wandering birds

[Trakr]

I'm curous to know how far will chickens "roam" or "wander" from the coop if left to "do as they please" My concern is I dont want them wandering into the neighbors yard, which would be about 150 yards from the coop location

 

[DTchickens]

all depends on the birds.. but usually they will stay around their coop,

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Chickies generally do not wonder too far from the coop. They tend to form groups with a rooster in charge. If you notice during the day all the roos will crow and let all the other roos know where exactly they are. I hear this all day long. One will crow, another, then another all pretty much right after the other.

I am guessing this is their survival instinct. It is a rare occurrence that I see a group of birds that are out of visual range of the "coop".

I see them running towards the coop during the day and then when they stop they are with their group or another.

If you sit down and carefully watch them without them really knowing you are there the dynamics of it all makes a lot of sense. They seem to be very aware of where they are and where the rest of the groups are. One by one each group will go to the coop and go in at night.

A few roos will stay out and make sure everyone is in and then retire themselves. If you have more than one roo you will hear them calling their groups in.

I have one roo that seems to be in charge of the entire flock. He is ALWAYS the last one in. He gives a few crows, goes around the buildings and then goes in himself. I recently have noticed that he stays in front of the doorway and will not allow any one to go back out. I thought this was just a coincidence until I saw it every day for days on end.

 

[damselfish]

It depends on the chicken. We have wanderers, and we have homebodies.

Probably also depends on whether the neighbor's yard looks like it has tasty grass & bugs, and how high the fence is, if any. Have you talked to the neighbor about this possibility?

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Ours have ranged from one end of 5 acres to the other. Then they ran into fencing. We have different areas of the property fenced off. None of our flocks have cared about staying within sight of the coop. They do when they're young and don't know their way around, but as they mature and explore, they gain confidence.

I think they eat all the bugs and tastiest vegetation closest to the coop first. Then they work their way outward. They tend to work particular areas more intensively for a day or two, then move on to a new favorite.

 

[ams3651]

i had to fence mine in for this reason. Every week it seemed they went a little further till they were in the tall grass behind my neighbor across the road and he threatened to let his dog loose.

 

[Chickenaddict]

Mine never stay put, we put up a chicken wire fence on one side of the yard last summer because they were hanging out in the neighbors garage. They have crossed the road to hang out in the woods, they have been alll over. This spring we will be putting fencing on the other side of the back yard completely encosing it so they have no choice but to stay in the yard. Too many large dogs running loose around here to take chances any more

 

[gritsar]

Mine wander where they please on 80 acres. I keep an eye out and if they wander too close to a neighbor's house (which is about 5 acres away in one direction) I round them up; otherwise they'd be down there bugging her for treats too.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the other posts and to add that I think some breeds may tend to wander more than other breeds. I have several acres. I have my birds fenced in a nice big area, because they wander into my gardens and scratch and eat everything up in the gardens.

 

[chicken_dude]

Light breed chickens range far. The heavy breeds dont stray far from the chicken coop. Lakenvelders and Hamburgs stray far and lay their eggs far from the coop.