How to Free Range your Chickens in the City

My original purpose of building a chicken tractor was to move my chickens around my yard to eat food. However, I have found that they have not been able to find all the food and bugs they need in just a 10 square foot area. The chicken tractor is nice to have, but it’s not worth losing all the benefits of having them free range. I have now resorted to letting them free range every day to forage for their own food.

Benefits of Letting your Chickens Free Range

1. No feed costs. I provide lay mash for them, but rarely have to fill it up. They forage my yard for all the bugs, seeds, weeds and rocks they need.
2. Organic Eggs. I have found that letting my chickens free range I get larger eggs and I haven’t tested it but I am sure that my eggs are full of a lot more nutrients then if they were just eating lay mash.
3. Pest Control. My chickens are always looking for bugs to eat. They are always scratching the fence lines looking to gobble up some grub. I still have bugs, but I have noticed a lot less spiders and other random bugs.
4. Weed control. I haven’t seen my chickens eat weeds but I have heard they do. I am sure if I only let them forage my back yard I would notice more.
5. It feels like living on a farm. Growing up on a farm I got used to having chickens around the house and barnyard. Seeing the chickens in my yard brings a country home feeling even though I am currently living in the city.
6. Easter egg hunt all year. Often after a couple of weeks of free ranging my chickens they will find better spots for their eggs than in their nice nest box. It is fun to take my daughter and basket and go looking for them. It feels like Easter all year and I don’t even have to hide the eggs.

Fence or No fence?

If you don’t have a fence around your yard you might be wondering how you can let your chickens free range your yard and your neighbor’s yards. My neighbors honestly don’t care that my chickens free range their yards. If your neighbors have something against chickens in there yard you could look at putting up a fence. To be safe you could talk to your neighbors before you let your chickens loose and tell them the benefits and strike a deal that you will give them so many eggs per week.
Don’t worry about your chickens running away. Once they’ve been in a cage in your home for a short period of time, they know what’s home and they’ll always stick around your home.

If you have a fully enclosed backyard you have it easy. I find that 3 to 4 chickens in a city-sized (.25 acre) backyard is a perfect amount. Too many more and you won’t want to use your backyard because of all the land mines (chicken poop). I only have 3 chickens that produce 3 eggs per day and my backyard doesn’t feel like a chicken coop. If you are worried about poop and you don’t want the land mines, I have heard of chicken diapers. I have 2 kids under 18 months so I change enough poopy diapers as it is. I don’t want to change my chickens’ as well. I rather them fertilize my lawn. Between the rabbits and the chickens my yard is getting a ton of fertilizer.

Protect areas you don’t want your chickens to be in. I didn’t want my chickens in my garden while the plants are growing so I put up a simple fence with chicken wire and t-posts so they can’t get in. It was cheap and only took a few hours to make. In my front yard I have flowerbeds with flowers like most people. The chickens sometimes scratch their way through the flower bed kicking the wood chips up onto the side walk. I don’t mind kicking the wood chips back into the flower beds.If you do care, my friend manages a hardware store and he showed me a product you can spray on your wood chips that makes them stick together like a mat. It is pretty cool stuff.

Try it!

Try free ranging your chickens and see how it goes. With all the benefits it is hard to pass up on free organic eggs and feed.

Authored by Steven Cooper Google