Space For Free Range Chickens

[Bekki]

Just curious... do chickens need a lot of pasture for free-ranging? Or is it OK if most of their space is wooded?

The house we are buying is mostly wooded, with enough space for chickens to get sunlight every day. But they would have much more room to run around if they could go in the woods.

Is that OK??

[traderbren]

My chickens like to "extreme" free range into the woods. It's all good as long as they stay on our property and come back to the coop at night...

[3lilbubs]

The woods is actually better I'm told because it is a deterrent to hawk attacks. Lots of places for them to hide a nest though!

[lalaura]

Originally Posted by 3lilbubs The woods is actually better I'm told because it is a deterrent to hawk attacks. Lots of places for them to hide a nest though!

This. Some of my hens will roost in the trees at night and don't come home though

please excuse craziness - I am on my phone

[jen_batten]

Our chickens have open space and wooded areas and they seem to kind of like the woods so I would think you would be okay.

[Bekki]

Thanks! That is good to know! We want to eventually clear some of the land, but it will be expensive.

I just want chickens and I want them NOW! lol

[MrsCrafty]

So silly question(sorry to hijack) but how do you get them to come back at night? Do you have to keep them in the coop at first so they know thats 'home'?

[traderbren]

Originally Posted by mommy2wyatt So silly question(sorry to hijack) but how do you get them to come back at night? Do you have to keep them in the coop at first so they know thats 'home'?

That is what we did. We let them out into their run only at first until they learned where home was and when they needed to be in. Some nights we even had to pick them up and put them in the coop. Once they learned that, we let them out in the yard. We still have to watch them since we only have an acre, and they like to cut through the woods and go visit our neighbor, but for the most part they are good now and wander back as it starts to get dark.

[lalaura]

Originally Posted by mommy2wyatt So silly question(sorry to hijack) but how do you get them to come back at night? Do you have to keep them in the coop at first so they know thats 'home'?

My hens know where home is.. .some will come back at night and some just stay in the trees at night. There a couple reasons for this: they could have fallen asleep in the tree and when they wake notice it is dark so instead of wandering home they stay in their safe spot, the tree. The other is they like the warmth of being outside and will roost to be in that nice cool weather. My chickens are odd though and do what they want

[jen_batten]

Originally Posted by mommy2wyatt So silly question(sorry to hijack) but how do you get them to come back at night? Do you have to keep them in the coop at first so they know thats 'home'?

We keep them in a pen for the first few days. At night we place each one in the coop for a few days. Then for the next few days we kind of herd them into the coop. (people say you can't herd chickens, but I think you can. Although it's easier to herd young chickens than old ones) After about a week they start going in automatically when it gets toward dark.