Rethinking or rather scaring self

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

Planning on free ranging my girls soon. But I have been sitting here reading other's horror stories and they are real; not simply stories. I am kinda coming away with "why would I ever consider free ranging?"

When we lived in FL we did. The difference. . .those were HIS chickens; these are mine.

I have heard owl here. Assume there are hawks about. I suppose the other culprits will make themselves known. He seems pretty sure the dog will be a deterrent. He says at night he will let dog loose to guard but have her on leash during day when they are free ranging.

 

[cavemanrich]

Here are my thoughts.
I free-range my chickens, but not totally all day. I usually let them out in the afternoon, when I'm out in the yard.
At dusk, they get closed up in secure coop. Chickens do have a large quite secure run,,, but it is not Fort Knox, secure.
My daytime predators, are hawks. Dogs can be a problem daytime, but in my area, everyone seems to care for their pet dogs well. Escapees are possible everywhere.
Owls are generally night time predators. I don't have owls where I live.
Night time predators are mainly raccoons. They are everywhere in different quantities. Raccoons do not hunt during day.

So,,, try letting your chickens out in the afternoon, and observe them. As to hawks,, in the afternoon, they usually already caught their meals earlier during the day, so not necessarily hunting late.
Timing is key in prevention. Although with no guarantees.
You are also in Georgia. Not sure if non-venomous, beneficial snakes are within your area. Those also have to be taken into consideration. Snakes usually target smaller chicks, and eggs. They can harm adult chickens

WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Geena]

Planning on free ranging my girls soon

Are you planning to keep them completely free range? I would suggest that you at least lock them up tight in a coop from dusk to dawn as that's when most predation happens. A dog can only do so much. Owls and hawks couldn't care less about a dog unless the dog is specifically trained to deter aerial predators. Foxes are extremely smart and will watch and wait for the perfect opportunity to snag a chicken, day or night. If you free range, you will lose some, no doubt about that.

 

[Pampered chicken girl]

Can I suggest a bigger run if space is the problem, I have never even considered free range because we have far to many predators. If you really want to free range you can do supervised free range where you watch them for awhile while your outdoors doing your chores anyway.

 

[FunClucks]

You have to decide how you feel about losing chickens. Free ranging comes with risk. There is always a risk that you will lose one. You can do all the things to prevent loss, but the risk is still there, and at some point you probably will have a loss. If you absolutely are not willing to lose any chickens to predators, then free ranging them is probably not right for you. There are other management styles that may be a better fit. You could have an enclosed secure coop and run. You could use electric fence, electric poultry fence, and bird netting/wire over head to deter hawks. You could rotate the secure areas they forage in.

If you can't imagine losing any chickens ever, you may want to reconsider having chickens. They die from disease, old age, and predators. You may be able to control most of the predator risk, but disease risks and old age will still be present. Sometimes the kindest thing to do is put one down when it will not be getting better. So to be a good chicken steward, one must be prepared for those things.

I wish we could all free-range our chickens without loss. Unfortunately, many of us are in an area where this is not possible due to predator load and other reasons.

I thought I might free range them too. Then I learned about how many predators are in my area, and my children decided the chickens were pets and got really attached, and free-ranging was no longer a sustainable management choice for us. It will be hard enough dealing with loss from disease and old age, so we decided to at least minimize possibilities of loss from predators. We use a Ft Knox secure covered run and coop.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Free ranging definitely always comes with a risk. The predator load in your area will determine how quickly you will lose a bird, or even sadly your whole flock. Dogs are a major poultry predator that many don’t think about, they could be your own dog, other peoples dogs, or stray dogs. They can kill a whole flock just for ‘fun’ very quickly. I assessed the predators in my area, and talked to others in my area and decided against ever free ranging. My chickens are also very much pets and I don’t want to lose any from predators so I opted to build a large, predator proof run. My aunt who lives one property down used to free range years ago but coyotes were coming in the middle of the day and taking chickens (she also had a huge mastiff/st Bernard mix out with the chickens and they were in the horse paddock with 3 horses). Just yesterday around 2pm another neighbor had a coyote jump over their basic 4 ft fenced chicken yard and took a chicken. My property borders something we all call the ‘coyote highway’, it’s a seasonal wash that goes throughout the area that coyotes use to go back and forth. My run is not very far from it and I have never had a problem with them getting into my run, and I am certain that the coyotes have taken a look at it. We also have bobcats, raccoons, a lot of nesting hawks and eagles, etc so free ranging is not for me. It really doesn’t have much benefit in my area anyways since we don’t have many greens or grass as we live in the high desert mountains.

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

Here are my thoughts.
I free-range my chickens, but not totally all day. I usually let them out in the afternoon, when I'm out in the yard.
At dusk, they get closed up in secure coop. Chickens do have a large quite secure run,,, but it is not Fort Knox, secure.
My daytime predators, are hawks. Dogs can be a problem daytime, but in my area, everyone seems to care for their pet dogs well. Escapees are possible everywhere.
Owls are generally night time predators. I don't have owls where I live.
Night time predators are mainly raccoons. They are everywhere in different quantities. Raccoons do not hunt during day.

So,,, try letting your chickens out in the afternoon, and observe them. As to hawks,, in the afternoon, they usually already caught their meals earlier during the day, so not necessarily hunting late.
Timing is key in prevention. Although with no guarantees.
You are also in Georgia. Not sure if non-venomous, beneficial snakes are within your area. Those also have to be taken into consideration. Snakes usually target smaller chicks, and eggs. They can harm adult chickens

WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Awww, thank you @cavemanrich .

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

Free ranging definitely always comes with a risk. The predator load in your area will determine how quickly you will lose a bird, or even sadly your whole flock. Dogs are a major poultry predator that many don’t think about, they could be your own dog, other peoples dogs, or stray dogs. They can kill a whole flock just for ‘fun’ very quickly. I assessed the predators in my area, and talked to others in my area and decided against ever free ranging. My chickens are also very much pets and I don’t want to lose any from predators so I opted to build a large, predator proof run. My aunt who lives one property down used to free range years ago but coyotes were coming in the middle of the day and taking chickens (she also had a huge mastiff/st Bernard mix out with the chickens and they were in the horse paddock with 3 horses). Just yesterday around 2pm another neighbor had a coyote jump over their basic 4 ft fenced chicken yard and took a chicken. My property borders something we all call the ‘coyote highway’, it’s a seasonal wash that goes throughout the area that coyotes use to go back and forth. My run is not very far from it and I have never had a problem with them getting into my run, and I am certain that the coyotes have taken a look at it. We also have bobcats, raccoons, a lot of nesting hawks and eagles, etc so free ranging is not for me. It really doesn’t have much benefit in my area anyways since we don’t have many greens or grass as we live in the high desert mountains.

I plan on planting a chicken pasture for them (thought of that when you mentioned lack of grass). I agree about dogs. We have a dog that I want G O N E. But, I don't have the last say. He wants to replace her with blue healers. Coop-wise I have pretty much done things his way. If I have a bad predator experience, I will re-stock up, but FIRST with MY own type of coop. Even if that means I have to save up a year to afford it. This coop he is building HE wants to be take-downable because he wants to move further into the country on some land he has purchased (hmmmm, wonder if predator load is less out there; or more?) I like it here, but that is another story.

 

[neo71665]

If you free range you will lose chickens to predators. It happens.

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

Are you planning to keep them completely free range? I would suggest that you at least lock them up tight in a coop from dusk to dawn as that's when most predation happens. A dog can only do so much. Owls and hawks couldn't care less about a dog unless the dog is specifically trained to deter aerial predators. Foxes are extremely smart and will watch and wait for the perfect opportunity to snag a chicken, day or night. If you free range, you will lose some, no doubt about that.

Nope, of course they will have a coop for sleeping and nesting. We free ranged in central FL and I can NOT remember losing any to overhead predation. I think there was an incident with a neighbor's dog (oh wait, that was with our goat).