My sister lets her chickens out of the coop to roam free during the day. Does that make them day-range chickens?
Yes. Yes, I believe it does.
Here are the chicken motels, where the nights are filled with debauchery and the mornings with freshly laid eggs.
The picture is a bit fuzzy because I blew this section up from a larger photo but you get the idea. The arched structure in the back is a stationary chicken coop while the blue one in front that looks like an Okie race car is a mobile coop you can drag around the pasture at will.
It is made of chicken wire (yes, chicken wire really is made for chickens – go figure) with blue tarp to provide shade. The mobile coop is propped up on a cinder block at the far end so the chickens can roam in and out. The near end is double-decker to allow a roosting area. Tip: If a chicken has the opportunity to be higher than it is right now, it will take it.
Unless there is a patch of freshly turned earth nearby, or perhaps a freshly turned compost pile. In that case, the chicken will scratch around furiously, sending dirt flying in all directions, shake its wings about, then settle down in the cool stuff and make satisfied noises.
The first evening at my sister’s, she said she had to go out and shut the chickens in for the night. I went out to help her with visions of herding clucking, panicked chickens into a tiny coop. No worries, though. Apparently, chickens really do come home to roost at dusk. They were all in the coop, up on the cross bars, ready for sleepy time. A few fell off when we knocked the cinder block away and the coop crashed closed, but there wasn’t much clucking in disapproval. They seem be used to it.
If not for the coyotes that roam at night, these would be true free-range chickens. Sis shuts them in at night for their safety. They seem quite happy and produce lovely eggs and the occasional chick. All in all, a Utopian existence.
Except for the part where they will all eventually be eaten. But try not to think about that, okay?
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Bonus photos: me running a tractor. Fun!
