Hi Sherri and congrats on the new flock! Sounds like you are in production.

I have just 6 hens and a rooster which I call "free-range", but they are in a large fenced yard attached to the chicken house. I had several reasons: we are surrounded by woods and therefore have lots of hungry critters around, my husband didn't want the hens roaming the yard, our German Sheppard was VERY interested the first week or so (now she ignores them even when they manage to "escape"), and I have lots of gardens that I didn't want the chickens in. I've heard too many conflicting opinions about whether the chickens like the bugs or the vegetables better!

That's just how I do it, but I have a couple of friends who let larger flocks like yours roam all over. Yes, they tend to come back at night to the house. Both friends also have dogs, but one has had problems with neighbouring dogs rather than his own. His biggest problem has been raccoons - just lost 20 five-month old hens last month. He was pretty upset. The other friend has lost a few here and there, mostly to a fox. Said fox always killed them in the house at night, so make sure your house is secure. Weasels will do the same.

Hope some of this helps you to decide. If you're home most of the time and don't mind the birds running around, go for it. I wouldn't depend on and electric fence keeping them out of the dog pen, though. Ours have gotten into the cow pasture a few times - walk right under the fence.

Good luck! Our 10 year old daughter USED to like collecting the eggs too. That wore off rather quickly, but at least she's braver than her two older brothers. The boys think the rooster has a personal vendetta against them! makes me grin...........:)

Since you bought grown chickens, it probably is best to keep a watch over them for a few weeks. We have 70+ chickens now and that includes at least 10 roosters. I know the ratio isn't right, but so far it isn't a problem. (Except for when a couple of the roos like to come after me and I have to "fish-net" them.) They free range all over our property including our front and back yards.

We are also surrounded by woods and in the beginning had a problem with feral cats and raccoons but no problems for the last 9 months. We are always vigilant however. It bugs me that the youngest ones (around 30 of them) like to hang out in the woods but maybe they feel safer there from flying daytime predators.

Yes, they ALWAYS come back to their two hoophouses to roost as soon as it starts getting dark. We then lock them in. So --- we don't worry about night time predators. We have a heated waterer in each of the hoop houses and I try to change the water each day if it freezes here near the house so they don't have to go far to get water. Now that it is getting very cold, they don't seem to mind. They do, however really hate high winds. They hang out in their houses when it is real windy.

You will absolutely love having chickens!

Keep them in for at least two weeks and when you do start letting them out to free-range, do it late in the day so that they don't wander too far until they get their bearings. Once you are confident that they will return at night (and they really will, as long as they know where "home" is) you can work backward until they are out for longer and longer each day.

We have a predator problem at the moment. I think it is a hawk since the birds vanish without a trace, but it could also be the big feral tomcat that has been hanging around. I kept my chickens in for several days and I am not letting them out until afternoon at the present time.

Predators come and go. If they strike out often enough they will lose interest in zeroing in on your birds. When they score, it seems to increase the risk to all. If you decide to free-range, you have to expect some losses sooner or later...

We free-ranged without a single loss for over two years but now I consider "acceptable losses" to be three or four chickens a year. If you have a self-sustaining flock with a rooster and hens that occasionally go broody and raise chicks, this is not really too bad.

Thank you so much for the great information. I do have a new question. We have 2 roosters. One the head rooster (Benny) and you can tell. He's getting all the girls and will chase after the other rooster (McNugget). McNugget will stay in the coop while all the other birds are out in the pen because he appears to be afraid of Benny. I know there is a pecking order among chickens. Is it normal for one rooster to be 99% in charge and the other one to such a coward?

With chickens, everything is normal in the pecking order. McNugget will figure out that he doesn't want a life without girls and he will start testing Benny until he gets part of the stash. They will all work it out!!!! Don't worry about that part.

Once your chickens are free-ranging, McNugget will likely begin to realize that he can come out and still avoid Benny. In fact, he will be safer from Benny when he is out and about than he would be in the coop where he could be cornered.

I had two roos the first year I had chickens, but when they started drawing blood on each other's combs, I culled one of them. It was a tough call which one, but the one we kept was a better flock roo and that helped us to make the decision. Lots of people keep more than one roo, however, and 26 hens is plenty to keep them both busy.