What age to let chickens out to forage ?

[shmccarthy]

We live in upstate SC - lots of coyotes, hawks, bears, snakes, pet dogs - (we have 2 one yr old shipoos and a 12 yo lab who KNOWS he is a bird dog....). We have several acres and would LOVE to free range some during the day but are concerned - esp. about coyotes and dogs. Figure it is impossible here. Anyone else live in an area like that and successfully free range?

We are raising dual purpose heavy and more docile breeds.

Our current plan is just to build lg predator proof runs and maybe even be able to plant and rotate runs eventually. Our oldest are about 2 1/2 mos. and youngest are just hatched.

Thanks. BTW I love reading y'alls free range experiences and seeing the pics. I am living vicariously!

Amanda



I

I live in farm town Michigan, next to 600 acres of woods. You almost can't get more country! Lol

I free range my chickens every day, and haven't had a problem so far. Because of my location, we have a lot of hawks, eagles, raccoons, weasels, possums, coyotes,some rattlers, and stray cats and dogs. A majority of these predators are mainly nocturnal, but the ones we see during the day, we're allowed to shoot on sight. We end up getting rid of so many raccoons and possums, that we hardly even see them at all anymore.
The others, like the raptors, and the snakes, we see a bit less often, but we scare them away. My yard also has a lot of trees and cover so when the rooster sounds the alarm, all the girls know to find a spot to hide. When I'm outside with them, he usually sees the raptors before I do, and makes sure all 24 of his girls get to safety. I stick around the house when they're out and usually leave the back door sliding door open so I can keep an eye on them and just listen to them. My 3 year old lab likes to watch over them too and gets really concerned if he hears the rooster alarm.

We have a roaming pack of coyotes that we see just about every week, there's around 13 in this pack and more in the pack that lives on the other side of the 600 acres. My neighbors also have chickens and lost half their flock to a yote that got into the coop and killed most of them for fun. They asked if I could wait in the loft of their barn that overlooks the coop but the coyote never came back surprisingly.

Those are just some of my experiences with free ranging, and the predators, where I live. Not all experiences will be the same, but it can definitely be done. The biggest things I would suggest is to just be prepared for anything and everything. We have a loaded gun by the back door, in case we need to fend off a raccoon or scare off another animal. It's also good to make sure the chickens have places to hide if they need to. And I suggest a trail camera, on the coop. That way you can check it in the mornings, or whenever, and see if anything has been visiting the coop in the night and you can plan what you want to do from there.
After losing an entire flock of chickens to a single coyote, we learned from it and now take measured to ensure something like that doesn't happen again. Good luck and I hope you find something that works for you!

 

[auto5man]

Too little to be let out on 3 1/2 acres in my opinion, because of predators IMO. I like my young chickens to get outside time too, though, here is my grow out procedure: Keep them indoors under the lamp until they feather out. They will let you know when they outgrow this arrangement....they will start flying out and perching on the tub rim, etc. At this point I put them outside in a dog kennel run its 10x20. I have a coop in the run too but they are too young and timid know what its four, I catch them and bring them back indoors at night, they are perfecting perching and roosting now on boards across the rubbermaid tub. At this point they are about 6-8 weeks old. They are still not to smart in the ways of the world, lol. Yesterday it rained HARD, and instead of going to shelter under the coop they stood there in the rain getting soaked. I let this go on for about 30 minutes to see how they would handle it, then caught them and put them inside for the afternoon. As soon as they start going inside the coop they will figure out to use the perches on their own, then I will let them roost outside in the coop INSIDE the pen. This period will go on for several months, the main goal being acclimate the established flock (which have the run of my city lot sized backyard) to the pullets. The flock can see the pullets in the dog kennel but can't go inside. I forget how long this period takes, but they will be almost fully grown, roosting in the coop at night, and foraging in the pen all day. At this point I let them mix with the big girls. I know this wouldn't work for everyone's situation, but just trying to describe how I do it.

In your situation with the large acreage, I think I would construct a grow out pen. Get a dog kennel pen like mine, you can get them off craigslist for good deals. They truly do enjoy "free ranging" in inside the pen and not being "cooped up".

 

[shmccarthy]

Too little to be let out on 3 1/2 acres in my opinion, because of predators IMO. I like my young chickens to get outside time too, though, here is my grow out procedure:  Keep them indoors under the lamp until they feather out. They will let you know when they outgrow this arrangement....they will start flying out and perching on the tub rim, etc. At this point I put them outside in a dog kennel run its 10x20. I have a coop in the run too but they are too young and timid know what its four, I catch them and bring them back indoors at night, they are perfecting perching and roosting now on boards across the rubbermaid tub. At this point they are about 6-8 weeks old. They are still not to smart in the ways of the world, lol. Yesterday it rained HARD, and instead of going to shelter under the coop they stood there in the rain getting soaked. I let this go on for about 30 minutes to see how they would handle it, then caught them and put them inside for the afternoon. As soon as they start going inside the coop they will figure out to use the perches on their own, then I will let them roost outside in the coop INSIDE the pen. This period will go on for several months, the main goal being acclimate the established flock (which have the run of my city lot sized backyard) to the pullets. The flock can see the pullets in the dog kennel but can't go inside.  I forget how long this period takes, but they will be almost fully grown, roosting in the coop at night, and foraging in the pen all day. At this point I let them mix with the big girls. I know this wouldn't work for everyone's situation, but just trying to describe how I do it. 

In your situation with the large acreage, I think I would construct a grow out pen. Get a dog kennel pen like mine, you can get them off craigslist for good deals. They truly do enjoy "free ranging" in inside the pen and not being "cooped up".

I totally agree with you. I forgot to add I don't let them free range until they are close to the size of my adults.
Lol mine did the same thing the first time it rained. There was a down pour and they all just stood in the rain until I went out there and put them in the hen house. I have a chain link dog fence as well and I really like that, a lot more than the coop and hardware cloth we had 3 years ago. Chain link just seems so much sturdier.

 

[NestingHillsSC]

This is a 32x64 area. I put them out there when they were 2 weeks old. Sooner the better!

 

[centrarchid]

This is a 32x64 area. I put them out there when they were 2 weeks old. Sooner the better!

How do you keep hawks from harvesting small chicks? Mine at least require cover which you do not appear to have and / or some sort of hawk aggressive animal as guardian.

 

[GFamily]

This is a 32x64 area. I put them out there when they were 2 weeks old. Sooner the better!

I actually agree. First off, I'm TX so the temps are warmer here to begin with, but my girls feathered out much quicker because I took them from the brooder to the coop within 4 weeks and by week 4 people thought they were older than they actually were because they had feathered out more than a 4 week old chick. I learned that from an OT'er on the Texas thread and it worked. I don't know if you could do that in all climates, but in Texas it's warm so I was able to without being worried of them killing over from the cold and not having enough feathers.

 

[dpuleo]

We live in upstate SC - lots of coyotes, hawks, bears, snakes, pet dogs - (we have 2 one yr old shipoos and a 12 yo lab who KNOWS he is a bird dog....). We have several acres and would LOVE to free range some during the day but are concerned - esp. about coyotes and dogs. Figure it is impossible here. Anyone else live in an area like that and successfully free range?

We are raising dual purpose heavy and more docile breeds.

Our current plan is just to build lg predator proof runs and maybe even be able to plant and rotate runs eventually. Our oldest are about 2 1/2 mos. and youngest are just hatched.

Thanks. BTW I love reading y'alls free range experiences and seeing the pics. I am living vicariously!

Amanda



I

We live in Fountain Inn, SC! Great place to raise chickens!

 

[dsf8854]

My girls are 8 weeks old. They love to get out and forage in the large back yard, they stay pretty close to their coop. Black Betty is the hardest one to get back in, but she's starting to understand.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

If they had a momma and access to outside she would be taking them around outside when they are still pretty tiny. If they come running when you show up with the food, then it might be worth it to let them out for some supervised play-time to see how they manage ... then make a decision based on that? Do this later in the day ... they will be eager to get back to their roosts at bedtime, which will make the roundup a bit easier? They might need to be helped a bit to figure out how to navigate back home the first few times? They seem to be confused by wire fencing ... they can see where they want to be, but get frustrated when they can't take a shortcut through the fence?

Everyone's flock and setup is so unique it is hard to give definitive advice. But I wouldn't necessarily worry about them being "too little" for some play time. Though the little ones do seem to be faster!

About chicks being fast: if you ever have a strong urge to chase a chicken, I'd advise to NOT chase it *away* from the coop. I find luring them with treats way more effective than chasing, but not everyone here agrees with me on this. In my opinion, chasing chickens is mostly unproductive and seems to stress everyone out. But if you must chase, keep the chicken between you and the coop.

Maybe the best way to catch a chicken is with a small child ... little kids seem to be able to walk right up to our hens and pick them up without any fuss at all. Amazing!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I actually agree. First off, I'm TX so the temps are warmer here to begin with, but my girls feathered out much quicker because I took them from the brooder to the coop within 4 weeks and by week 4 people thought they were older than they actually were because they had feathered out more than a 4 week old chick. I learned that from an OT'er on the Texas thread and it worked. I don't know if you could do that in all climates, but in Texas it's warm so I was able to without being worried of them killing over from the cold and not having enough feathers.

Even here, in the middle of our coldest part of last winter, when all the waterers were getting frozen, the brand-new baby chicks spent a lot of time running around away from momma. As long as they have a place to go to warm up, I believe in giving them access to as much space as possible. In our "artificial" brooder coop, I have made a protected area with the heat lamps, and an opening so they can get out to the rest of the coop. In all but the nasties weather, I keep the coop door open to the pasture so they can get outside if they want. I think it makes stronger, smarter, calmer, healthier birds compared to birds brooded in a box inside the house. And they do seem to mature faster.