Limited Free Ranging

Sometimes letting the chickens have free range of the yard is a good thing. The bad thing is they poop indiscriminately everywhere they go, which of course includes the deck and back patio.

A couple weeks ago my partner suggested we start limiting how much we let the girls out. I was a little worried about this since they had pretty much become accustomed to running around where they pleased in the confines of our backyard, but would hang out under the eaves over the deck and patio to preen and poop. And so now that the weather is (somewhat) nicer and we are spending more time outdoors, I have agreed to limit their free range time to just a couple hours or supervised to shoo them away from areas we’d like to remain relatively poop free.

Fortunately when we decided to implement the plan, the weather took a turn for the nasty and we had cold, blustery, windy all out horrible weather and ended up keeping the chickens in their coop the whole time. They have a pretty big open area that is covered to not only protect them from the rain, but also to keep the coop dry and practically odor free as moisture is what contributes to the major smell issues. This is why a yard full of dog crap in the summer doesn’t smell as bad as it does during the spring… not that I’d have any experience with this (lies, all lies!)

At first, I kind of felt bad about leaving them locked up in their coop, but then all I have to do is look at the makeshift coop the neighbors behind us have with their eight chickens which is half the size and they all seem to be doing fine, so maybe I’m just being overly worried about this whole thing. I mean, it’s not like we keep them confined all the time, and they are allowed out of the coop too, unlike the neighbors hens. Of course, maybe I am trying to justify our actions because of my guilt!

So, I’m thinking, and my partner and I have discussed this, of building a small uncovered run attached to the coop so they have their very own section of the yard to be in when we don’t want them all over the place, like during the spring and summer while the vegetable garden is trying to grow and we can use the deck without having to hose it off first. But when it comes to what type of enclosure, we both disagree. Hopefully we can find something soon because I don’t know how much longer I can stand seeing the girls in “lock-up.” Then again, my vegetable garden isn’t all torn up and we can walk out onto the back patio and deck without stepping in chicken droppings! Somehow, I think the guilt will slowly subside… hopefully.