My first chickens either drowned or were eaten by cats. No idea how they got in but they did!

Mid September I bought 12 new ones and so far only 1 died because she got sick.

My cage is now well protected so they can't escape and no cat can get in.

They really want to get out of the cage and since last Saturday at the age of 5 weeks, they walk freely in the garden till sunset.

At night I lock them up and in the morning they go out again.

The question is, how old do they need to be in order to let them out 24/7 without being eaten by cats?

I always kept mine in a fully enclosed pen, I started raising chicken during the "bird flu" scare, covered the top of the pen to keep wild birds out, if you make a bottom less cage with the wire all the way to the ground and move the cage around the yard so they can eat weeds, grass and bugs until they are full size before they can free range safely.

I better to be safe than sorry.

Good Luck!

Cheers:

i have also found it unwise to count mine before they are hatched

You better ask the cat

Are ther different variety of chickens ?

Let them roam free during the day.

Keep them inside a snake/cat proof pen at night.

Everyone's a winner

Double posted, sorry.....

Are ther different variety of chickens ?

Only 1 kind... bought at the market. No clue about type.

Let them roam free during the day.

Keep them inside a snake/cat proof pen at night.

Everyone's a winner

That's exactly what I do right now. Around 6 PM they are close to the pen anyway, so it is fairly easy to get them inside.

Let them roam free during the day.

Keep them inside a snake/cat proof pen at night.

Everyone's a winner

That's exactly what I do right now. Around 6 PM they are close to the pen anyway, so it is fairly easy to get them inside.

So just keep doing it and you shouldn't lose too many

Asked the wife how long can i keep a chicken in the fridge, she said about a month, i said i put it in last night and it was dead this morning.

When they turn 15, but watch out for any cocks in the area. Cocks are notorious for impregnating chickens and then abandoning them. You will then be left to raise the next brood of chicks, feeding them and giving them a chance in life. You must be aware that chickens left to wander 24/7 are prone to leave the nest. It seems they go looking for a goose to lay a golden egg. That's because free-range chickens have a pecking order which is decided by the number of golden eggs they can collect. Sometimes they come home with the goose in tow, which should give you a chance to collect a few golden eggs. The goose is often hen-pecked, but don't worry, it usually doesn't hang around long, and the next one is following close behind. Enjoy your chickens.

Hmm those yummy chickens. I eat at least half a kilo everyday.

My chicken are funny, have a nice chicken house ,but like to sleep only on top of my mango tree,s .

My wife call- paradise chicken-.

I would hazard a guess that your chicks were not eaten by cats, you have a good sized snake there somewhere. A chick is to big for a cat but not for a snake. I have a cat that just looks at them but have had chicks still disappear. Turned out a large cobra was having snacks and it got into the rabbit cage and ate them too. Its downfall was getting too greedy and eating more than one and couldn't get back out through the wire mesh. It was added to the stewpot like everything else. It was 7 feet long.

I would hazard a guess that your chicks were not eaten by cats, you have a good sized snake there somewhere. A chick is to big for a cat but not for a snake. I have a cat that just looks at them but have had chicks still disappear. Turned out a large cobra was having snacks and it got into the rabbit cage and ate them too. Its downfall was getting too greedy and eating more than one and couldn't get back out through the wire mesh. It was added to the stewpot like everything else. It was 7 feet long.

I do have experience with snakes where screaming of the maid woke me up to find a snake in the washing machine. It was having its lunch on a nest of rats.

This time I actually saw a cat escaping from the cage when I opened the back door and he heard me coming. This was in the initial phase when the pen was not ready yet and the chicks were really small.