PingoBags
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Letting chickens roam

Thinking about getting some chicks to raise. Plan on making a custom coop with a run but would like to let them roam around during the day.
Will I need to fence them in since I live next to a road or will they stay close to home?
I only have one neighbour but there is a busy road at the front of my house.
I'm hoping they will stay away from the cars driving by.

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Allyn
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I guess it depends on how far the road is from their coop. They will stick pretty close to roost. If the road is busy, I'm inclined to say, they'll avoid it. I'd be more concerned about aerial predators and roaming cats and dogs.

j3707
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Ditto to what Allyn said.

Also, the more time they spend roaming, the further out they will roam. They might roam a couple hundred feet from the coop. If the road is nearby and quiet for part of the day, they might want to see what's on the other side.

PingoBags
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Thanks for the reply guys. I do have eagles and falcons near by, also damn raccoons.
I'll just fence them in, don't want them getting run over. I'll just make the run big enough so they can enjoy life.
I have an area with lots of shelter from the trees, might help with flying predators.

I just want chickens for the eggs, not meat. We don't eat much chicken but we eat alot of eggs.
At the moment, we purchase free range from a lady that sells them, so we though why not just do that ourselves.
I also love the sound of chickens, brings back childhood memories.

AnnaIkona
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Chickens like to stay close to where they lay their eggs. My chickens' coop is about 200 meters away from the road. Between the road and the house we have a ditch with a small bridge going over it. No chickens have ever escaped over the ditch or bridge.

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Around here the feral cats stay away from the feral chickens who come to eat their cat food.
The other thing about roaming chickens. Hens are territorial they usually don't stray too far if they have enough shelter and lots to eat, but roosters roam and take the harem with them.

Feral chickens will eat young plants, they are particularly fond of lettuce. They eat a lot of snails, slugs and insects as well but since they eat and poop at the same time, it can get messy and probably not good for veggies you plan on eating raw.

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Gary350
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My grandparents had a chick coop that was about 4 feet off the ground to keep out chicken snakes. There was a 2x8 board ramp for the chickens to walk up when it got dark. Chickens are nasty animals one chicken will poop and another chicken will eat it. Chickens roost on boards about 6 inches apart. The chicken coop got very nasty and smelled terrible. Chicken poop is good fertilizer. Chickens were sometimes killed in the road so he had fried chicken for dinner that evening. Be sure to throw the eggs shells out for chickens to eat so they can make more shells for the eggs they lay. Grandmother use to throw out small white chip not sure what that was but the chickens ate the chips it was something chickens need to make egg shells. Chickens need to eat small lime stone rocks to make shells. If you build a chicken tractor you can move the cage all over the yard. My grandparents let the chickens roam.

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Chickens know where their food comes from. They also like people. Mine spent a lot of time on the front porch looking in the door. They poop everywhere, on the porch, the driveway, etc. (not part of the design plan for my house) They also scraped all the tanbark (two truckloads) out of the shrubbery and flower beds. We got a load just for them and put it near their coop, but they like the stuff in the flowerbeds better. They are now confined to a large fenced yard. (about 2000 square feet). Considering the chickens, the coop, water and food dishes, the heater, and the food, I estimate each egg costs about $40.00. A lot of it was the learning process. Right now, I only have four of the original eight. I plan to get more this spring, and I will be careful not to make pets out of them again.

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Google up patterns for a chicken tractor. See if that might meet your need.

sunnyc
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Lot of great info, just want to add something I didn't see in the replies:

Since you primarily want the chickens for eggs, make sure they are used to where the lay before they free roam. If that doesn't happen, they can lay in secret hiding places and you;lol never know you have eggs! Mine free roam during the day, but used to spend most of the time in the coop/run. I had to accustom them again to where their nesting boxes were so they wandered back every now and then to lay.

Good luck!

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My chickens are in a pen with a good sized run for them as well. I can't let them free range due to thoughtless neighbors dogs and even worse are the many hawks in the area. When I'm home and the weather permits I allow mine to come out in the back yard for about an hour before dark and get some grass and other goodies. However I stay outside with them at all times when they are out. They are really good about going back to the pen as the sun goes down and it begins to get dark.

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rainbowgardener
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We are getting ready to get some hens, so I don't have any experience yet. But we have a chicken coop, half of which is two levels. The upper level has the nesting boxes and a roost perch and has a ramp up to it. Attached to that we have an extra run to give them more room. Eventually we want to also have a chicken tractor and probably build out more run. But we don't expect to have them roaming free much at all, maybe a little bit here and there while we are out with them, after we are all used to each other. We have two dogs that do roam free in the yard. We don't know yet how they will behave with the chickens. People tell us we should be able to train our border collie to herd them, but I'm not convinced. :)

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Make sure you either live in a rural area or your city ordinances don't limit the number of chickens you can keep. Mine limits most animals to two and prohibits some farm animals like cows. Chickens are not very clean animals so you have to make sure the coop is cleaned out regularly. If you have neighbors nearby, they may complain if they are downwind.

My street ends at a dropoff into a gully. At the bottom of the gully is a commercial chicken farm. The farm is fine on a dry day but after a heavy rain the last two streets have to put up with the smell for a couple of weeks until it dries up.

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applestar
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I don't have chickens but have always wondered if a large wire dog crate might make a passable chicken tractor for 2-3 birds. Just wondering.... 8)

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rainbowgardener
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We have a horse ranch right behind us. Along with the horses, they have a pet pig, a pair of goats and a bunch of chickens. I think we will be fine! But yes, we know it will be some daily chores keeping the coop and run clean.

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Allyn
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A well-managed backyard chicken coop should not smell nor should it have flies. If it has either, you're doing it wrong. Large commercial chicken farms are usually horrible places, both for the neighbors and for the chickens. They're dirty, nasty places that have no resemblance to a backyard chicken coop.

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Allyn
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applestar wrote:I don't have chickens but have always wondered if a large wire dog crate might make a passable chicken tractor for 2-3 birds. Just wondering.... 8)
A big dog crate might work. However, if the space is too small, they'll end up pecking each other. A problem with the crate, though, is that the chickens want to scratch the ground. If there's a 'floor' in the crate, even if it is a wire floor, the chickens can't scratch the ground.

As a makeshift, moveable run, you can use a dog exercise pen like this:
https://www.petstreetmall.com/Black-Dog- ... 9336/4233/

Flip it over upside down so the 'door' opening goes all the way to the ground instead of having a step-through opening. I'd cover the top with shade cloth. Doesn't have to be fancy, just clothespin some shade cloth over the top. You can use row tunnel covers meant for the garden -- you know.. the half-hoop type of row covers -- to make 'tunnels' from the coop to the pen so the chickens stay contained even if you put the pen a short distance from the coop. Chickens are great scratchers. Set up the exercise pen where you want them to 'work', run the tunnel from the coop to the pen, and open the door. The chickens will do the rest.

If you have dogs that roam the neighborhood, though, keep in mind that these little containment devices to keep the chickens in won't keep dogs out.

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jal_ut
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"Thinking about getting some chicks to raise. Plan on making a custom coop with a run but would like to let them roam around during the day."

I would consider a pen (chicken run) on the South side of the coop. You may let them out ten minutes before sundown to peck around a bit, but I would watch them. Problem is both four legged critters, hawks, and owls tend to like to eat chicken. If you just let them run they will destroy your garden, junk on everything, and likely get ran over or killed by dogs etc.

They will need a constant water source, plus laying mash and some oyster shell or calcium carbonate. (for the eggshells) They also need some sand or gravel to peck through. They eat small rocks which go to the gizzard and this is what grinds up the grain.

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rainbowgardener
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Now I have a little bit of experience with chickens! :)

We have to keep fortifying the perimeter around our chicken coop, to keep our two dogs (total about 80 lbs of dog!) from destroying the coop. Here's its current incarnation:

Image

We are working on making it a little more sightly and will paint the picket fence. We bought those fence panels to make fencing around the raised bed garden area, so I don't have to have all the raised beds individually fenced (to keep black and white destructo dog from digging them up), but in the meantime the panels are protecting the coop area. The dogs are pictured in their typical position most of the time they are out.

Point being our chickens are never going to free range. Perhaps sometimes if we are out with them and we keep the dogs in. I was hoping the dogs would get over it. They have slightly, in that now they will spend some time just lying in front of the coop, not barking and lunging at it. But still... It is also worth thinking about, even if you don't have dogs, do your neighbors? Is there any possibility a neighborhood dog could get into your yard?

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sweetiepie
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Another thing to think about, in my experience chickens rarely ever get use to dogs barking, lunging at them, especially at such a close distance. I mean they may seem ok, but might not feel comfortable enough to lay an egg when they are feeling vulnerable. Also a thought if you could make their run a little bigger so the coop was farther away from the dogs. It may be fine but if they don't lay on time, I would blame the dogs.

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sweetiepie
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jal_ut wrote:
I would consider a pen (chicken run) on the South side of the coop.
May I ask why you say on the south side. Even where I live, my chickens are happier outside just about any side of the coop then the south. Unless you go through more work and provide shade. My run on the south side almost never gets used during the summer because it gets to hot. Or you can have your chickens out during the winter. I can't with mine. Just wondering.

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rainbowgardener
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sweetiepie wrote:Another thing to think about, in my experience chickens rarely ever get use to dogs barking, lunging at them, especially at such a close distance. I mean they may seem ok, but might not feel comfortable enough to lay an egg when they are feeling vulnerable. Also a thought if you could make their run a little bigger so the coop was farther away from the dogs. It may be fine but if they don't lay on time, I would blame the dogs.
We are newbies, so we will just have to see. The chickens seem pretty unfazed, just keep doing their thing no matter what the dogs are doing.

Don't have a real good picture of the whole set up, but behind the picket fence is the wire rabbit fence that we put up first, that the dogs were managing to destroy. Then there's a few inches and then there's the chickens' wire run. Behind that is the coop and run combination, with the nest boxes upstairs. That area is feet away from anywhere the dogs can get to. And once the chickens are inside, the dogs lose interest.

Here's the coop/run combination with the upstairs enclosed area that has roosting bars and nest boxes. Out of camera view on the right hand side, it opens in to the wire run we added. This was before the picket fence was added. The wire fence visible is about four feet away from the coop/run on this side.
chicken coop.jpg
This the view looking at that right hand end that wasn't visible; it is before we put the picket fence up. The dogs are outside the wire run, but the chickens are inside the coop run about four feet away from dogs.
Image

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rainbowgardener
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sweetiepie wrote:
jal_ut wrote:
I would consider a pen (chicken run) on the South side of the coop.
May I ask why you say on the south side. Even where I live, my chickens are happier outside just about any side of the coop then the south. Unless you go through more work and provide shade. My run on the south side almost never gets used during the summer because it gets to hot. Or you can have your chickens out during the winter. I can't with mine. Just wondering.
You can see in the pictures a yellow wall. That's our shed and the coop is on the south side of it. Seems to be working well. Behind the coop, the west side is our back fence line and that has a row of scrub trees. So it gets some shade from hot afternoon sun. And the shed protects it from cold north winds in the winter. But being open to the south and east, it gets lots of good morning and early afternoon sun. Especially in winter that is really helpful, but it doesn't seem bad in the summer. The run in the coop is all shaded and the blue visible in one picture is like a thin tarp that provides some shade over one end of the wire run. So they always have shady spots.

Like I said this is our first time of having chickens, so we will just have to see how things go. We haven't had them two months yet, so they haven't been through summer. If we need to provide more summer shade, we can do that.

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applestar
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This is all very interesting. It sounds like chicken raising is a lot like gardening, with fundamental/basic guidelines and many options. I love it that we are getting to see a new set up with experienced critiques being offered and overall concept being tweaked from the ground-up. :D

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Here's an update from when I first asked about letting them roam.
So I did end up getting chickens but I only allow them to roam if I'm home.
I've not had any issues with them going next to the road but I've had raccoon issues, even during the day, that's why I only let them out when I'm home. The coop and enclosed run is coon proof for sure, the other run is not but everyone gets locked up every night.

Here's a chilly picture from this past winter.
Somewhere between the enclosed run and the open run, is a coop. Poor chickens had a hard cold winter but they're all happy again now they can eat some grass and bugs.
192.168.2.26_01_20170213160724768.jpg

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applestar
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Thanks for the update! I hope you will post more pics :()

What kind and how many did you end up getting?

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rainbowgardener
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So when the dogs are in the house but we are outside (relatively rare occurrence, but sometimes we make it happen), we have been letting the chickens out into the area enclosed by the picket fence. The area they have most of the time in the coop and run is about 48 sq ft. When they can roam inside the picket fence, suddenly they have 150 sq feet. They seem to really like that, come right out as soon as we open the door.

They don't tend to fly a lot, just do their walking around, pecking and scratching thing. But they do fly a little and one place they like to fly to is the top of the wire run. At that point they are fairly close to the fence in distance and elevation, so it seems like they could easily fly to the fence and over. If the dogs were out, they would be going crazy. So far we have only let them out when we were keeping an eye on them. I was worried the first time about if they would let us catch them again to put them back in the coop, but after they have been out an hour or so, they start wanting their food and water dishes and familiar place and they put themselves back n.

I wish they could be a little more free range-y. The ranch behind us lets their chickens walk around their front lawn some of the time. I think it must be when they have their dogs in the house, because I haven't seen dogs and chickens together. But the horses and chickens seem to be fine together (they let horses graze the lawn sometimes). And the pig and the chickens are fine together. And there are no cars. The ranch is at the end of a gated private drive.

Anyway, we are doing this one step at a time as we get to know the chickens and their habits better and everybody gets used to each other.

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ElizabethB
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Hi All,

Dad raised chickens, and ducks and Guinea Hens.

His chicken coop was large - about 6' x 15'. 2/3 of the coop was for the chickens. The other 1/3 was for whatever.

He had a large 30' x 30' fenced chicken yard. His fencing was T Post and chicken wire - 5' high. He clipped the wings of the chickens because they would get out of the pen.

It did not take long for the chickens to eat every blade of grass in their pen. Dust Bowl.

Dad also had an issue with hawks stealing and killing his hens.

One time a neighbor's dog got into the pen and killed several hens. Dad was seriously PO'ed. He called Animal Control and the Police. He filed charges against the dog owner and got restitution for his hens.

There are several Farmers in the area that raise and sell Free Range Chickens. They have LOTS of property and use tractor runs.

My family home is on an acre of land. It is longer than it is wide. The front half of the lot is the house and Mom's flower beds. The back half was for Dad's gardens and fowl.

I wish I lived in the country so I could have laying hens, a milk cow and a milk goat. Not going to happen.

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Allyn
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My chickens are pastured-raised. They have all-day free run of the entire one-acre property. With a four-foot perimeter fence around the property, they could fly over, but rarely do (it's happened once in two years). They will expore a hole in the fence, but flying over seems like too much bother when there's plenty to see and do (and eat) on this side of the fence. Most of my current flock are proper dual-purpose chickens raised as meat birds so they're bigger and heavier than laying hens. Hens bred for laying can be quicker to fly because they don't have as much weight to get airborne; their bodies are lighter and more petite than birds bred to be meatbirds or dual purpose chickens. If yours fly over the fence, it'll be to explore something that looks interesting, but they won't try to escape. They'll probably be in a panic when they realize they can't get back into the pen. It seems obvious that if they flew over, they would fly back; but that doesn't seem to occur to them in the moment and that gives rise to a panicked kerfuffle. At sundown, they want to be home so there's no danger of having to catch them to put them in the coop. I go out at sundown to do a head count and close the doors; they all put themselves to bed on the roosts, even the littles (now 7 weeks old) from the latest hatch.

Your birds fly up on top of the pen because chickens like to get up. They like to roost or perch higher than the ground. If they have something inside their area that they can get up on, they'll like that. It can be as low-tech as putting a three-step ladder or standing a cinderblock on end in their pen so they can jump up and be higher. (If I remember right, your coop came with two roost bars with clips on the ends so you can hang the bars in the little run area.) As gimmicky as it sounds, some chickens really like chicken swings. It lets them get up and has a rocking motion that some chickens really like. I have a couple of chickens that jump up and sit on the porch gate when I go outside. I unlatch the gate and gently swing it back and forth and they'll hunker down and go for the ride where other of thier flockmates kinda panic "omg omg it's moving" and they jump off. The ones that like it will sit on the gate for as long as I'll swing it back and forth.

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rainbowgardener
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Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

Yes, we have already seen that a chicken that escapes immediately panics and wants to get back to her flock, but can't figure out how to get back.

Do you have a dog/ dogs, Allyn?

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@applestar
I got 6 red sex links from the feed store and one cockerel mix from a site called kijiji.
The mix is a blue australorp and something else I think.
I don't think I have any pictures but I'm sure I can take a few tomorrow when they dig up my new garden.
Eventually I plant on making my forever coop and adding some silkies as well.
The coop they're in now works well and keeps them safe and dry but I'd like something bigger, easier to manage and nicer to look at.

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Allyn
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rainbowgardener wrote:...Do you have a dog/ dogs, Allyn?
Yes. Pit bulls -- well one now. We lost an old girl to a tumor last year, so just the one now. She's a four-year-old blue pit.

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She thinks I need help typing. :)

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rainbowgardener
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So how does your pit bull do with the chickens? Do you have to keep her away from them? Is she obsessed with watching them when she can't get to them?

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Allyn
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rainbowgardener wrote:So how does your pit bull do with the chickens? Do you have to keep her away from them? Is she obsessed with watching them when she can't get to them?
I had posted a more detailed post on how I trained her to not bother the chickens on page 3 of your "what kind of chickens?" thread. I won't repeat it here, but yes, when she first arrived, she was very intense -- really scary intense -- when she first watched the chickens. I described it as 'laser focus.' Chickens just going about the business of being chickens trigger a dog's prey drive and pit bulls have a very strong small-animal predation drive. I spent a lot of time working with her and she can walk past a chicken now without even looking at it. She can....however she does usually look at the chickens, but it's just a look now and not that scary intensity she had before.

I have to be careful about the roosters, though -- not that she'll attack the roosters, but that the roosters will attack her. I have three roosters, two of which work together to launch coordinated, cooperative, military-style attacks and they really don't like the dog. It's quite sophisticated behavior for animals that most people think are dumb. If I hadn't witnessed it for myself, I probably wouldn't have believed it. So yeah, the dog is fine; I gotta watch the roosters.

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We have really large fenced in areas for our birds, so they hardly know they are fenced. I don't want to risk the road (a few people around us have chickens ranging all over and I occasionally see one struck on the road). They will get braver and braver as they wander looking for goodies! I also don't want them in my garden, or having to worry about poop on my front doorstep :)

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jal_ut
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I have raised chickens for many years. Don't have any at present though. I used to let them out about an hour before sunset. They would come out and scratch around and eat some green things and likely some bugs. Then go in to the roost. Hey, if you let them out all day, they will be into everything, and leave little do-dos all over your car, your patio, your drive, and you name it. Nope free ranging chickens are a NO-GO here.

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rainbowgardener
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Dogs are gradually doing better with the chickens, but we haven't worked hard enough at it. So they still alternate whose turn it is to be out in the yard.

We let the chickens roam the backyard for an hour or so in the AM and an hour or so in the afternoon. In between some of the time they are in their 150 sq ft enclosure and some of the time in the coop and run. The dogs can be in the yard while the chickens are in the enclosure and don't bother them and no longer bark at them. All my gardens are fenced to keep the chickens out. They are never outside of our fenced in back yard. They love their free range time and eagerly anticipate it, lining up in front of their door. But they are very much creatures of habit and about the time their hour is up they tend to walk themselves back to their enclosure.

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jal_ut
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Keep the darned things in the coop. You might let them out half an hour before sunset, they will scratch around a bit and eat a few green things, then go back in. If you let chickens run loose all day, you will have chicken junk on everything. You don't need that! ..... and they will hide their eggs, so you won't have eggs either.

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rainbowgardener
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We let the chickens out to roam our back yard a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours in the afternoon. Perhaps because the back yard is not that big, maybe 100 x100' or so and because the chickens were thoroughly trained to lay in the nest boxes before we ever started letting them out, they do not hide their eggs. They come back to the nest to lay.

We still tend to keep the dogs in when the chickens are out, but probably wouldn't have to any more. Dogs are very used to the chickens and don't pay any attention to them any more.

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I can vouch for the whole "chicken junk everywhere" business ; my grandparents let their chickens walk all around their yard, and for some obscure reason, when I went to play outside, the ground was muddy even during the hottest, driest summers :mrgreen:

But to come back to a more serious topic, I've got an issue. I'm planning to have a chicken coop at the house I'm in the process or buying, BUT it's in Greece. How do I prevent the little things from baking in the summer heat? I'm not biased against well done chicken breasts, but I'd like to have some eggs first... and it's better without the feathers, anyways.

Here's the house in question : https://tranio.com/greece/adt/1714408/ ; as you can see, it has tons of trees in the yard. Do you think it would be possible to build a small shed for the chickens to live in most of the time (and for them to live there in winter or during rainy days) and to include the shed and the nearest tree into the coop? This way, they'd be able to walk in the grass, and go under the tree when it's hot outside, but I'm afraid that they could endanger the tree by eating every leaf they can grab and by polluting the soil in their own way.

Thanks in advance!



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