Need feedback on letting my chickens out of their run to roam...

[kayri]

We live on about 1 acre, but there are no delineations between our property and the neighbors on 2 sides. The girls generally stay on our property (although they like 1 bush on my neighbor's side). We have a moveable coop with an 80 ft electric movable fence and I try to let them out every day at least for a couple of hours. They always find their way back to their coop at night, although I think it confuses them sometimes when we move the coop (every 2 months or so).

 

[devora]

Quote:
Ours go back in at bedtime naturally and we found it an easy pattern to establish.

We had an injured bird and b/c of separation needs we had to keep our girls locked up in the run for a few days. They had been free ranging daily. They were not happy! I'm not sure, but you may run into issues w/ them wanting out all week. Taste of freedom and all that.

Good luck w/ it!

 

[jkm]

I have four hens on a city lot, they go out for about 2 hours at a time, at night they will go back in for treats.
but if out during the day they object, so I just herd them in my my shellie and a peice of PVC pipe.
Now if I pick up the PVC and call that dog to come sit next to me, they run for the coop. no, the dog has not bitten them ,he just loves to sees them scatter, he is a failed sheep herder. Once in a while he follows directions and gets them out from under the tree.
One bounced over the front fence last week, my mom and sister cut the wing feathers I was gone... amazing they have a wing left.

 

[iadorethesea]

I let my chickens out about noon every day, and they always go back into their coop by dusk. We have ten acres, and they sometimes wander a few hundred feet away, but always come back. They know where their food is...don't forget that.

 

[Wynette]

Thank you ALL so very much for all your feedback - it's priceless!
So sorry, Valmom, to hear about the fox getting your favorite girl. That must have been heartbreaking!!
Can anyone else share info. on other critters to watch for? Having horses, most of my 10 acres is pasture. I don't have a lot of trees around the horse barn, which is what my chicken run/coop are attached to. The people on the next property have reported foxes nesting in their pasture, but I've not seen them. However, I'm not so sure about letting the chickens out now. I've also heard that hawks and owls will swoop down & get them - has anyone had that experience? I'd sure think that a chicken would notice an owl or hawk swooping before it got close enough to snatch them, but perhaps not.
again, thanks so VERY VERY much for your feedback! I've learned a lot and I'm sure I'll continue to do so on this forum!

 

[OHChick]

i can totally relate, i was terrified the first few times i let my chickens out. we are lucky to have a large barn, so they mainly stay in there. once they started climbing thru the gate and heading for the road, we put chain link up on that gate so they'll be safer. they mainly go out into our pasture and are happy there or roosting in the 1000 + bales of hay we have in the barn. (also makes for a fun time hunting for eggs! haha. we'll be relocating them to their netboxes soon). we just have 4 board fence (horse fence) but we ran a string of electric fence along the bottom of it so keep dogs/cats/foxes from crawling under. even though my girls could fly/hop over the fence, they don't. they enjoy their grass and other miscellaneous treats.

as for night time, we turn off all the barn lights and just put on the light in their temporary house, so they will put themselves up. but good luck trying to put them up in the daylight, ain't gonna happen.

at least not at our house.

good luck.

oh, you asked what to watch out for.... so far we've nabbed a couple of raccoons and some groundhogs. there is also a fox, but he stays away from the barn area (so far.) i am also concerned about the neighbor's dogs, but they've been zapped a few times by the electric, so i don't think they'll be coming back. frankly i'd rather zap the neighbors for not keeping their dogs safe and in their own yard but that's another topic for another day.

 

[Wynette]

Groundhogs? OH NO! We have some of those in our field! I love all of God's creatures, but those things...UGH! They dig such big holes, I worry that the horses will break a leg stepping in one. So, I've let my neighbor know that he's allowed to shoot them on our property when he sees them. He dislikes them for other reasons, so he's more than happy to do away with them. I've tried so many things - putting big rocks down their holes, filling the holes with horse manure I pick out of the horse stalls, even setting fire the brush around the holes, hoping that would discourage them from from burrowing, but nothing has worked. Sigh. My run is big enough for the chickens, and we made it ultra safe (hubby dug a miniature ditch before putting the fencing over it & poured cement in it so nothing can burrow under), so maybe I'll just leave them in.

 

[RoyalHillsLLC]

I have every horror story in the book to tell about letting them out! Now I am down to only an hour or two before dark and only when we are there to keep an eye on them and make a lot of noise talking and playing to keep the predators away.
I have 150 acres, mostly forested, with about 5 acres cleared around the house and barn. They stay close but don't like to return before dark. There has always been a few that were stubborn so now I don't let them out except close to dark so they can come back on their own when it's time to roost. I lost a dozen or so chickens, four guineas and three muscovies before I totally gave up on freeranging without constant supervision.

 

[lostinthewoods]

My DH and I are down to about 25 hens and 3 roosters at this point and I would love to let mine out again! I'm sure they're getting sick of "being cooped up." I used to let my entire flock out from 6 a.m. until they went to bed about 7 p.m. until a fox started hanging around. He got about 10 of my hens before we figured out what was happening to them. It was so fun to watch them peck around the yard. We own 40 acres and they would all stick around within 1 acre of the coop. They rarely went into the front yard since there was so much to do in the back. (Digging in the flower bed, scratching in the woods, hanging out with the geese & ducks, etc..) After the incident with the fox we waited about a month and figured that it would be safe to let them roam again. WRONG! The fox was never seen again, but I had chickens that decided sleeping in the trees would be a good idea. We lost 5 more due to that and they've been inside with their small run ever since.

 

[Rocket Raley]

We have 32 acres. I let my chickens out every night around 5:30. I leave their doors open. It's a good time for me to clean the coop out. My chickens tend to stay in a 2 acre range. At sunset they all go back in by theirselfs. Last night it was 7:15.