open top chicken run

[furbabymum]

It's what I've got. We had a breeding pair of great horned owls give us hell last winter. Now we've 4 ducks missing though I can't blame that on the run. I'd been opening the gate and letting them free range. So expect losses at some point. We do have a door on our barn now so we can lock all the birds up for protection when needed. We had to do that for months thanks to the owls.

 

[bobbi-j]

Well, they been out there over 11/2 yrs with no problems, and I have hawks, eagles, everything short of a condor. Chickens, my chickens anyway, learn about the dangers from hawks. In the pic,see that big brushy area behind the coop? That's where they go when the hawks come around. They hear a hawk, they head for cover. I've even seen them react when the crows gives their hawk warning call. They learned that. I am not saying that the fence is the answer to everything. But, they ARE a heck of a lot safer now, inside that fence.

I just wanted OP to realize that birds of prey could still be a threat. My chickens free range and we have hawks, owls, and two nesting pair of Bald Eagles that live here. I've never lost a chicken to a hawk or eagle. I did lose some to a GHO that lived in our grove some years ago, but those chickens chose to roost in the trees rather than go in the coop at night.

 

[ampho]

Thank you to all that answered! I love hearing your experiences! While we have several friends with chickens, their views are all different (some don't mind a few free range losses, some keep them locked up always) I am trying to find happy medium, so the plan now is the run will be full enclosed with door on top and side to "free range" with supervision, while we are home, locked in coop at night. I will try to pick the neighbors brain on how she gets them to fly back in and let you know! Just ordered my first 6 chicks! I have about an 1/2 acre fenced yard around the coop also but it doesn't deter anything! These are last weeks visitors!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Only prisoners and inmates are confined. You are either free or you are not, there is no kinda of, sort of, or just a little bit free. The current standard in free range chickens is for the poultry producer to open the door on his hen house for some unspecified length of time each day and if his chickens takes this brief opportunity to forage on the environment or not then the eggs etc these chickens produce are all free range eggs or poultry even though not one chicken in a 1,000 has ever set foot on, or even seen a blade of grass.