Topic of the week - Free Ranging

[froggyphore]

What pros and cons have you experienced when deciding to free range your flock?

when i first got my chickens i had a small yard and the amount of waste from just 6 was substantial lol. since i have moved to a rural area my biggest downside has been the 2 predator related deaths i have incurred. the pros are abundant, less feed, less coop cleaning, less smell, healthier and happier chickens, natural lawn fertilizer, the list goes on.


How do you keep your flock safe when out roaming?

a large fence near the tree line, lots of tree cover, and living next to a road does actually help quite a bit to deter predators. i plan to get a few roosters and geese this spring as well.


How do you ensure hens lay their eggs in the coop, instead of the garden/anywhere else they deem suitable?

i don’t lol. they usually choose the coop on their own but i have too many eggs to eat as is so i don’t mind a few losses. i’ve noticed leaving a few eggs in the nests and removing any ones accumulating outside helps keep them laying indoors.


How do you train new rangers to return to the coop at night?

on the first couple nights i put them in and they all learn pretty quickly. except for my first brood - it took them like a month to go in on their own lol.

 

[6BeachChicks]

I have mine in a run while I’m not home, but when I am I free range them supervised. I am scared to death of predators.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

- What pros and cons have you experienced when deciding to free range your flock?
Pros: The flock use less feed, the hens are much more content and therefore lay more, and they clean our apple trees of bad apples without consuming the seeds.
Cons: They are more likely to be taken by a hawk but so far, we've only lost cockerels/roosters to them.

- How do you keep your flock safe when out roaming?
We normally let our dogs out a few times a day and they provide a short time of protection. I will otherwise check on them every 5 minutes throughout the day, unless I'm at work.

- How do you ensure hens lay their eggs in the coop, instead of the garden/anywhere else they deem suitable?
I keep dud eggs that are marked, in the nesting boxes.

- How do you train new rangers to return to the coop at night?
We have a hen who raises all young. She trains them to return to the brooder coop when free ranging is over and once they get use to returning to a coop at night, I will wait until they're big enough to sleep with the flock in the main coop.

 

[MaeM]

- What pros and cons have you experienced when deciding to free range your flock?

Pros: they're super happy.
Cons: it can be unsafe.

- How do you keep your flock safe when out roaming?

- I have a dog who scares predators away. If he wasn't here, maybe a few cats of the neighborhood would have tried to have chicken for dinner.
- I supervise them. I don't let them roam if nobody's home.
- I have really tall fences so that they can't fly over them. Chickens do not usually escape because they have a sense of 'home', but they can be curious about the outside world and you don't know what can happen to them there.

- How do you ensure hens lay their eggs in the coop, instead of the garden/anywhere else they deem suitable?

I let the flock out after midday. Because the hens normally lay eggs in the morning, they're forced to use the nest box we've built for them in the coop.

If they want to lay eggs after midday, the coop's door is still open for them to go and use the nest box.

I used fake eggs to tell them "hey, this is where you should lay these".

- How do you train new rangers to return to the coop at night?

I go out and supervise them at dawn. If some chicken doesn't follow the rest of the flock back to the coop, I manually take him/her. I've never really had a problem with this because after two of three days of manually taking the chicken to the coop at night, the chicken would learn to do it him/herself.

 

[Bonwell]

If given the choice (and space) many of us prefer to free range our flocks, but there are pros and cons to this practice. This week I would like to hear you all's thoughts on free ranging and what you did to overcome the potential problems arising. Specifically:

- What pros and cons have you experienced when deciding to free range your flock?
- How do you keep your flock safe when out roaming?
- How do you ensure hens lay their eggs in the coop, instead of the garden/anywhere else they deem suitable?
- How do you train new rangers to return to the coop at night?

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What I've always done is just taken an hour in the morning and an hour at night to free-range and watch over them, before putting them back in their pen. This way, they get their fresh air and grass and bugs, but I don't risk any danger of a predator getting them or losing them

 

[lv9777]

i live in a neighborhood, but still let my girls run after work. This is usually only hour or so as it gets dark, but it is enough to keep them happy. They stay mostly in my backyard and put themselves to bed if I leave the coop open.