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The How and Why of Free-Range Chickens

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by Regina Anneler     

No matter which type of predator protection you choose for your homestead, proper care and maintenance are still very important for your chicken’s health and egg production.  Chickens require water and need a source readily available while afield.  A natural creek or stream in the area is great, but if that is not available then you will need to keep shallow pans around the grazing area as a fresh source of water.  Depending on the weather and winter environment on your homestead, your chickens might need some type of feed supplementation in the winter months.  The best option for this would be some type of plain corn; chicken scratch is usually more expensive than chopped corn and often contains additives that simple chopped corn does not.  If feed supplementation is necessary, then try to spread it out around the chickens’ range-area so that they don’t get accustomed to the idea of just staying around the coop for a free handout.  Be warned, however, that once they get used to you feeding them, they will stalk you hoping for a free handout!

If you are just now thinking about how to start egg production with free-range chickens, the most important step is planning what breed of hens to purchase.  We always start with young chicks - either ones that we raise ourselves or ordered from a hatchery.  When choosing chickens, it is best to choose a hardy breed type.  Bantams and the fancy, decorative breeds of chickens are better suited for cages and shows than they are for production and life on the range.  Darker-feathered chickens are also a better choice than your standard commercial laying white chickens.  White chickens tend to be a walking buffet for every hawk, owl, and other predator in the vicinity due to their highly visible nature.  Usually, the best choices for free-range hens are Rhode Island and New Hampshire Reds, Barred Rocks, Black Giants, and Australorps.  These breeds are large and resilient, are usually very good egg producers, and are well suited to the free-range lifestyle.

If you are ordering chicks from a hatchery, there are a few other bits of information that you will need to know.  First, if you purchase straight-run chicks be advised that most of these chicks are cockerels (young roosters).  Therefore, if you want mainly hens it would be wiser to purchase pullets and then purchase only a small number of young cockerels.  Too many roosters lead to miserable hens and a lot of chicken-fights.  However, if you would like to raise butcher chickens as well as egg production hens, then the straight-run order might be a better deal for you.  Free-range chickens have lean, firm meat compared to the soft, mushy kind that is usually commercially produced. 

The next thing you need to keep in mind when ordering chicks is the equipment you will need to grow them into producing chickens. Young chicks need to be kept in a brooder-type environment until they are old enough not to need extra heat and special attention.  A cheap practical way to make your own brooder is a child’s plastic wading pool with two-foot tall chicken-wire around the edges and a heat lamp hung about two feet over the middle of the pool.  Fill the pool with wood shavings, or your preferred litter type, and place at least two feed and water dishes in for the chicks.  It is best to feed the young chicks with a commercial chick-starter feed purchased at local feed store.  This feed is best for young chicks because it is a finely ground, gently medicated grain that will prevent the all-too-common diseases in young chicks.  As the chicks grow, you can change the starter feed over to the corn feed previously mentioned and eventually begin to transition them to free-range.

Transitioning chickens from the cage to free-range will take about one week.  This is important, so that chickens on-the-loose will know where their home is so they will lay in that vicinity (rather than out in the wild – or the garage) and come back to that location to roost at night.  This is accomplished by keeping your chickens caged in or near the place you will want them to roost.  You will need to feed and water them in the cages for approximately a week before turning them out.  Also, if you are planning to use a guardian dog, make sure that they are kept close to the chicks from the very beginning.  This way, they are more accustomed to their personal charges and less likely to see them as meals on legs - helping to avoid that hen-in-mouth scenario.

By now you should not only have a good understanding of the benefits of free-range chickens, but also a fair grasp of how to proceed setting up your own equipment for them.  You will also find your free-range chickens to be a wonderful source of entertainment on warm summer days.  A single insect can cause mass hysteria among a flock of free-range chickens.  Where one goes, they all go at a run and a massive chase scene can ensue over one juicy bug.  They can also perform amazing duck and cover routines if something so much as an airplane shadow should appear overhead.  You will learn just what a free-range chicken will eat, and you will also become adept at construction of chicken barricades to protect everything that you don’t want them to destroy - such as your garden - while they are in one of their feeding-frenzies.  Free-range chickens are definitely worth the effort needed to take care of them, as the fresh eggs and meat are by far the best that you can obtain anywhere.  There is also the satisfaction in knowing that you raised and cared for it all on your own – not counting the entertainment value as you learn just where the nickname “birdbrain” came from!
 

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