MaxBaz Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Girls have now lasted the 7 days compulsory "lockup" and ready to be released for the first time and explore. I read somewhere that it helps to let them out for the very first time about an hour or so before their normal roosting time as they are more likely to want to come and go to bed rather than try and round them up at 11.00am on a bright sunny morning.....? Thoughts/comments? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckov Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 I'm fairly new to chicken keeping myself, but I just let them out when I got up as was too excited not to! And just picked them up when I wanted them to go back in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah B Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Hi MaxBaz, Yep, thats what i did. Let them out an hour before dusk and they went straight back in the run at bedtime. At first they will not wander far from the run anyway. When they are more used to it and use the whole garden area they are allowed, mine still go to bed with no problems but a tip to get them back in quickly if say you wish to go out or something is to scatter some mixed corn leading back to the run and in the run and Bobs your Uncle! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajm200 Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Initially we let ours out into a pen made of omlet netting as our fence is broken but within two days they'd worked out how to hop onto the cube roof to get into the garden. so their first freerange session started at 8am. That night we had to shoo them back to within sight of the run before they would go to bed. If we hadn't had the pen, I'd have let them out at about 4pm so that they didn't wander too far. We've now given up with the pen and let them out after lunch when we can be sure that they've eaten a reasonable amount of pellets so that they don't fill up on junk. They put themselves to bed at dusk without any help from us Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluckbok Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Hi ya, It's best to let them out about an hour before dusk. We keep ours in the run til then so that they can stock up on all the essential food for good egg production!. They do have a natural roosting instinct and go into the eglu on their own once it gets dark, or they are meant to. Know some people on here have naughty hens that don't want to go in, if you shine a torch into the run apparently that works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbaraJ Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 I wanted to avoid them being noisy in the morning, make sure they eat enough mash and keep an eye on them so i went for hr before bedtime. On b.hol monday i let them out for about 3pm so they got 3 hours out brrrr it was a bit chilly though lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Late afternoon is best. When they get tired they take themselves in before light fails. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxBaz Posted March 31, 2008 Author Share Posted March 31, 2008 Followed the advise and let the girls out about an hour before dusk - they absolutely loved it, but kept really close to me. Three of them are quite adventuous (one jumped onto the Cube roof yesterday) but the other one is really quite unsure of things and can't quite get the hang of having to go out of the door to get to the grass...... Got annoyed with one of our dogs (a lurcher) as she was racing backwards and forwards along the fence growling while the girls were contained inside further along the fence - afterwards realised that she may well have been agitated more by the presence of a fox on the other side, rather than being agitated at the chickens themselves.... Whatever it was, having read everybodies comments about the cunningness of Mr Fox, have stayed very close by to keep an eye on things! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...