First and foremost, I apologize for the fuzzy photos. I really should have used my tripod!
Yesterday was an eventful day! Normally, we keep all the hens/pullets penned up for safety reasons. There are plenty of predators out here, even in the daytime, from Hawks to Coyotes, Feral Cats and Neighboring Dogs. Also there can be some traffic zipping past our house, on one side or the other. D and L wanted to investigate how well/close the chickens would stay in proximity to the house and their coop. Will they venture over onto the neighboring properties? Will they slip out into the field? Will they attract the predators? Will they proverbially, "cross the road?"
These are the soon to be dinner chickens. They have been the least productive peep that we have experienced to date. We should, at the very least, get 14 eggs per week from them, however, if we are lucky, we get 7 per week. Typically we get 5 per week. That's food in their bellies without giving much back. Breaking it down, that's about $12 per month expended on all three of them in food (organic), grit, oyster shells, other supplies and coop cleaning efforts. At the price I sell the eggs, I would only recoup approximately $6 per month. That's not even breaking even! Soooo... something has got to give.
Of the other two coops, the hens are costing us about the same, $12 and $16 ($28 total), but, if we sold the eggs from the other two coops, we would recoup about $40 per month. But we don't sell all the eggs. Of course, the real benefit to us is that we know we have healthy, happy chickens laying the best chicken eggs in the territory! :) We personally, can't eat all of the eggs. Essentially, we try to sell just enough to pay for the grain. So it's not like we are making a "killing" on selling the eggs. On the average, we sell about 2 to 3 dozen eggs per week and eat the rest for ourselves. We are recouping about $9.00 per week, but the benefit ratio would be better without the three non-productive eggers. Then, of course, there's always the 6 week molting period where a chicken basically does not lay any eggs. We are heading into that period in a few more weeks.
So, that being explained, the question was raised, how safe would it be to let the hens roam the property, on their own during the day, letting them forage more freely outside the safety of the pens. Our property is not well fenced. There is a fence for the pasture where the horse moseys around, but even that is not something that slows down any other critter or predatory animal.
The "experimental" hens stayed pretty close to their coop. They ventured, at most, about 75 feet from it. They did investigate the horse, by running between his legs while he was noshing on some green grass. But, for the most part, they stayed close to the opening of their pen, under the trees. They did not venture into the field. It was close to twilight when I let them out, so that might have been a factor. But they did stay outside longer, well after dark, after the other hens had already gone to roost. We will try letting them out again today, a few hours earlier in the day.