To fence or not...

[Tarheel2288]

Thanks for the input...I have been trying to avoid using electric wire just to keep cost down some, but I may have to go with that. I ended up getting some 2"x4" welded wire fencing, and if that doesn't work I'll put a few hot lines on it.

 

[jaj121159]

I am new to raising chickens and will be getting 35 or so cornish crosses here pretty soon...I have my chicken tractor built and was planning on fencing off a pasture area, but I have had several people tell me recently that it wasn't necessary to fence them in. I was told that they just run free during the day time, and they automatically go back into the coop at night. Is this true, and what are the advantages/disadvantages to letting them roam free vs. fencing them in?

Are you using a typical broiler tractor? If so, leave them in the tractor and move it everyday. Simple, cheap and it works.

 

[Sparroweye65]

Hi, We have four week old Golden Comets living in our laundry room . We have them in a big huge storage bin, which we keep
adding higher and higher roosting bars to. they now can fly up to the top and sit or perch on the edge. We just bought a
chicken coop from a woodworker in downtown Franklin, N.C. Our coop is two feet by five feet. It has a window, two nesting boxes, a roosting bar, the window is screened and can also be opened. And of course it has the ramp. We are so new to this. We need to know what size wire, welded or chicken to put around the run to keep the chickens in. Do we cover the run with a wire top. Our neighbor let his chickens free range day and night. Then a bobcat got all of them. Now he has more chickens but he locks them in at night. Any advice would be appreciated. we are newbies too. We just bought this 2 acre place in mountains in Franklin, N.C.
and we want chickens. And we have a hill in back that cannot be mowed. And we don't know how to handle it. We thought goats but our Vet said goats eat up. Thus they would not graze the hill. Not sure how we will keep the weeds down in our back field. Mowing it could kill you. already lost the ride on once. Dragged my husband twenty feet. Thanks all. I am a three year stage
1.5 squamous cancer survivor of my tonsils. I try to eat healthy now. Composting all my scraps and chicken poop.
Here is our coop. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...=a.52561982194.79310.589812194&type=1&theater That is one baby chicken on my Timeline. http://www.facebook.com/candace.pfau

 

[Tarheel2288]

I used 2"x4" welded wire and am very pleased with it so far. Albeit mine is more of a large pasture area (about 5600 square feet) than a run, so there's a hot wire around the bottom.

 

[Beekissed]

I am new to raising chickens and will be getting 35 or so cornish crosses here pretty soon...I have my chicken tractor built and was planning on fencing off a pasture area, but I have had several people tell me recently that it wasn't necessary to fence them in. I was told that they just run free during the day time, and they automatically go back into the coop at night. Is this true, and what are the advantages/disadvantages to letting them roam free vs. fencing them in?

Unlike the others posting here, my experience with CX has been vastly different. I feed once a day and they free range all day....and when I say they free range, I mean they RANGE. I purchased an electric fence but they sent me the wrong fence the first time and it cost me $50 to send it back, so when I got the wrong type fence the second time, I just went with it. Unfortunately, it is sheep size fence instead of poultry, so the squares are large enough to let my young CX melt through it like butter.

I've been keeping chickens a long time, mostly DP breeds, and have been free ranging in all that time, but I've never seen chickens go so far away from the coop and the source of feed and safety. They slowly but surely ranged out farther and farther each day until they are scattered all over 2-3 acres, are venturing into the woods and working through the mulch around the house. I've found that birds that are continually hungry, as the CX are, are more driven to forage and these are the hardest, most diligent foragers I've ever owned.

They do NOT come back to the coop at night and won't even return when they get their feeding for the day, though they can clearly hear me feeding and see some of them running in to the feeder, a good third of the 50 birds stays out on their forage instead of coming into the coop for supper. I also have to drive them to come to the coop at dark as they would continue and will continue to forage clear up until visibility is almost gone...after all, that is when the bugs come out. I've never before had chickens that wouldn't come home to roost but then, I've never had an entire flock of birds that let their high metabolism override their need to be safe in a coop at night.

These birds do not suffer from any lack of mobility and can run very fast, jump up to 3 ft. into the air and do so even in the coop....they jump to the top of my water buckets and roost. They are now 4.5 wks old and are incredibly hard to catch or to herd into the coop, still go through my fence and will take the zap and keep on going. The only comfort I have with the fence is that, if a dog does arrive and chases them, that they can run back INTO the fencing and the dog won't follow them.

I can't wait until they are big enough to stay in the fence....

I'll trade these free ranging fools for some of the slow and lazy CX everyone else seems to have..any day!