Chickens are awesome.. Hands down, one of my favorite animals for the homestead. We currently only have 7 chickens (we had 8 but lost one to a hawk) and two roosters who decided to come out of nowhere and join the party (more on that later). We raised our ladies as chicks last year and not only are they great at keeping the insect population down but they are just super fun to have around!
When we first got them as chicks, we kept them in a brooder in the barn. Once the weather started to warm up and level out with the temperature that they could be comfortable with, we would transition them out to the run for a couple hours a day (usually in the afternoons when we were all outside). After having a couple of hours in the fresh air and sunshine, we would bring them back in the barn for the night.
This way it would make the transition easier and that they would get used to their "new" home that they would be moving into, permanently, once they were old enough (and the outside temperature was right).
Once we got our first egg, I decided it was the right time to start letting them have a bit of free time outside of the coop. I knew that I wanted to free range our chickens and honestly, I really didn't know the best approach as to how to "transition" them to the "outside" other than to just open the door, let them out and hope they come back (lol).
And that's exactly what we did. Opened the door and let them out. I thought they would just haul it across the yard and never return but they ended up just hanging around the coop area. They were very curious yet cautious and as the sun went down, they all came back to the coop and roosted up on their boxes.
Since then we have seemingly adopted two roosters (who have been dubbed "Wyatt" and "Doc") who decided to join us. I'm not sure where they came from... They just showed up one day and have stayed ever since. I don't mind though. They keep a watchful eye out and protect the flock and I can't help but smile when I watch them finding food for their ladies :)
