Pros and Cons of Free Ranging

[FlyWheel]

I would do these things.

*Use portable fencing to limit their free ranging to specific parts of your yard and moving it from time to time to limit the stresses on each area and let used areas recover.

*Permanently fence off your prized vegetable or flower garden. Even if you don't have chickens you probably do have rats, mice, squirrels, possums, rabbits, deer..... Oh, and be sure to let the chickens into your garden during the off season to do their thing. Your veggies will thank you for it next season!

*Provide dust baths for your chickens; kiddie pools or sand boxes filled with the real good stuff that your birds would much rather use rather than building their own.

*If your property includes wooded areas, use them as free range areas as well. They'll provide cover and will be much more interesting for your birds than a well manicured lawn. Planting bushes and trimming them so the chickens can run under them for cover is also a good idea.

 

[RodNTN]

This is just my opinion about my own flock, but I would rather have chickens that are happy and free, even though there is a chance of losing them; then to have chickens that are safe and miserable.

 

[bruceha2000]

I have one of my first hens running around, she’s black and predators seem to leave dark birds alone.

I lost a Partridge Chantecler and nearly lost a Black Australorp to a fox on the same day, late April 2014. I think that is when the fox has kits and their regular prey isn't bountiful yet. The attacks were within 100' of the back of the house and maybe 15' from the back of the little barn for the BA. The PC was pretty camouflaged in the grass, the BA not at all. Only saved the BA because I heard her screaming, I ran outside and the fox dropped her. Only found feathers from the PC.

The chickens here have their favorite areas and the best thing to do is let them do their kind of flower arranging in these areas. Okay, they may prefer the flowers the other way up and like playing trench warfare around the shrubs they can't uproot.

I could have written that My girls have 3 places they REALLY like to hang out when they are not in the barn. There is a small barn and 15' away a larger barn. Their coop is a converted stall in the big barn. There is an auto door that opens/closes with daylight. I open the door to the big barn during the day.

Places they hang out when not foraging:

• There is a small tree right next to the little barn in the area between the barns.
• The lilac bush by the deck in back of the house
• The lilac bush near the steps to the enclosed porch on the front of the house.

They forage all around the house, in front of the barn and under the line of lilac bushes by the road. That is about an acre I would guess. They never seem to be farther than about 100' from any building. Nothing is growing near their 3 favorite spots and yes they just LOVE to dig in an area that has been dug by a human that put plants in.

There is a fenced acre behind the barns but the chickens don't use it much since we got the 2 alpacas. There is a gate between the barns on the house side and if it is closed the girls run their little tin cups back and forth across the bars demanding to be let out of their jail.

I've only had one that decided to lay outside the barn one year. Thankfully the next year she went back to laying in the barn nest boxes.

They do NOT like to go out in the snow and just hang in the barn alley most of the winter.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Before moving them I had them free ranging in a large back yard that had privacy fence all the way around it. They had so much space to forage and hangout. They had access to many trees and garden area. Our yard wasn't too bad. We only had to spray the patio off in the evening. I just feel bad

I'd keep the roo at the inlaws and bring my chickens home. Problem solved. You can go visit him on weekends, enjoy your chickens and eggs.

 

[cmom]

This is just my opinion about my own flock, but I would rather have chickens that are happy and free, even though there is a chance of losing them; then to have chickens that are safe and miserable.

I don't think chicken are that smart. I think they are happy even if they have a run/pen and you can make it a happy place for them.

 

[Fishkeeper]

This is just my opinion about my own flock, but I would rather have chickens that are happy and free, even though there is a chance of losing them; then to have chickens that are safe and miserable.

If your chickens are miserable at being kept in a run, you're not providing them with a decent run. They need enrichment, but enrichment is fairly easy to provide to chickens. Materials like leaves to scratch in, occasional novel foods, things to hop on, a place or two to dustbathe and some room to move, and they'll be fine. They are a domestic animal, after all.

 

[MissChick@dee]

Roofing and tarps (for snow or rain) Adding tarps this winter has kept my run so dry. And keeps the bitter Notheren Winds/hail/snow out. Why did I wait so long~dunno.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Be honest with yourself about why you are thinking about free ranging. Most or all fancy breeds of chickens are poor choices if you are thinking about free ranging. The more wild acting birds are a better choice. Also are you contemplating free ranging as a way of making a statement against industrial society? If so then you are making an error in judgment. The breeds of chickens that are the most associated with modern industrial society were originally selected or bred by our ancestors because of these chickens ability to evade predators while laying a decent amount of eggs on a minimum amount of chicken feed. Birds like the leghorns and Rhode Island reds are two good examples.

 

[RodNTN]

I don't think chicken are that smart. I think they are happy even if they have a run/pen and you can make it a happy place for them.

I don't think chicken are that smart. I think they are happy even if they have a run/pen and you can make it a happy place for them.

I know, I wasn't referring to a spacious run with lots of things to entertain them, but a small run with nothing to keep the chickens occupied

 

[cmom]

Just beware, you will eventually loose a bird to a predator when free ranging. I know of so many people that have. I would rather know the birds are safe in their pen and the largest I can make. All of my pens are 60 feet x around 20 feet. Many years ago I made a ladder for the birds.