Author Topic: Free ranging (Read 7423 times)

Carey boy · « **Reply #15 on:** May 25, 2015, 10:31:35 am »

Hi,

I think I must be missing the point here. Is someone saying "FREE RANGING HEN'S" and NOT shutting them up at night?

Dave

Kimbo · « **Reply #16 on:** May 25, 2015, 12:31:09 pm »

well that would be entirely possible on a completely free range system, although not something I would advocate. But I do know several people who don't shut their hens in at night, their hens having taken to roosting in trees ( Im pretty sure someone on here mentioned that somewhere and foxes waiting for the hens to come down in the morning). There is also a hen rescue site near to here where the hens have cabins but they are permanently open and there are no runs either, so they aren't locked up at night either

devonlady · « **Reply #17 on:** May 25, 2015, 04:44:54 pm »

I had a run made, almost the size of a football pitch. Deer fencing, the hated barbed wire every two feet up the wire and also running across the top. It worked fine for a couple of years and then the entire flock of my beloved Indian Game birds were killed. I had been breeding them for years, concentrating on type, temperament and fertility and was getting somewhere when in a single afternoon they were all gone

I have not had the heart to start again.
I keep saying this is the last time but if it were I would never eat an egg or a chicken again. I have tried other peoples free rangers and supermarket free range/organic eggs but can't enjoy them.

Kimbo · « **Reply #18 on:** May 25, 2015, 07:00:56 pm »

that's so sad. It must have been dreadful after all your hard work. Theres clearly no such thing as genuinely fox-proof chicken accommodation

Carey boy · « **Reply #19 on:** May 25, 2015, 07:54:12 pm »

Hi,

If you don't shut you hen's up at night a fox will kill then, not if but when. If you do shut you hens up at night and there is a long period of frost a fox will have a go any time of the day it needs food.

Dave

ryaldinhio · « **Reply #20 on:** May 25, 2015, 09:54:01 pm »

Thanks for all the replies. . . . .as with the written articles many differing views! I have decided to make a pen/run for the chickens. Its about 5m x 5m on grass, for 6 chickens. They will be kept in this if we are not around but allowed to 'free range' the garden when we are about gardening etc.

The deciding factor for me was my little girl finding a beheaded pigeon in the garden yesterday, it didnt bother her, but I just had a vision of that being her favourite hen! As someone posted previously Id be kicking myself if I couldve done more. If mr fox starts coming snooping I will be sitting up waiting for him and his tail will be hung in my shed!!! Hopefully shouldnt be a problem, plenty of rabbits around here for him not to need to take a risk coming in our garden and possibly find our 3 dogs unless he is desperate.

gwern · « **Reply #21 on:** May 25, 2015, 10:39:26 pm »

go for it - shut them up for a few days in the run during the day and house during the night. then let them out for a few hours before dark so they know where to got to bed.
Make sure they are shut up safe in house not just in the wire run. I have lost 8 hens in the last week the fox found/made a hole in the wire run and helped its self. Having not been touched for the last two years.

doganjo · « **Reply #22 on:** May 25, 2015, 10:48:16 pm »

Foxes do the same round every night and wait for an opportunity.

HappyHippy · « **Reply #23 on:** May 26, 2015, 12:23:43 am »

My chickens are completely free range and aren't locked in at night, preferring to roost in the rafters of our shed (we don't clip their wings).
We did have a secure run and section of shed for them.....badgers ripped through the wire netting and killed most of them

They have a coop with nest boxes but queue for an old sink in broad daylight to lay and generally ignore all the things chickens are *supposed* to do

We've got foxes in the area (I see them all too regularly) but the smell of the pigs seems to keep them at bay, badgers sadly seem oblivious to pigs.
Saying all that, it's worth having a good secure run for all the reasons mentioned. Once you get to know your hens you'll know what suits best for them and the area they live

Kimbo · « **Reply #24 on:** May 26, 2015, 09:17:55 am »

good luck and enjoy your hens! We started with them only 6 months ago and they have added hugely to our life. Im sure your children will love them

Jukes Mum · « **Reply #25 on:** May 26, 2015, 10:45:26 am »

When we have a new batch to free range, we either pop them in the new hut at bedtime and release them in the morning, or if they have to be moved during the day, we just shut them in the new shed for an hour or two. They have always found their way back at bedtime.
We have found that keeping a cockerel with them does stop them wondering too far- poor lad seems to spend his life rounding them up

Marches Farmer · « **Reply #26 on:** May 26, 2015, 11:25:11 am »

Guinea fowl kept with hens are good at sounding the alarm. We raised ours in the farmhouse and they came to call and roosted in their own pen every night after being locked in for three weeks. We call our free range hens into the run with a handful of grain in the evening so they're close by and shoo them into the henhouse later if necessary. If left to their own devices they'd probably still be scratching in the muckheap at 10 p.m.