Moving house

[Naser]

We sold our old house and we bought another one, the new house has 7.5 acres of land attached to it, I wonder if there is an affordable way to have chickens and free range them protected by something, like electrical fence or similar, the coop will be 450 yards away from the house, I don't like the idea that the hens are confined most of the time, and I am at work all the day.
The only predator we have is the fox and many crows
TIA

 

[Luv Ducks]

We sold our old house and we bought another one, the new house has 7.5 acres of land attached to it, I wonder if there is an affordableF way to have chickens and free range them protected by something, like electrical fence or similar, the coop will be 450 yards away from the house, I don't like the idea that the hens are confined most of the time, and I am at work all the day.
The only predator we have is the fox and many crows
TIA

Fox are very sly and being that far away from your house I would be concerned that they would still get to your flock. That's just me though and maybe the electric fence would stop them. My duck enclosure is right up next to my house and made by dog panels with netting above and surrounding the panels to keep wild birds and hawks out. I hope whatever you decide works out well for you.

 

[2ndTink]

There is solar powered electric fence netting, I haven't used it but a fox is a serious predator. I haven't been letting my girls out, if love to, but we have too many hawks, so they don't get out unless we're outside with them.

 

[Penpal]

I use electric netting. www.premier1supplies.com You have to either run a long electric cord out to the charger, or use solar powered. You can get one unit of the netting to see how it works for you. It's easy to move around. If your chickens are many, or if they are more aggressive foragers, get a second to increase the space.

My Rhode Island Red, Orpington, and Australorp chickens all flew over the poultry netting, which is 4 feet high. If you have flyers, you will need to clip their wings. Since they are already grown I doubt you cold train them to stay put, but you could try.

 

[Naser]

I use electric netting. www.premier1supplies.com You have to either run a long electric cord out to the charger, or use solar powered. You can get one unit of the netting to see how it works for you. It's easy to move around. If your chickens are many, or if they are more aggressive foragers, get a second to increase the space.

My Rhode Island Red, Orpington, and Australorp chickens all flew over the poultry netting, which is 4 feet high. If you have flyers, you will need to clip their wings. Since they are already grown I doubt you cold train them to stay put, but you could try.

Orpington and Australorp can fly over it, everything can

 

[Naser]

Fox are very sly and being that far away from your house I would be concerned that they would still get to your flock. That's just me though and maybe the electric fence would stop them. My duck enclosure is right up next to my house and made by dog panels with netting above and surrounding the panels to keep wild birds and hawks out. I hope whatever you decide works out well for you.

I think the same way, that is why I am reluctant

 

[Naser]

There is solar powered electric fence netting, I haven't used it but a fox is a serious predator. I haven't been letting my girls out, if love to, but we have too many hawks, so they don't get out unless we're outside with them.

True

 

[Red Mangrove]

I have both free-range chickens on my land that live free-range 24/7 and a den of foxes. The two co-exist perfectly fine. It can most definitely be done

The first thing you need is tough chickens. I would recommend American Gamefowl. Foxes aren't fast or sneaky enough to catch them, and I've even witnessed a mother hen attack a fox before and punk it out

LGD and fences also help but aren't essential. I had my flock for over a year here without either

 

[Debbie292d]

We sold our old house and we bought another one, the new house has 7.5 acres of land attached to it, I wonder if there is an affordable way to have chickens and free range them protected by something, like electrical fence or similar, the coop will be 450 yards away from the house, I don't like the idea that the hens are confined most of the time, and I am at work all the day.
The only predator we have is the fox and many crows
TIA

We border a forest behind us and farmer's fields on the other three sides. There are tons of wild animals that before we bought this place, this was part of "their" territory.

For hawks, we're fortunate to have a bunch of guy wires from a tower that goes over about an acre. For the rest of the property, we have wind spinners. Some are 10' tall, all the way down to the kiddy kind. I've heard of running fishing line between trees, buildings, etc. which also helps.

For the plethora of wild animals, we have a border collie and corgi that take care of them, albeit the bear, we shoot a shotgun over their heads and they leave. We also have about 20 solar motion lights all along the forest and on all sides of the coop and temp coop. We have two barn cats that help keep the rodents away.

Crows are generally more good than harm as they hate hawks and will chase them away.

Good luck however you end up raising your flock.

 

[Debbie292d]

I use electric netting. www.premier1supplies.com You have to either run a long electric cord out to the charger, or use solar powered. You can get one unit of the netting to see how it works for you. It's easy to move around. If your chickens are many, or if they are more aggressive foragers, get a second to increase the space.

My Rhode Island Red, Orpington, and Australorp chickens all flew over the poultry netting, which is 4 feet high. If you have flyers, you will need to clip their wings. Since they are already grown I doubt you cold train them to stay put, but you could try.

Silkies can't fly over that, but I doubt we're talking silkies here.