Question about free-rangeing

[Mrs. K]

The words 'free ranging' have totally different meanings, depending on your own personal set up. Some people consider free ranging letting them out on the back yard. Where as mine is thousands of acres of pasture land.

And what you consider free ranging will also be considered by your predators.

I have lost over the years, a lot of birds to free ranging. Sometimes I don't go down early in the morning, just so I won't be tempted to let them out.

Do KNOW in your BONES - they always get your favorite bird.

My rule of thumb:

• Don't let them out every day
• don't let them out at the same time
• don't let them out if rainy, cloudy or windy - this gives advantages to the predators
• don't let them out AT ALL if you have been hit by a predator, predators come back

Always have enough space in the coop/run to fit the flock YOU HAVE RIGHT NOW. Do not think that free ranging for a couple of hours can make up for too tight of coop/run.

Mrs K

 

[JnAP]

I'm following along here, as I am also trying to figure out how to work the free range/forage situation once I get my flock going!

 

[NicholeT]

We are currently free ranging with an automatic door so Sun up to Sun down. I have 13 hens and 1 rooster all black sex link. We have 7 acres but they tend to prefer human contact so stay around the house and yard. I love that they are free range, they love that they are free range but we know and understand the risks involved and that we will eventually have losses.

Our biggest issues by far are 3 fold-
-Poop where you don't want it (driveway, deck, patio, walkway)
-Foraging in our planting beds and kicking out the mulch with no real way to deter them (looking for a solution if anyone has any)
-Wandering into the road- its not often but it happens...again with no real way to deter them

 

[RebelFord81]

I switch up when I let them out as far as time, they never wander farther then 60 feet from the coop. The front of the coop is open the back is under trees in the woods. Our pullets don't wander more then 10-15 feet from the coop lol they go back in to lay their eggs and then pop back out so luckily I don't have to hunt for them.

 

[JnAP]

When y'all let them free range, you leave the door to the run and/or coop open, right, so they can get to safety if they need or want to?

 

[RebelFord81]

When y'all let them free range, you leave the door to the run and/or coop open, right, so they can get to safety if they need or want to?

Yes plus then they have access to food, water and nesting boxes as they please

 

[mossyoakpro]

I'm fairly new to the chicken keeping extravaganza but I normally let mine out about an hour after daylight every day if the weather cooperates...my house sits in the middle of farm fields so fortunately my land predators will have to come across a lot of open country to get at my flock. I trap every winter so my predator load is pretty low since I keep after them although I do have a fox prowling around at night that I can't seem to catch

When they started laying I kept them penned up a couple days to make sure they were using the coop nest boxes but unfortunately I have 3 that prefer my carport. I did put a milk crate in there for them and they use it every day like clock work. So right now I don't have any "hidden" nests going on that I know of. The run stays open for access to food and water and I have numerous water stations around that gets freshened up every day. When they don't get to go out because of being away or bad weather there is a LOT of whining and general discontent in the coop....LOL

I plan to get a neighbor to open and close the pen and gather eggs for me when I am going to be gone for more than one night although Ted the cockerel will probably be a jerk to a stranger....

 

[RebelFord81]

I'm fairly new to the chicken keeping extravaganza but I normally let mine out about an hour after daylight every day if the weather cooperates...my house sits in the middle of farm fields so fortunately my land predators will have to come across a lot of open country to get at my flock. I trap every winter so my predator load is pretty low since I keep after them although I do have a fox prowling around at night that I can't seem to catch

When they started laying I kept them penned up a couple days to make sure they were using the coop nest boxes but unfortunately I have 3 that prefer my carport. I did put a milk crate in there for them and they use it every day like clock work. So right now I don't have any "hidden" nests going on that I know of. The run stays open for access to food and water and I have numerous water stations around that gets freshened up every day. When they don't get to go out because of being away or bad weather there is a LOT of whining and general discontent in the coop....LOL

I plan to get a neighbor to open and close the pen and gather eggs for me when I am going to be gone for more than one night although Ted the cockerel will probably be a jerk to a stranger....

To be fair most Cockrells are lol

 

[Red Mangrove]

When y'all let them free range, you leave the door to the run and/or coop open, right, so they can get to safety if they need or want to?

The door to my coop is always cracked open around 6 inches. Hens go inside to lay and sit on eggs occasionally, but typically they prefer making their own nests outside

Overall I think my birds are much safer sleeping in trees than the coop. When a predator does attack they just fly away to another tree. If they were locked inside of a coop any predator attack would be a death sentence

 

[MCHH-Ken]

I vary the time of day I let my chickens out so predators won't be waiting for them and keep them behind 3 strands of electric fence .The more you protect them the better the odds a predator won't kill them all.I added 15 more chickens to my flock after deciding to let them out of their contained run

Comment to your note that your “hens lay eggs everywhere”. They much rather lay eggs in a nest box and 6 to 8 will share a common nest. You just need to keep it clean & dry with a good fescue AstroTurf nest pad that you can get from HomeDepot. Also you need to prevent the gals from sleeping in the nest boxes by blocking the entrance in the late afternoon before it starts getting dark then unblock them first this in the morning They’ll have all of your eggs laid nicely in piles in the nest boxes by noon or just after. We have several hundref hens about the time they are old enough to lay with about 50 nests. We’ll find a few eggs here & there but the majority are in the boxes.