To free range or not?

[Labsandchickens8]

It’s true. All these comments have been really helpful. I think I actually have been able to do some mental work to accept their deaths. We do have three five year old hens, so really that’s pretty good for production breeds from tractor supply! Plenty of hens never make it to five. I want them to be happy so it’s the right decision. Thanks for your input

If you decide the risk is too great could yiu do a couple of long movable tunnels? Get them on fresh ground every couple of days and let them move around? There are lots of great videos on that. Or alternatively, could you use a net on at least half of a large area with cover in the rest?
Seems like there are a couple of compromises.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Predators are natures clean up crew for the gene-pool. Wherever predation is lacking sickness thrives. They eat the sickly, the slow, the stupid, etc. All that are unworthy are eaten, and this makes the population beautiful, healthy and strong

Instead of seeing predators as an enemy one should see them as an essential part of the ecosystem

If you have a population capable of reproduction the only possible thing that predators will do is improve your chickens

Take steps to protect your chickens, provide them with the best possible platform to thrive, and then let it unfold naturally and trust in the process

I have no coop, my chickens sleep outside in trees, they share the land with many different types of predators, and I haven't lost an adult chicken in years. The foxes on my property have mostly given up on even trying to catch them

 

[K0k0shka]

You say they were locked in the coop all winter - and by that do you mean the actual coop (indoor space), or do they have a run as well? If they were in an actual indoor coop, especially one not large enough (17 chickens is a lot of chickens), then no wonder they look like shit. But that does not mean that chickens that don't free range look like shit. Not in the slightest. It's quite possible to have chickens who never free range and still have great lives and look healthy, sunbathe, dust-bathe and so on. Mine are like that. I have several generations that have never free ranged in their lives, and they look great. I don't believe that risking their lives just for the idea of free ranging is the better choice, and I don't want to just get used to them dying. I'm not putting all this money and labor into them just to watch them plucked off one by one. Also, I have kids who love the chickens, and I want to teach them responsible animal ownership. Protecting your animals from predation is part of that lesson (the "cycle of life" lesson is one for a different time - applied to wildlife eating other wildlife, not wildlife eating my pets).

So, if you don't have the financial or practical means to provide an enclosed run big enough for 17 chickens, but you still want to keep them safe, you'll have to tweak the parameters. Reduce the flock down to a smaller number that's more manageable, and get rid of the roosters. A small handful of hens are much more manageable. Give them a nice protected run (10 sq.ft. per hen) and furnish it with enrichment items - perches, dust bath, logs, chairs, pallets, etc. They'll be perfectly happy in there, and they'll be alive. Don't let the free range movement guilt you into thinking they are "locked up" or "prisoners". No they are not. Hens in battery cages are prisoners. Hens in spacious, enriched runs are pets that are being responsibly taken care of.

 

[OphyliaOrpington]

I have 7 chickens with a run large enough for 16 (at 10 sft. Per hen). I also have a fenced in 1 acre yard with very little cover. The coop and run are inside the fenced yard. (6ft. Chain link with electric wire about 12 inch off the ground. Dogs wouldn’t stop digging under the fence.).

Anyway… the chickens are FINE inside the covered, totally secure run. They don’t peck each other, they have stuff to do. They are totally fine. However, they would rather have access to the whole yard. They don’t care anything about going over the fence. But they LOVE to eat bugs and grass and scratch and run across the field. They pace by the door hoping to get out. They are so very obviously happy when they get out. I keep them in when it’s stormy.

I’ve only had them for 1 year. We have hawks that fly over the valley every morning and every evening. There is an eagle nesting nearby. i am very worried. I figure it’s a matter of time. And I worry that once the predators find food here, they will return again and again until my girls are gone.

But darn it, they absolutely LOVE being out!!!

Such a pickle. I don’t have any advice. Just sitting here in the same boat.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I am about to start my own free range adventure and the first thing people tell me is that I am going to “live and learn” about predators. These aren’t people who know me very well lol but I understand the sentiment. My parents live on the side of a mountain in Montana. They can’t free range because they lose too many birds that way, usually to mountain lions. Occasionally to hawks. Even with netting they have lost a couple to hawks who manage to find a way in.
I don’t have exactly the same predators but I do have bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, hawks and a black bear. I don’t imagine the bear will come around and, frankly, I’m glad we are in an ecosystem healthy enough to support such a predator.

After living on less than an acre with chickens for about ten years I absolutely cannot wait to let them out and I have tried to mitigate the risk. I’ve seen my share of chicken death and maybe that’s helped me psychologically prepare for the adventure. I guess I am more disturbed by the thought of chickens in a run-even a big run-than the thought of a hawk plucking one up out of the field and the others going “he hates these cans! Stay away from the cans!”

 

[Mrs. K]

I have had chickens for years, and I completely understand your situation. I love letting mine out, I think the eggs taste better, but we have predators - daytime and nighttime predators. I have been wiped out, let alone losing a bird now and then.

I compromise:

• I don't let them out every day
• I don't let them out at the same time, sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon
• I don't let them out on very windy days, or deeply overcast days - gives too much advantage to the predators
• I have a year old rooster, a good one, not all roosters are good ones
  • He needs to be aware of the surroundings, he needs to have his head up, be the first to see me, tidbit, dance and keep his girls together
• I have a totally enclosed chainlink fence run, that if I locked you in it, you would have a tough time getting out - that has helped immensely with coon predation at night.

My daytime predators tend to be coyotes. Very rarely a bobcat, hawks and eagle occasionally, they fly over, but not too interested.

Yesterday, I let them out, they headed over to a plum bush thicket. Later on, I was down at the barn, when I heard a screech and here came the rooster and most his girls on a dead run. I was missing 2, dang it. I locked them back up, swearing. Later I went down by the coop - and there were the other two, so I didn't loose any. I think that is because I have a rooster. I know a lot of people poo poo the protection of a rooster, but I seem to have better luck with one. He did not take on the predator, but he was the first to see him, and alerted his girls and they followed him to safety.

So I know, today, they stayed in lock down. Tomorrow? We will see. It is tough.

Mrs K

 

[No Coop No Problem]

I guess I am more disturbed by the thought of chickens in a run-even a big run-than the thought of a hawk plucking one up out of the field and the others going “he hates these cans! Stay away from the cans!”

I suspect that a good deal of the problems people experience with attempting free-ranging is caused by not understanding that chickens are the descendants of junglefowl. Not fieldfowl, or lawnfowl

All this spring I've been watching my broody hens take their babies around and absolutely none of them ever go out into the open. They stay under dense tree cover, or in bushes literally all of the time

The environment is very important for the health and safety of animals, and chickens are unique among livestock in that they alone descend from jungle ancestors

 

[Mrs. K]

Well, yesterday, mine were in a thicket, well under cover, and I am pretty sure a coyote or bobcat came looking for lunch. Nothing is fool proof.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I suspect that a good deal of the problems people experience with attempting free-ranging is caused by not understanding that chickens are the descendants of junglefowl. Not fieldfowl, or lawnfowl

All this spring I've been watching my broody hens take their babies around and absolutely none of them ever go out into the open. They stay under dense tree cover, or in bushes literally all of the time

The environment is very important for the health and safety of animals, and chickens are unique among livestock in that they alone descend from jungle ancestors

Totally agree. At my old suburban house they only had lawn to “range” on and they still preferred the edges, under the grape vines or blackberry bushes. We had hawks there too but I only had one attempted attack. And that was when the girls were out in the open on their way back to the coop.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I free range my birds as much as I can and - knock wood - our losses have been minimal. We have dogs and I firmly believe that helps. They follow the chickens, which means, where there is chicken poop there is dog poop. I'll leave you to sort that out on your own. The foxes and coyotes come close, they smell the dog poop and go, "Drat! This place has three security guards!" And move on to where the pickings are easier. We also live in a fairly small clearing surrounded by forest, with several trees and bushes in that clearing. So, like @No Coop No Problem said above, a lot like a jungle. Lots of places for chickens to take cover from aerial predators. Our biggest problem to date has been dogs. Unattended roaming dogs. Our dogs don't see them as a threat. However, my SIL's dog, a few hundred feet away, does. He runs them off, sometimes literally licking their wounds. So I put up with him.

Bottom line to all this: you can try it and see how it goes. See if it's going to work out for you. Hopefully, it will. But if not .. you learn it with a minimum of losses. Good luck!