Hello all. I will be moving at the end of this week to my new home in the country. 7 acres in SW Michigan. In the spring I'd like to get my coop built and get just a handfull of chickens for some fresh eggs and bug control. I've noticed from some posts that many of you free range your chickens. How do you get them into the coop at night? I have about 3-4 acres of meadow/hay/grass that I would like them to be on, and there are no busy roads nearby, but I am concerned about chasing them down and getting them in at night. Any advice?
My husband and I are new to this, but ours want to roost in the barn at night by themselves, like they have a nightime homing device. We found that its easier to start them overnighting where you want them after they get thier feathers and are able to take the cool evenings. We start them in a dog kennel in the barn for a few days before letting them go free range. We have older ones that we have transplanted in from another farm 2 weeks ago and the first 2 nights we had to catch and put in the barn but now they are going in by themselves too. Food and water is in there.
Good question! When we replace our flock every other year we lock the new birds inside the coop for a few days with plenty of food and water till they get the idea that it's home and full of good stuff. Then we open the door and let them free range. In ten years we've only had one rooster that preferred to sleep in the tree outside; he ended up in the crock pot.
Just lock them in the coop for the first week or so and they'll all be back in by the time it starts to get dark. I'd add that chickens don't tend to roam too far into an open pasture because hawks or something will eat them. They instinctively stay near trees or buildings that offer some protection. They also don't tend to roam that far from their coop because that's usually where the water is and they drink quite a bit. Our chickens stay within about a hundred yards of their coop and spend almost all that time under the big evergreens if they're not out pecking around for bugs. We also put our garbage out for them so they run up to the back door if we call them.
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