Please advise: free range time required?

[Aria]

There are so many super ideas. We have a Barn with a run....and a fenced in Chicken Yard
with perenials all around and grass and weeds in the fenced yard. We have automatic door on our Barn...our Silkie Chickens come out at dawn and in at dusk and the door closes.

The yard also has evergreens, bushes and cover for them. They had eaten all the grass between my flowers. GREAT. No weeding for me.

In the Winter (cold and lots of snow) we open the enclosed runs and remove the door opener.
They are in the Barn and the run. Now with all the super ideas I will plant some grass seed in the run and grow sprouts for the Chickens.

Our run is now covered with a heavy tarp. Spring we plan to add a roof with plastic tarps on the sides. KEEP INTRUDORS OUT...and the Silkie Chickens Safe. Your coop is unique. Regards, Aria

 

[ChickInDelight]

I keep my chickens and ducks up at night, out in the whole world during the day. I am amazed at how close they stay to home. They seem to choose the same natural boundries as the dogs - like the driveway.

 

[DazeGoneBy]

AH-HA! Thanks, CelticOaks. I can totally picture it now!

I was thinking of this same area, fenced in with chicken wire, which is a more permanent ugly-looking structure. But, we DO have some avain netting on-hand that I bought to protect our fig tree from some greedy blue jays last spring. And, if we attach it to the board as CelticOaks says, attach the other end to the deck and toss it to the ground, it will keep the chickens contained.

And, when not in use, we can just hike the board and stapled netting back up on the deck and you wouldn't even see it.

This is just brilliant!

Scratch'n'peck, I haven't noticed that hawks have noticed us...our coop is under a shade tree, and only a bit of it is open to the sky. I could rig up something to connect the two sides of avian netting where they meet at the corner to give more protection, but again since it is under the balcony, I bet any hawks in the area wouldn't even notice my girls.

Yay! So excited!

We'll see what hubby thinks.