# Free range good or bad



## Nelsonboyz (Apr 20, 2015)

Just want to see what y'all think about free range wit your flock


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

I free range my laying flock when I'm home during the spring/summer/fall. Basically as soon as the predators start fattening up for winter the birds are locked up and they aren't released until the predators have whelped their pups.

I do not free range my show birds, bantams, or turkeys.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Hey, Fiere, how many posts have we read that the family pet was the predator? 

Like she said, free ranging is wonderful for you and the birds as long as the predator load is low. Most of us don't think of the family dog or cat. My dogs are good with the birds but my cat would kill one in a heart beat.


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## WhitecatFarm (Oct 10, 2014)

I free range every one. Lock down at night , out in the AM. I have had fox trouble in the past but not recently. Roosters and guinea fowl help. Raccoons at night until I got my coop tightened up. Mr. Shotgun helps, too


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## powderhogg01 (Jun 4, 2013)

6 of one half dozen of the other for me. I have kept them both ways... free ranging they ate my garden... jump the fence and forage my neighbors for food, in return leaving eggs over the fence for them where I can not get them. When I kept them in the secure run I got a lot more eggs, and my birds lived longer lives due to less availability of predators. this season has been a tough one... I saw a bunch of ***** last night about a mile from home...which is nothing to a marauding pack of hungry *****...
with that said, I have found hawks in my secure run, also had lots of small wild birds getting stuck in there, as well as a **** once... the **** went through the chicken wire wall and aparently could not get back out its same hole after having ate a chicken feast... needless to say... that **** got caught with his hand in the pickle jar and paid the price.
I think the best method I have seen is the pasture pens... that can be moved over fresh grass daily... thats my end goal.. though it is a ways off.


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## hennypenney (May 21, 2015)

I let mine free range for awhile. I like doing that and sure they do too! There were some issues.1. My hubby's garden, they were blamed for any plant parts missing! Haha. 2. They would go over to the neighbors house. Not good. 3. Pooped all over walkways and messed up our landscaping a bit. They have it pretty good though with a field out back to roam. They just can't come out front. They do get locked up every night. Free range or not.


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## MichaelZ (Feb 27, 2015)

I am not one to want to lose 1 bird, so I free range my meat birds in an enclosed chicken tractor that is half covered with chicken wire and half with metal roofing. At night I push them all into the metal portion and close it up. I don't trust chicken wire overnight - I have had predators tear through it to eat my sons rabbit. I don't think I would dare free range unless I had a guard dog like a Pyrenees - our neighbor free ranges her layers and is doing very well that way - before she got her Pyrenees she would periodically lose many of her chickens. And her chickens will generally spend the night in her coop, mostly in an elevated area.

And our cat would eat chicks and chickens too. She ate much of an adult rabbit that was as big as her! The rabbit made the mistake of thinking the shed with the tiny cat door would make a nice home.


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## Jabberwocky (Oct 7, 2013)

Mine are free range in the back yard. Out side of an excitable pup. (I am nursing one roo whom was chased over the fence and got hurt by the neighbors dog) I have not had any real troubles with the predators.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

Mine free range when i am home only. When we are not home they have their own area fenced in . Once home we let them loose in the acre property. Two dogs are good with them one wants to eat them so I'm doubly careful


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