Should chickens free range or be kept confined?

[TheSitcomGirls]

Once I let my hens out of their small pen into the side yard so they could free range it was all over. They would not be confined. The smaller pen was surrounded by a five foot high fence. I had to go away for the day so I shut the door to the smaller pen to confine them. Hadn't done that in a month or so. Within fifteen minutes all but the two chubby barred rock hens had flown over the fence and were out in their free range area. So this spring I took down the fence around the smaller pen......they win!