Limited Free Range?

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Thank you! So much good advice. Just let the dogs in the same fence as the chickens and they did amazing. Much better than I thought they'd do actually.
The Pyrenees playfully chased a couple but I scolded him and I think he learned that chasing them is BAD. Haha. I've been letting them out into a 20x45ft fenced in area and so far so good! It's partially covered so they can go back into their run anytime they want. Plus I can see them from my kitchen so that's good. They're literally in the middle of the yard right now. As they get older they'll be integrated to the wooded part of the back yard.
 
Flock of Many Colors said:
Thank you! So much good advice. Just let the dogs in the same fence as the chickens and they did amazing. Much better than I thought they'd do actually.
The Pyrenees playfully chased a couple but I scolded him and I think he learned that chasing them is BAD. Haha. I've been letting them out into a 20x45ft fenced in area and so far so good! It's partially covered so they can go back into their run anytime they want. Plus I can see them from my kitchen so that's good. They're literally in the middle of the yard right now. As they get older they'll be integrated to the wooded part of the back yard.
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That's awesome they did well and learn quickly. I like watching my chicks from the windows too. I'm sure they'll be best friends with the dogs. Your dogs sound great!
 
Everything was going well until my Wyandotte got out and the dogs tried to play with her...like a toy... but luckily I saw it right as it happened... She is fine though...my dogs weren't trying to kill her, just play. Still not ok. They won't be put together for a long time. Atleast until they are much larger.
"Fiona" is the wyandottes name haha. She was scared but sat in my lap for a whole two minutes letting me gently pet her, like she knew I saved her. She's doing fine, acting normal, eating and drinking...so I'm hoping that didn't stress her out too badly.
 
Don't and WON'T free range. We lose cats to coyotes and coy wolves and hawks and owls love chicken as much as we do. i wouldn't have a flock if I free ranged. I also would have my cats killing my chickens and I would have chicken shit all over my hay bc my birds would learn quickly how to flutter up the loft stairway and roost on my hay at night. Hollywood has fostered the myth that your birds will be safe roaming the back yard. Don't know if this was the practice over 100 years ago or more, but they let their birds freely reproduce and had many extras. If you live near a stream or river minks, ferrets and their relatives can pretty much get into anybody's enclosure and coop and they will kill the whole flock just for sport. I know an atty who is on flock #5 bc of this.
This is a popular PC hobby nowadays to keep chickens and people get emotionally attached to their birds. I do not but I still am hurt when I lost a bird. The last one was killed by a raccoon and I think it got in when I decided to check for eggs one night after dark. I heard something rattling the chain link dog enclosure fencing and found my hen headless and neckless the next morning. I moved the carcass outside and I think my cats had a good feed. It takes a good 6 months from pullet chick to egg layer and I don't like losing my layers for reasons that I can remedy with proper planning.
 
Hi All. I'm a BYC lurker. I'm on my fourth year with chickens and this site has helped me so much. Now I have a couple of questions.
The first two summers I had hens I let them free range all summer (locked up at night) with no incidents. Last summer I watched as a fox ran into the yard and grabbed a chicken right before my eyes. I dashed out of the house, screaming at him but he - and the hen - were gone in a flash. Very upsetting. A few days later, another of the hens disappeared. I searched everywhere but don't know if the fox returned or if she was a hawk victim. My remaining hen was so lonely that I gave her to my neighbor who has a large chicken operation and he kindly integrated her into his flock. He told me that the fox population had increased last year after years of dwindling and in fact he had to pen all his hens though he'd free ranged them up until then.
I now have three red sex-linked hens and I'm keeping them in an eglu. They spend the day in the eglu run and of course they're locked into the coop at night. It's killing me to not let them out to forage. So here is my question: if I did experiment - say in a few weeks when they're totally acclimated to their coop (I only got them last week) and let them out at say 7 pm or so do you think it's worth the risk? They'd only be out for about an hour or so. One issue is that my chicken farmer neighbor told me that early morning, when my hen was taken by the fox, is a dangerous time for chickens as the predators are hungry. I wonder if very late afternoon would be any safer.
A related question is that many people mention that they do 'limited free-range' with their birds out only part of the day. How the heck do you get them back in the coop at any time but sunset?
Thanks for any suggestions. Much appreciated.
 
MsKathyNY said:
Hi All. I'm a BYC lurker. I'm on my fourth year with chickens and this site has helped me so much. Now I have a couple of questions.
The first two summers I had hens I let them free range all summer (locked up at night) with no incidents. Last summer I watched as a fox ran into the yard and grabbed a chicken right before my eyes. I dashed out of the house, screaming at him but he - and the hen - were gone in a flash. Very upsetting. A few days later, another of the hens disappeared. I searched everywhere but don't know if the fox returned or if she was a hawk victim. My remaining hen was so lonely that I gave her to my neighbor who has a large chicken operation and he kindly integrated her into his flock. He told me that the fox population had increased last year after years of dwindling and in fact he had to pen all his hens though he'd free ranged them up until then.
I now have three red sex-linked hens and I'm keeping them in an eglu. They spend the day in the eglu run and of course they're locked into the coop at night. It's killing me to not let them out to forage. So here is my question: if I did experiment - say in a few weeks when they're totally acclimated to their coop (I only got them last week) and let them out at say 7 pm or so do you think it's worth the risk? They'd only be out for about an hour or so. One issue is that my chicken farmer neighbor told me that early morning, when my hen was taken by the fox, is a dangerous time for chickens as the predators are hungry. I wonder if very late afternoon would be any safer.
A related question is that many people mention that they do 'limited free-range' with their birds out only part of the day. How the heck do you get them back in the coop at any time but sunset?
Thanks for any suggestions. Much appreciated.
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Hello MsKathyNY and welcome to BYC.
 
MsKathyNY, I think that we are rolling the dice anytime that we free-range unless we have dogs to protect our flocks perhaps by patrolling our property. Then there are no guarantees. Now for the last question. My chickens will go back to their chicken yard instinctively. Or I can throw a little scratch in and call them and they come. This maybe determined by the breed of chickens though. I don't know.
 
We had a close call last week with a gray fox. I was out working on there coop about 5 pm when a fox came out of the woods and grabbed one of my chickens. Lucky all he got was tail feathers.She ran towards the coop with fox on her tail I threw a 2x4 at the fox making him break off the chase. Now they go out at 10 am and back in the pen now later then 4 pm. so far so good.
 
MsKathyNY said:
Hi All. I'm a BYC lurker. I'm on my fourth year with chickens and this site has helped me so much. Now I have a couple of questions.
The first two summers I had hens I let them free range all summer (locked up at night) with no incidents. Last summer I watched as a fox ran into the yard and grabbed a chicken right before my eyes. I dashed out of the house, screaming at him but he - and the hen - were gone in a flash. Very upsetting. A few days later, another of the hens disappeared. I searched everywhere but don't know if the fox returned or if she was a hawk victim. My remaining hen was so lonely that I gave her to my neighbor who has a large chicken operation and he kindly integrated her into his flock. He told me that the fox population had increased last year after years of dwindling and in fact he had to pen all his hens though he'd free ranged them up until then.
I now have three red sex-linked hens and I'm keeping them in an eglu. They spend the day in the eglu run and of course they're locked into the coop at night. It's killing me to not let them out to forage. So here is my question: if I did experiment - say in a few weeks when they're totally acclimated to their coop (I only got them last week) and let them out at say 7 pm or so do you think it's worth the risk? They'd only be out for about an hour or so. One issue is that my chicken farmer neighbor told me that early morning, when my hen was taken by the fox, is a dangerous time for chickens as the predators are hungry. I wonder if very late afternoon would be any safer.
A related question is that many people mention that they do 'limited free-range' with their birds out only part of the day. How the heck do you get them back in the coop at any time but sunset?
Thanks for any suggestions. Much appreciated.
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In general, the more dangerous times for predators are in the early morning and later evening. For foxes, everything I've heard suggests that once they find food in a place, they'll come back to that place for more.

Sounds like it's been a while since you've had chickens on the property, so they may not be checking your spot out as often now, but who knows.

The only "upside" to this situation is that a fox will typically only take one bird at a time. So you can try it, and if a fox takes one (or one just disappears), stop ranging them until you can discourage the fox.

Electric fencing works well. Lot's of people on here have experience using it to stop foxes and other predators. If you went with electric wire, rather than electric poultry netting, you could define a very large area for your birds to range. Others on this site are more knowledgeable than I; from what I've heard, place the wire at nose-height for the predator you want to discourage; "bait" the fence so they are more likely to touch it: peanut butter smeared on some tin foil, that is folded over the hot-wire is how I've heard to do it. An electric wire doesn't offer much of a physical barrier: a fox could go under or over it. However predators including foxes tend to be cautious and "lead with their nose." Their natural behavior is to sniff the fence, at which point they get a shock, and decide there are more pleasant places to go out for dinner.
 

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