Anybody free range?

Our chickens are lucky to have lots of space....much to the horror of our Bulgarian neighbours who keep their's in small concrete pens. But they admire the way our's look, their's are often ragged and bald from fighting. In winter they have the run of the veggie plot too so about a third of an acre. But land is cheap here

My house is in a covered run area where the food and water and a sandpit for dustbathing is. There is a hatch in the front door, which is open 24/7, unless I need them contained. Interesting thing is that they do not poo in the enclosure unless kept in. They have the run of the back garden.
I have no foxes near me and they have plenty of bushes to hide under.
It does mean poo picking the grass though!!

Pics of the birds out free ranging in the tall grass.  Mower is down for repairs right now, so they are having a field day in the unruly grass...plenty of seeds and bugs to be had.  This area is about 2 acres away from their coop.







Every time I see them out there searching for food it thrills me that they get to be a chicken out on the grass, just doing what chickens do.  Occupied, exercising, and gleaning nutritious food.  They are so quiet and calm that it fills me with peace just watching them.  It never gets old to me, no matter how many years we do this...it just never gets old. 

It definitely is a blessing from God, to be sure.  The last place I lived I only had an acre and no woodlands around me, so forage was okay but not as good as they have here. 

It's a wondrous thing to see them out there as they are right at this moment, grazing peacefully in the meadow with birdsong all around.  If I were a chicken, this is how I'd like my life to go.   

Some years back I started researching a way to improve the meadow pasture so that the chickens were getting more protein out of their forage.  I started frost seeding white dutch clover in certain areas of the meadow and also planting the clover over garden rows after the harvest to cover the ground and also give them fresh clover in the fall.  The clover can have up to 22% digestible protein, depending on the time of year and time of day, even. 

Another thing I did was to leave all the fallen leaves around their coop alone and go farther afield when raking leaves up to store for their deep litter in the winter.  These leaves provide hiding and growing places for bugs, worms, and grubs they can easily find, even late in the fall. 

I also took old hay bales and old loose hay and left them at the edge of the meadow/forest up by their coop so I could move them now and again....under these would be scads of earthworms, bugs, etc.

My mother is old school and likes to keep the lawn mowed very short all the time, but I encouraged her to let her grass go to seed more often in certain areas so that the birds could glean the seeds and also so that the grass could reseed itself to greater thickness and health.  Now she will do this, especially in the early spring and also again in the fall...the pics you see above are showing the birds eating not only the bugs but mostly the grass seeds.   

Planting and creating more foraging opportunities can improve even a small area of free range.  This can also be done in a small way in a coop and run situation using deep litter, grow frames, bales of hay, old stumps, and even cardboard on the ground. 

Here are some pics of the chickens grazing the white dutch clover...







These next few pics are of my broiler chickens out on range...

Some lovely pictures of some lucky free ranging chickens.

Mine do free range but my garden is no where near as large!

Hannah

Barley, those are beautiful pics of a beautiful place!!  All your animals look so content and at peace there...it's lovely to see.  The forage looks really rich there as well.