always return, We refer to this time as "walkabout", there is obvious concern for their welfare and for egg laying elsewhere but frankly these are not a cash supply for us so I am comfortable with the occasional daytime stroll every once in a while.
That being said a friend of mine set up a similar coop at the same time and his hens are penned in, both sets of hens came from the same feed store yet we get an egg per hen per day, he gets 2-3 eggs every other day from the same 4 birds. I am not suggesting I am anything of an authority here but it does seem happy birds produce more eggs!
As a side note my youngest son trained one of them to eat from the bag of scratch in the shed so now when you open the shed she comes running across the yard, jumps up onto the lawnmower and hops straight into the bag, I tried to catch it on video but the light is not good!
That being said a friend of mine set up a similar coop at the same time and his hens are penned in, both sets of hens came from the same feed store yet we get an egg per hen per day, he gets 2-3 eggs every other day from the same 4 birds. I am not suggesting I am anything of an authority here but it does seem happy birds produce more eggs!
As a side note my youngest son trained one of them to eat from the bag of scratch in the shed so now when you open the shed she comes running across the yard, jumps up onto the lawnmower and hops straight into the bag, I tried to catch it on video but the light is not good!
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I'm thinking about free ranging as well. We live in town but have a very spacious lot for free ranging...but we don't really have the means for building an elaborate chicken run for that many birds. I talked to my dad (old fashioned guy who kept chickens and lived on a farm long ago) and as he puts it, we should free range them and if we encounter a problem (lost birds, predators, etc) we can deal with it as it comes. 25 is a decent number of chickens, and to be honest - you may lose a few before you find what works best for you.
