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15 Feb ’12
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I'm thinking of taking a chance with it this year. Do you clip their wings so they aren't on top of the roof and in trees? They still laying their eggs in nest boxes or is it a easter egg hunt every day? I keep reading people saying how free range is great for bug control in the garden, anyone with experience?
19 Feb ’12
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We have 3 chickens that we free range in our front yard. We have a 4 foot split rail fence with wire fencing stapled to the inside. We clipped the wings on 2 of ours. The 3 rd just follows them around. We have found them outside the fence maybe 4 times.
They all lay eggs in a little house i made them for winter. Never have to search for eggs. I have some raised beds in my front yard that we had to wrap with chicken wire to keep them from eating our garden. As long as they have enough feed and scratch they don't act out. I recently cut back on bought feed since its spring and all the bugs are here. They started jumping the fence and one even ran up and bit my leg. We upped the food and no more getting out.
18 Mar ’12
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My in-laws next door have around 200+ free range layers year round and do about 50+ meat birds annually. We refer to the chicken barn as the chicken-ma hall, its big and hugely over engineered. They sell eggs from the store in the main barn and deliver the rest to the local natural foods store.
No clipped wings, keep the barn clean and well stocked with food and water. Not many Easter egg hunts but it does happen form time to time. I find they want to lay eggs in the nest boxes as thats where they feel safe. They love ashes from the wood stove.
19 Feb ’12
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I've been looking at coop designs lately, preparing for my eventual introduction into chickens. I would love to free range my birds, but unfortunately I have a nesting pair of red tailed hawks that nest in the woods about 25 yards from my house, so I figure free range birds would be a bad idea for me. I've seen them take down a rabbit in my front yard before, so chickens would be an easy meal for them.
19 Feb ’12
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We have plenty of hawks flying around also. We even had a big ass owl that would show up every night on a fence post and just stare at our yard and raised beds.
The chickens are fairly big, I worry more about a dog jumping the fence and getting them.
My co-worker had some chickens a few different times, he always said something kept "getting them"
17 Feb ’12
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What would be the necessary start up items aside from the birds? I'm thinking maybe a coop and some feed and thats it......but I wouldnt know. I'd like to get about 4 chickens to roam my yard and experiment with freeranging them and at the end of the summer I'd have them butchered.
15 Feb ’12
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I think B17 free ranges at his dads and they lose quite a bit he was saying to predators
18 Mar ’12
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We had a problem last year with a large female coyote coming to close to the barns and we lost a lot of chickens. It took a while but my father in law got a shot off at it and must have killed it. We never found the carcass but we never saw it again. Last year was the first time since we stated free ranging that we did not have a territorial k9 keeping an eye on things. We have dogs but nothing currently that will do any work around the place.
A few years ago we kept finding sick chickens that would die in a day or two. After some investigation we found that a weasel was sucking the blood out of them. Finally one of the dogs got a hold of it and problem solved. I dont think we have ever lost any to a hawk, eagle or owl.
In my opinion nothing tastes better than a fresh free range egg.
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