To Free Range or Not?

[Avlana]

I agree that it depends on your environment. What kind of predators are in your area? What about dogs roaming around? I only let mine free range if I'm working or sitting outside. I'm outside quite a bit. I like to keep an eye on them.

 

[Beekissed]

My wife says it is absolutely essential to free range the chickens. Since we are now BYC Raisers she was telling me how beneficial to our garden chickens would be. She was also saying that the garden would be almost bug free.
I disagreed with her saying it is not essential that the chickens rome free. All they need is a place inside for protection and a place to lay their eggs. Also a place to walk around outside that is all fenced in.
Maybe I say this because I cannot picture myself chasing chickens all over the yard when night time comes.
Who is right and who is wrong.

You are both wrong.

It's not absolutely essential that they free range in order to live and produce...but it's highly recommended if you want healthy birds with a good quality of life, a cheaper feed bill, and healthier eggs and meat for consumption and less trouble with health concerns, internal and external parasites and bad social behaviors amongst the chickens.

And, no, a place inside, a place to lay eggs, and a place to walk around outside is not all they need. They need habitat, just like any other creature, in order to stay healthy. Oh, sure, you can keep birds confined all their lives on barren, compacted soils saturated with too much nitrogen from the manure but it won't keep your flock healthy. And more chickens fall prey to predators in coop and run situations than they do out on free range...it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

This may help you on successful free ranging: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/bees-key-points-to-successful-and-safe-free-ranging

 

[Mammachix]

We haven't lost any chiCkens to predators in the year that we have been free ranging them, but that may be due to having a very alert rooster who is huge. We have watched him fight off a swooping hawk, and all the girls heed his warning call and go for cover when instructed to do so.

Regarding the garden, I put two foot high netting around the beds last year But this year will fence the whole thing off. The girls wouldn't even eat the slugs I hand delivered to them. Loved the tomatoes And lettuce tho. I figure I'll open the gate in the fall and they can be the clean up crew. As far as fertilizing the garden, it's easy enough to work the poo into the dirt each fall after cleaning the coop or throw it in the compost pile.

 

[SlipsWife]

We started off free ranging once they were feathered out. It only last a few months. They did great on going in at night but were laying under the hay trailer and not going back into the coop to lay. Now that they are back in the coop/run full time, they lay were they are suppose to, we've only had one oops egg in the run.

Being in west Texas, we have very little grass to begin with, what there was, they took care of. Since keeping them in their coop/run full time we've let them out a couple of times for a few hours and each time they bee-lined for the pretty green grass patches. We have friends that had to fence in their gardens because their chickens wouldn't leave their plants alone.

They LOVED to get on our back porch, and pooped on our patio furniture/porch. We have fly issues (I THOUGHT they were suppose to help with bug control, ours would let a fly land in front of them and ignore them. The only time they ever ate flies were if they landed on a sticky trap...) and the poop on the porch attracted the flies, which meant every time we opened the door, flies were getting in the house. We tried spray and it helped a little but not enough.

We had so many little guys we stopped head counting at night. We had lost about 15 before we noticed. We couldn't figure out what was happening until we caught a neighbors 'feral' cat in the act. It's not their 'pet' but they feed a number of strays and they have made their way into our yard, usually one at a time.

We LOVE our girls in their coop/run full time. It's so much easier for us. We don't have to worry about them hanging out on the fence and jumping into the neighbors yards (who all have small dogs). We don't have to worry about our own dogs forgetting to leave them alone. The cats have been in our yard since then but so far haven't felt the urge to really work for their free meals and try to get into to coop/run. If we know the weather is going to be bad we don't have to run around in the pouring rain trying to get them put up because they aren't smart enough to go back in... We didn't have to screen in our porch to keep them off (which we still might do but its nice to do it because we want to, not because of the chickens).

We do miss them running around the yard, they are cute.

 

[Beekissed]

This may help you on successful free ranging: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/bees-key-points-to-successful-and-safe-free-ranging

 

[LindaB220]

This may help you on successful free ranging: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/bees-key-points-to-successful-and-safe-free-ranging

Loved this. First time I saw it.