Opinions on supervised free range?

[Quailberries]

Ok, so here's my situation-

Right now I have two 2-1/2 week pullets and two 1/2 week old pullets. They're housed separately right now, and we're planning to introduce them to each other pretty soon, and hopefully have them all outside in the coop by very late April/early May. While we still have a good ways to go before they're out, my family is starting to bring up a large decision... run or free range?

Well, ok, "free range". Our town ordinance forbids "true" free-range hens, so really i'm just talking about the highly supervised type- assuming our neighbors let us get away with it .

While we're leaning towards supervised free ranging our hens rather than using a run, there's still a large concern for us with the predators in our area. We have...

• Hawks- biggest concern. There's so many of them around us... too many.
• Possums- they pop into our yard maybe once every 3 months or so, but it's usually at night and they run at even the smallest movement from inside our house.
• Owls and other larger birds- I haven't seen them around here, but they definitely exist in my area.
• Raccoons- Again, haven't seen one, but they're bound to exist- or start existing once we get the chicks outside.
• Coyotes, foxes, etc.- We live about a block away from an entrance to a scenic trail, and while these animals don't usually stray too far from it I'm very open to the worst case scenario

Our plan would be to have the hens outside the coop as much as possible, probably for an hour+ before sundown. Would that be a safe option for us? Are the hawks usually scared of humans, or does that not matter if when it's hungry? How close do we need to be to them? Is this just a bad idea in general?

Thanks.

(also, is there a recommended age to start supervised free ranging?? So many questions...)

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You will be safe up until you are not. Could take a week, or could take years. It's the risk of free ranging.

You could invest in some movable poultry netting to control their area.

Trees can provide some protection from aerial predators. For other predators they can encourage them.

I generally let mine start ranging at 8-10 weeks. They generally don't go far until they are around 4-5 months. Than they can start to move away farther.

 

[lutherpug]

You will be safe up until you are not. Could take a week, or could take years. It's the risk of free ranging.

That, right there, is the truth.

When we got started with chickens we still lived in the city but our lot backed to woods. We had a 6' privacy fence and were comfortable letting our girls out to "free range" in the backyard when we were home-so, evenings and weekends. It wasn't foolproof by any means but we got lucky and never lost one. When we weren't home they were confined to a secure run attached to their coop. It was a reasonable trade off for us.

 

[Ghosty]

Sounds to me like you need a run anyway, if you are only going to supervise them outside for an hour a day.

 

[azygous]

You didn't ask, but I can tell you that it's safe to merge your two groups of chicks right now. I happen to have two groups myself and I just put them together today, as a matter of fact.

They are five days old (4) and two and a half-weeks old (2). The older chicks were stunned when meeting chicks half their size, stood perfectly still while the small fry came up to them and gave them a greeting peck on the head, and then everyone was running around together as if they had all come out of the same batch of eggs yesterday. It's been my experience that chicks don't get aware of differences until toward the end of the fourth week. Then it can get touchy to impossible to safely toss them all together.

My experience with hawks is that they are totally fearless of people. I do only supervised free ranging due to being in a wilderness area where the wildlife is far more numerous than humans. But on several occasions, I have had a hawk dive at the chickens standing right at my feet. Hawks are the most dangerous and unpredictable of all predators, and it's almost impossible to safely free range chickens and be confident a hawk won't nab one of them.

As for the other predators, raccoons can find the smallest most inconspicuous entry point that you may not even know exists until you hunt for it after finding chickens maimed and killed. Owls can fly through a very narrow unscreened vent under the eaves of the coop by folding its wings up as it goes through. Any crack left uncalked can admit a possum or weasel. Or rats and snakes. Bobcats and foxes are as agile at scaling fences as any domestic cat. Hot wire is a wise consideration if you have a lot of these wild animals around.

As for wildlife not noticing the chickens, they will.

 

[Quailberries]

Thank you all.

I should probably have mentioned that the coop we have does have a run... it’s just that we’d rather give them more space than less, and the run only just makes the cut in terms of square ft per bird.

As for right now, though, I think we’re just going to see how we feel when they get outside. My family has a habit of not sticking to plan, and something tells me we might end up with something wildly different than what we’re planning now.

As for the chicks, we are trying to get them together very soon. We’re thinking we might have to separate the brooder with hardware cloth for a while though, as one of the older chicks was acting pretty aggressive towards a younger one during a small encounter today. Wish us luck!!

 

[lutherpug]

Thank you all.

I should probably have mentioned that the coop we have does have a run... it’s just that we’d rather give them more space than less, and the run only just makes the cut in terms of square ft per bird.

As for right now, though, I think we’re just going to see how we feel when they get outside. My family has a habit of not sticking to plan, and something tells me we might end up with something wildly different than what we’re planning now.

As for the chicks, we are trying to get them together very soon. We’re thinking we might have to separate the brooder with hardware cloth for a while though, as one of the older chicks was acting pretty aggressive towards a younger one during a small encounter today. Wish us luck!!

If it were me, I would introduce them sooner rather than later. Do it when you can watch them for an hour or two if you have one you feel is being aggressive. Letting them get older will make it more
challenging. I’ve mixed 2 week olds with 2 day olds before without any headaches.

 

[chrissynemetz]

I used to think hawks were afraid of people... until last summer. A hawk swooped down and grabbed one of my hens with me standing not 8 feet away!

 

[azygous]

@lutherpug took the words right out of my brain. The longer you wait, the worse it will be. Take it from us who've raised a lot of chicks and have come to understand their sneaky ways that you don't wait until they've formed their little gangs and become insular. This occurs rapidly after four weeks of age. By age six weeks, they will not usually permit new chicks in their clique. The pecking order has been formed.

It is possible to discipline the aggressive chick. I wrote about the topic here. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aggressive-baby-chicks-and-how-to-stop-the-behavior.72029/

I learned this technique from my chickens. The older ones discipline the younger ones this way when they get out of line. A swift poke on the back when a chick goes after another chick with less than playful intentions will stop the behavior. If you anticipate the chick just as it's revving up to do it again, it's even more effective. A couple days of this, whenever you're observing your chicks, is enough to change the behavior.

The first chick I tried this technique on is now the most gentlemanly roo I've ever had.

 

[Chelsa'sChicks]

Hawks are the easiest to avoid in my opinion. Give your birds brush, trees, shrubs, anything to be under. I have a ridiculous amount of predators too, but I try to let them out any way. I will let my birds out when its raining. The storms are a little tough here and the predators never come out, but the hens love it cause all the worms do! Also I will put a talk radio out and make sure I am poking about every once in a while too. I have my boy dogs potty around the coop and farther out.. just some things I've done.