Should chickens free range or be kept confined?

[Jim from Cincinnati]

OK...this is my 2 cents worth, from my experience. If you start with letting the chickens out sometimes..then there is never enough free time(in their minds). Be consistant...use your head not your heart(not like me) give them plenty of things to do when confined!!...in my opinon, once you start letting them out free....they never forget it....and neighbor cats are sneaky...they love to stalk chickens!!! And I think someone mentioned some chickens do better free ranging then others?

 

[Judy]

I do it more in the summer than the winter because predators have plenty of other options around here in summer, plus there is a lot more for the chickens to find. If you have a garden you will want to fence it from the chickens; chicken wire will work, or field fence. I agree, they are happeir when let loose. I have a large yard they are in right now as things are just beginning to green up around here.

When I had some dogs who ignored the chickens and were out and about all the time, I had essentially no losses. The two that are left aren't off chasing predators enough to be much help.

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

Yes.

 

[Judy]

Chicken.Lytle :

Yes.

Yes, what? Free range or confine?​

 

[guineahen14]

Chickens love walking around free from an enclosure, they find different thing to eat and new places to stratch in. I let mine out a few times a week, I am always aware of what is going on, you have to be watchful for hawks. I have two roosters and when they sound the alarm the chickens run for cover, I also have seven guinea fowl that live with the chickens, they are very alert and are great watchdogs, they scream when they see anything bad in the sky or on the ground.

 

[edgroger]

Quote:
Yes, what? Free range or confine?

I think lytle meant that yes, Chickens are much more happier when they free range compared to when they are confined. If you think about it, would a person be really happy if his just kept on one area never to go around the wild blue yonder.

 

[7L Farm]

I vote free range!! My chickens like their coop but they just want to be free not cooped up. They go back & forth to the coop all day to lay eggs, drink water, & eat feed provided 24/7. I also provide them water by my front door.

 

[oesdog]

My chickens have a shed with a good size run. Well actually they have two places to sleep either the chicken coop or the potting shed. 7 sleep in there and 3 in the coop ( The newer girls!) However Agnes one of the new girls goes over to the potting shed to lay every morning and Betty and Mable come from the potting shed to lay in the chicken coop? Yeah I know mad but they are chickens. We have made all sorts of perches and stuff like that to occupy them all and they get loads of treats.

We do not let them "free range" in the summer months because they eat all of the veg in the veg plots and they poo on the grass that the "adult children" want to play on.
Once september comes in and the nights start to shorten we let the girls out more and more. They finish off any crops we don;t want and clear the beds for the following season - no weeding etc!

Then they poo everywhere until about mid march - because then they go back in the run as the plants are starting to grow back and we don;t want them distroying the veg. They are allowed out under supervision though most summer days for about 20 mins and they enjoy that a lot. This arrangement seems to work very well.

Here are my girls - going on a Free Range - they love to stand at the patio doors and "people watch" - chicken TV in reverse!!!!

Oesdog

 

[GallusGal]

My take on free ranging anything is this: it is definitely more enjoyable for the animal and certainly has nutritional benefits to the critter and the person eating its products if applicable. However, it also has a laundry list of inherent dangers, mostly relating to predation and roaming beyond the relative safety of one's property. You need to strike a reasonable balance between the two: keeping your birds safe, and keeping them happy. Supervised free ranging sessions are probably your safest bet. You also need to understand that there is a chance that a predator may eventually kill some of your free ranging birds, and when it happens, it isn't the predator's fault; protecting domesticated animals is the responsibility of the caregiver, and making an active choice to not contain chickens means accepting the risks.

I personally have always been too nervous to allow full on free range. I always simply built large enclosures. I would love it if my birds could safely roam, but after watching my neighbor lose all of her free range chickens, ever year to hawks, dogs, cats, coyotes, etc. I simply wouldn't be able to live with the guilt of it. I see it the same why I see all of my other companion animals: I'm sure the dogs would love running loose in the five acres of woods on our property, but they live in the one fenced acre because it is safer for them. I'm sure my bunnies would love to roam the front yard grazing all day, but they are in enclosures to protect their safety. I KNOW my parrots would love to be out loose in the house all day, but there are too many dangers even indoors for that. Are there other people who do things differently? Absolutely, and that's fine. Just I personally can't deal with the thought of my pets being injured or worse, and am willing to sacrifice some degree of their freedom for that.

 

[schellie69]

Last summer I allowed are birds to free range the whole backyard all day and then lock them into their secure run/coop every night. They ate all my grass

so this year as soon as the new grass seeds take I will let them out for about an hour or two. I use scratch to get them back into their pen. I make sure that their pen is big enough so they are not crowded. I am also going to build grass boxes in their run. this will be a chicken prairie grass mix I am going to put chicken wire on top of the grass so they can't dig it out. Got this idea from another byc member. I also give them plenty of veggies from the garden and grass clippings from the front yard. To the OP if you let them out start closer to roost time and when you think they are ready to start cooping up take some treats in some bucket use this bucket every time and start calling or moving treats in bucket usually they will follow to the food do this for a few times and then you can coop them up pretty easily anytime chickens love treats. If mine see the treat bucket they start following me from then all over the yard it is funny.