We were letting the chickens everywhere. But then I got tired of my dog eating chicken crap. I was tired of stepping in it, and they were tearing up my irises! haha. Jerks. So, because we have 20 acres, we still free range, but we have fenced off a "back yard" area behind our house. Now they can go anywhere else. They COULD go over the fence if they wanted, but they don't very often. If one does, it is my "bestie" chicken and she shows up on the back deck lookin in the sliding glass door for me. haha.

Something I never thought about was all their CRAP. Haha. I, too, had that image of going to a country farm and meeting hens and other poultry having free range of everything. And, still that place looked nice. Nope, I don't know how they did it. TOO MUCH CRAP. Hahaha.

It really is a dilemma, huh? Deciding whether or not to confine them. I don't think I could do "supervised" time. They're not easy to herd. So they wouldn't go back in for me. But, if I had to go one way or another, I guess a tractor would be one of the best ways to go. But then you still run into the problem of the poop left in those places.

If I still lived in town, I would probably fence off a larger portion of the yard. Some sort of confinement. Or using a movable fence instead of a chicken tractor? (could possibly be cheaper).