What age to let chickens out to forage ?

[fowlmouthgirls]

I just tried to get my oldest girls 5-6 weeks, to come outside just to look around. They all sat t the door and stared at me. Lol. I guess i will have to keep doing the chickens in a tub, to, and from the coop!

 

[nagy53]

We kept our chicks in the garage till they had full feathers. Then moved them to the coop with a run that's covered and closed. We let them free range at three months I think. No fence, totally free range. We leave the run door open with water in the run. We live right next to a state part (6feet) with lots of predators. I think we only lost 1 to a hawk out of 21 chickens and 5 guiness.
We lock them up good before dusk!!!! Don't feed them in the afternoon and then they will come in at dinner time. In the summer we only feed them at night due to free range diet. We keep them free range on our pasture. They prefer the woods.
This is our coop we build last summer: good luck

 

[foxmfan1]

its funny my ladies are or have become creatures of habit, They put themselves up at 8.30 pm lol like a clock. they have a tractor coop, so Ill move it around every day, depending on our schedule, my bf and I will always let them forage as much as possible, we can let them out at noon, at two at six, but like clockwork, at 8.30 pm, they percaww, each other, to get into the coop and settle in for bed. and then they will percaw and peeeqwakkk at us until we close them in for the night, My ladies have put themselves on a sunup to sundown schedule. Yours will probably too.

 

[Homestead girl]

I put the game camera in the coop for the last two days ,cause I had a lot of EE loosing feathers at first I thought I had mites or lice. I was really freaking out. cause I keep the coop clean. Well the camera does not lie. I have seven EE roos. and they are really fighting or establishing who will rule the roost. they are only 8 weeks old. So I am going to try to trim the beaks on them. I don't want to have to cage them this early .Since you have a rooster do you think that might work to slow down them pecking each other at the moment. I do know which roo is the most aggressive. I thought of just removing him. But they are still so young. Is this normal for them?

 

[Homestead girl]

I just tried to get my oldest girls 5-6 weeks, to come outside just to look around. They all sat t the door and stared at me. Lol. I guess i will have to keep doing the chickens in a tub, to, and from the coop!

Mine race to the door when they see me coming and I always call out Hey girls what's up how you doin this morning or afternoon. All 29 of them run to the door. I have to be careful cause they will come out the door and then of course follow me back in. But I am just scared to let all of them out at the same time. I let four out the other day and they did very well I will try again in a couple of days.

 

[Homestead girl]

I have 13 chicks that are about 6 weeks old, I've been letting them free range(with me out there) for over a week now. Of course, I have a working dog who herds them all to me when I'm ready to put them back! I just say "Alright Nell, let's round 'em up" and she herds them right to me so I can scoop them up and bring them back to the brooder...but tomorrow is their last day living in the brooder.

I would like to train my German Shepherd to do that, She just likes to spook them to see them fly around in the coop . Which of course she knows is a big no no. She also chases birds in the yard and the squirrels . So I will have to put her on a leash when I let the pullets and roos out of the coop. I hope she learns that she can't hurt them or chase them .

 

[Homestead girl]

Great question! I have three year old hens that have never free ranged, and 3 month old chicks, and I just finished fencing in the back yard so the chickens can free range. So I've been wondering this too!
I've noticed that when hawks fly over, my hens don't even notice! But the chicks scramble around and find cover! They are all in covered pens. Because of this thread, I am going to start letting some of the bigger chicks out occassionally to see how they do.

I t does make your worry , we have a lot of red tailed hawks here, and coyote, fox. and roaming dogs. So I do worry just a little bit..

 

[fowlmouthgirls]

Mine won't follow me! I think it's because my 3 yr old is always jumping around and they are a little scared of her, I try to tell her she has to be calm, but she's 3, way worse than 2 in my opinion! I will try again tomorrow, maybe with a little bird seed bribery, lol

 

[Homestead girl]

Thanks , He is a beautiful rooster. I will try the watermelon for sure.

 

[Homestead girl]

mine are now 9 wks old and have been out for the past week. However, what we did is we added another pophole to the coop, fenced off a small section of the run and lined a cage up with that pophole on the inside of the coop so they have their own "safe place" inside the coop away from the big girls, have their own little sun porch, ramp and play yard but are able to see the big girls (no roos) and everyone gets locked in at night more or less together. It also allows me to control what they eat better (keeps them out of the layer feed and keeps the girls from eating all the chick/grower feed). I'll give this arrangement another week or two before I allow them to mix. My girls are only allowed to "free range" in my garden area where they are protected by several fences. We live in a rather wild area where there are just too many preds to allow them to wander on their own. Neighbor does that and has to constantly keep "re-stocking". Sounds bad, but she's feeding the wild things so so far I haven't had any problems.

I am with you on the free range thing. We have 400 acre hunting preserve in front of us and then 750 acres going up the mountain behind us. We do not have the property fenced in yet. So critters can come and go as they please. I will have to stay out side with them when they forage. If I can train my German Shepherd to not eat them. She is a pretty smart dog. Trains fairly easy . We rescued her in September. She about 2 1/2 now . Lots of puppy in her still.
I like the way you keep your chickens separate I will remember that in the future. Great Idea.