We have a wire, metal and wood enclosed chicken coop that is surrounded by a large chicken yard with 6+ ft high chicken wire. The coop is on 4 thick legs about 2.5 feet off the ground. We house the chickens in their coop until daybreak (which happens at about 5:30 each morning). Then we let them into their chicken yard leaving the coop open so the chickens can return to the coop to lay their eggs in the nest boxes at the back of the coop. We feed them chicken feed at that time so they are happy to remain there for a while. By about noon, the feed is gone and most or all of the eggs have been deposited in the nest boxes. They start asking to be let out by then so we open the gate to the chicken yard and let them free-range. First stop is a dust bath under a covered area next to the house, then they proceed on their rounds to eat grass, flowers (of the perennial peanut in our yard, seeds and bugs. The entire flock of 7 hens is guarded by a huge, almost turkey sized, rooster (dominique x Panama mix) named Oscar. Since Oscar has been full grown, nothing has attacked the hens. The whole group stays pretty much together and they don’t venture more than 200 feet from the house. Unfortunately, one of our gardens is a little further than that and they will not go that far to eat bugs. I think I saw a Tayra on our farm one day. It had a weasal like body, very dark reddish brown fur with a fluffy tail and a fairly flat face. I thought it was a large stray cat at first. When I called it, it ran away never to be seen again. The chickens were out at the time but fortunately, he saw me before he saw the chickens. When dusk approaches the chickens make their way back to the chicken yard and put themselves to bed in the coop that has roosts. When all of the hens and rooster are in the coop, we close the door and secure the coop and the gate to the chicken yard for the night. When we first got the chickens, we had trouble with skunks getting in the coop and killing chickens and then snakes getiing in and biting the chickens. We just kept finding and patching any and all possible openings with very stiff rabbit wire until nothing else could get in. One day my local worker saw me let the chickens out to free-range and he asked me if they would come back by themselves at night. I was so surpirised that he didn’t know the answer to his own question. But then when I thought about it, every Tico chicken that I have ever seen has been caged up all day. Maybe this is something the Ticos can learn from us gringos. Our eggs are the best I have ever tasted. And our chickens have great chicken lives.
