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Welcome to all the new members! Please check out my signature (I'm on my cell so I don't have the link) and add yourself to our chicken railroad map! :)
 
Question: (#2.. Hopefully my last one of the day)

How did you get started with free ranging? We have our chickens in a small temp run/ coop. I would like for them to be able to hang out on the property during the day. Whenever I go to the coop and open the run they try and get out but they seem to hang out in the coop a lot. We do have hawks, so maybe that is why they hide?

We have a pretty big fenced back yard area. Should I start with letting them in there? Or just give them the whole 2.6 acres right away. And how do I get them to go back in at night? Or will they just know to go to the coop. I'm not looking forward to chasing them around trying to herd them back to the coop but I'm sure that's probably what will have to happen.
 
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nuttinfancy said:
I would like to suggest that you call the State Vet and have him tested. You may be dealing with a respiratory issue and it could make all your birds carriers. I recently lost over 30 chickens that had to be culled because of MS (mycoplasma synoviae). From reading here, you have invested a lot into lots of different breeds and I would hate to see you lose them all by not finding out. Some of your symptoms sound similar to what mine experienced. Another bit of info, if you all visit each others farms, you can spread this stuff to everyone. I hope for you it isn't anything serious but if it were me, I would have to know.
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I looked it up and it doesn't sound at all like what the two guys have going on. I do have them isolated and have started antibiotics for them. Thanks for the suggestions. No such thing as too much input. :)
 
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LingaB said:
Question: (#2.. Hopefully my last one of the day)

How did you get started with free ranging? We have our chickens in a small temp run/ coop. I would like for them to be able to hang out on the property during the day. Whenever I go to the coop and open the run they try and get out but they seem to hang out in the coop a lot. We do have hawks, so maybe that is why they hide?

We have a pretty big fenced back yard area. Should I start with letting them in there? Or just give them the whole 2.6 acres right away. And how do I get them to go back in at night? Or will they just know to go to the coop. I'm not looking forward to chasing them around trying to herd them back to the coop but I'm sure that's probably what will have to happen.
Click to expand...

I started with mine inside of a small back yard with 6-foot high privacy fence. They never got out of that, so they didn't free range beyond that. When I brought them to my sister's house, I put them in an old dog kennel - 6'x10' and 6 feet high. They saw everything beyond the fence of that kennel, and figured out how to fly up to the edge. At first they just roosted there, then they started to get out completely. I didn't have anything else for them, so I let them go from then on. I lost my white plymouth rocks within the first few months, and then everything calmed down. Then spring came around last year and I lost more. All those critters waking up from hibernation took it's toll on my flock. That's when I really started to incubate eggs to replace my own birds.

All predators stopped once I killed a king snake that kept visiting, and put them in the big pen made out of sheet metal from a large above-ground pool (we used 4x4's to hold up the sides). It has a hardware cloth over the top to stop hawks and it's about 21 feet by 17 feet.

We also set out live traps. But those didn't catch too much until now, when they seem to be catching every possible possum out there.

But finally, Skeeter and his girls learned to roost WAY up in the trees - about 20 feet off of the ground. And that stopped the attacks on them completely. HOWEVER, the silkies are still in a weak pen on the ground and I lost two last week. The Sumatras are now in that old dog kennel with a tarp over the top, but one got attacked through the fence and beheaded. But all of these happened at night.

So that's how I went from penned up to free-ranging, and I'm not going to say it works that well. But then mine don't have a separate completely enclosed coop to stay in at night, either. Yours would probably be fine. And if they've been in the coop for at least a week already, they should come right back to it at night.

Just be sure you close it each night.
 
Almost forgot - just one week left until the remainder of my chicks are here! I REALLY HOPE they don't call me on Friday and say there has been an issue and it is delayed again. I want my little bantam babies NOW. Not to mention all of the large fowl that I had to order to replace ones that died in transit, or that I lost soon after.
 
@carcar80 I know this was a few pages ago, but you should look into the varieties of leghorn for a colorful white egg layer. We have an Exchequer Leghorn that is now 2 months old.

She is the white with black markings on the left. This was taken about month ago. I need to update my pics. She is very pretty though.
This is a picture from the Meyer's website where we got her:
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