To free range or not to free range

[Amer]

I edited what I wrote a bit, and turned it into an article. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/free-ranging-your-flock-by-one-who-free-ranges.73488/

 

[centrarchid]

It can be difficult to manage the plant community in run where they birds are on it all the time. You can get more control by limiting the chickens in their ability to reach all or part of ground at least part of the time.

1) You can rotate run areas.

2) You can put down screens making so chickens can only access plant part that grow up through it yet allow sunlight penetration to ground. Voles complicate this approach for me.

3) You can move run about like a chicken tractor where ground can rest and be replanted. Below is example of pens I use mostly for single birds. I could easily move them daily which has been done. This particular pen is always moved very close to perimeter fence.

 

[Ridgerunner]

As was mentioned free range can mean different things to different people. To some people it means no fences of any kind, they are free to go wherever they wish. To some it means they can get some forage but are much more limited. Legally, when you see it on a package of chicken meat or eggs it just means they can go outside to a tiny bare patch if they wish. It doesn’t even have to have any vegetation in it. I think for most people it generally means they can at least forage for some of what they eat.

Different people perceive different benefits to free ranging, depending some on definition. To me if the quality of forage is good it can help reduce your feed costs. It’s a more natural way to keep them and with all that room you hardly ever have behavioral problems. The more room they have, whether total “no fences” or a really large run, the less likely you are to have parasites or diseases since they are not as crowded. I’m using the definition that they may have fences but there is a lot of area in those fences.

The disadvantages are that they are more vulnerable to predators and they can go where you don’t want them to. That might be into a road, in your garden or maybe they scratch in your landscaping beds, or they poop where you don’t want them to.

About the only way to determine whether they wipe out all vegetation or not is to try it. The square feet per bird you need to keep vegetation will depend on your climate, time of year, soils type, kinds of plants, and such. Whether you are on a north facing or south facing slope can have an effect. Age of the chickens can make a difference, chicks don’t need as much forage as adults. We are all unique in these. You will get different results if you are in the Sonoran Desert, Minnesota, or the Gulf Coast.

You can go through three different general conditions depending in all these things. For many of us the run becomes a barren dust bowl. The chickens eat practically everything green and scratch up the roots to eat those too. It may take them weeks or months to get to this stage but it’s where a lot of people on this forum are. I don’t consider this free ranging.

The next step is where you keep some green stuff. The chickens have a preference for what they eat, they much prefer some plants over others. So they selectively eat what they like and ignore what they do not. It’s kind of where I’m at, I have a large area in electric netting but don’t allow them to go wherever they wish. The stuff they don’t like grows up and smothers out the stuff they do like since they keep the good stuff eaten down. So I have to go in there a few times a year to mow it back to allow the good stuff to grow so they have some forage they like. In the spring I lock them out of that area for a week to ten days when the grass starts growing to let it get a head start. There are some bare spots fairly close to the coop where they like to dust bathe, but in season it is usually pretty green. It helps when I get rain.

Then the ultimate is where it’s just a pasture. They have a lot of room. You will still get some bare spots near the coop or where they like to hang out and dust bathe, usually in the shade, but the whole area continues to provide good forage. How much you need to mow, if you do, depends on you. Where you are I think it would turn into a jungle if you don’t mow or bush hog it down occasionally.

 

[Chullicken]

Having done both, I like to think of it like this. Penned birds are safer, though they require more work in regard to boredom etc. Free Ranging = Pay the Wildlife Food Tax..eventually you will start loosing animals to the locals. Another option is controlled or monitored free ranging in which you let them out to graze while being chaperoned. A newer option is 'pasturing' in which the use of a electro chicken fence is used to great pastured areas that are relatively safer from ground predators via the use of electrical fencing. Gives you the option of moving the pasture as you see fit as well.

 

[Chullicken]

It can be difficult to manage the plant community in run where they birds are on it all the time. You can get more control by limiting the chickens in their ability to reach all or part of ground at least part of the time.

1) You can rotate run areas.

2) You can put down screens making so chickens can only access plant part that grow up through it yet allow sunlight penetration to ground. Voles complicate this approach for me.

3) You can move run about like a chicken tractor where ground can rest and be replanted. Below is example of pens I use mostly for single birds. I could easily move them daily which has been done. This particular pen is always moved very close to perimeter fence.
View attachment 1229453

That is one handsome boy you have there.

 

[Trish1974]

50 might do it depending on climate and vegetation.
I have 20 and no veg left.

X2. I have 50 sq ft per bird and nothing but dirt in my run!

 

[Chullicken]

X2. I have 50 sq ft per bird and nothing but dirt in my run!

Growing up my grandfather used to say how bad sheep and horses where for the farm as they just eat everything down to nothing...he never raised 10 chickens!

 

[Trish1974]

I guess maybe it just depends on how the chickens are??

I have one golden comet in my flock and she tears up more than the others. She has a much more voracious appetite than the others and is a master scratcher!

 

[GC-Raptor]

I have the grass with deep roots.

If you get chickens like mine that dig foot deep holes. I think they can dig up your grass. GC

 

[Trish1974]

Growing up my grandfather used to say how bad sheep and horses where for the farm as they just eat everything down to nothing...he never raised 10 chickens!

NO KIDDING!!!