How do I start free-ranging my chickens?

[SilverLacedFarmChik]

I doused myself in fly spray, grabbed a beer and a lawn chair, and watched my chickens explore outside of the run this evening. Thanks to everyone for your advice and words of encouragement!

 

[CarnivalOfTheAnimals]

I'm almost embarrassed to answer since I'm so new to this...but I've already found that mine KNOW the bag of mealworm deluxe feed. I can let them out in the garden for a bit while I re-fill water or food trays or do a bit of cleaning of nest boxes or just let them wander around the garden. But as soon as I pour some of their mealworm feed into their tray, they all come running back into the coop.

 

[Idaho Chicken Bungalow]

Your flock is beautiful. The fly problem may subside a bit with the new ones hatching!

 

[link5885]

I live in New Zealand - and we are lucky, as we do not have the predators which you have in America - sure we do have hawks, and the Australian Magpie can be a pain in the neck. My husband and I have recently discovered that our adopted chicken is indeed a Suntan Bantam and that she is a hen. She now has a couple of friends, and they walk / play free range all day and they pretty much roam throughout our couple of acres.
As yet they don't always return to the coop at night, and I get anxious about it, but by the next morning they are out foriging in the orchard along with the Pukekos (in Australia they call them Purple Swamp Hens) and their chicks, and brouses around our pond. But they love spending time in our native bush, dust bathing, trying out their wings and generally having a good time.
Our cat sometimes hangs out with them when my hubby keeps them company, she seems to be jealous of any attention they get from him - but she leaves them completely alone - as she is more interested in catching mice and rats and terrorizing me by bringing them inside when they are dead.

When I was a teenager my parents had decided to get a couple of chickens, we owned approximately 5 acres of land, and the neighbour had told my mother how she had ordered 20 chickens from a battery hen farm, in order to give them a better life, and if we wanted half? My parents said yes, and on the day they were supposed to be delivered we were not home.
When we got home my parents were slightly horrified because instead of delivering 20 chickens somebody had dropped off 200 chickens!! Mum got on the phone rather quickly to ring all the local people in our area and by the end of the dy all the chickens had found a home, and we were left with our original 10 chickens. What we had not counted on was when we were putting them in the coop my Dad had built was that they couldn't walk!! So every morning before school my silings and I would take the chickens and put them down into the run for my mother to watch over them and every evening we had to put them back into the coop.
Luckily about half of the chickens were able to start walking in a few days and the other lot took about 1 to 2 weeks before they could go where they wished.
These chickens had an extraordinarily great life, but soon we had approximately 40 chickens as we had a very good rooster, and hens who would sneak off and lay a clutch of eggs, and would suddenly turn up with a dozen chicks (those were fun days watching those chicks happily learn to be chickens).
And yes, from time to time we kids would find clutches of stinky rotten eggs which our parents told us to get rid off - which was rather gross....

I have my suspicions that our bantams are going to become very spoiled pets!!