Confined Free Ranged Chickens and Poultry

A fenced in bird yard provides sunshine, grass, fresh air, space, and most of all....SAFETY. But I'm not talking about your ordinary chicken run that's permanent and located in one spot. The confined-free-range method uses a large, floorless wire coop that is moved around in a pasture on a periodic basis. This allows the birds to be "free" yet still kept safe under your control.

Where can you get such a cage? The easiest thing to do is purchase a big, wire dog kennel. Most of these cages are large enough to hold nearly 10-15 chickens (less for ducks or geese, who need more space), more than adequate for most small-scale poultry farmers.

However, to make this plan work you need to use something called "range rotation". Basically, its the same thing as rotating your garden. Even if the cage is cleaned often, parasites and bacteria become concentrated in the ground, increasing the chance that your flock could become sick. Of course, sick chickens aren't any fun to raise. To prevent such a problem, you rotate the cage in your pasture, ensuring that the soil your birds are living on is given time to rest and recover from the heavy pecking/scratching it endured under your poultry.

Another thing you need to remember about confined-free-range is that you must build, or buy, range shelters. They can be as simple as a lean-to constructed from scrap lumber on posts or as fancy as a giant "permanent" coop attached to a tractor and dragged around by chains. However, the purpose is nearly the same: to provide protection from the elements. Because you are not free ranging but are instead placing the range shelters in a confined area, you do not need to build an enclosed area since the birds are already protected from predators.