Important Considerations for Free Ranging

Free ranging seemed like the most logical idea for me, being on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere. There are a lot of benefits, but there are also a lot of things I didn't even think about when I first bought my chicks.

1. They poop everywhere. 
1. On the porch, the deck, the lawn, the concrete slab, everywhere.
2. My poor UPS driver and USPS mail person probably walk in it when they drop off my packages on the porch. I've tried chasing the chickens off the porch, but they still continue to find their way
2. They eat everything... including your favorite plants.
1. I just got a Rhododendron that I want to plant, but have been holding off because my chickens seem to really like the taste of it even though it's poisonous to them.
2. They destroyed my bleeding hearts plant. 
3. They seem to really just want to eat all things all the time.
4. Keep them away from your garden
3. They MUST be cooped at night.
1. We live where the weasels, coyotes, foxes, and bear roam. If we didn't put them away at night, they would make a great dinner for any predator.
2. A lot of people struggle to do this. At first, I was chasing them with a hoe to get them out from under the coop and using a broom to guide them into the coop. Running around, out of breath, almost every night. At first I thought, "hey, you know this is making me healthier" but in reality it was just super annoying.
1. My solution was putting their food away in the morning. At around 7:30pm every night (during the summer anyway) they are all waiting on their perch in the coop for me to bring in their food and lock the door. Being free range, they graze and eat bugs and grass so they never starve, though they act like it every time I bring their feed into the coop. I do give them some feed at around lunch time every day. I could easily switch to just taking the food away midday and putting it back in the coop at night.
2. Different things work for everyone, but it's easiest to train them as young as you can.
3. ALWAYS DO A COUNT OF THE CHICKENS AT NIGHT
4. If you live where people stop by often, make sure they don't have dogs with them. They will try to eat your chickens no matter how sweet they may seem. 
1. See my post about socializing them early for tips on how to introduce chicks to your pets.
5. Get the largest "Slow" sign for your driveway that you can. I have one that is small and everyone ignores it. 
1. I am lucky that my chickens are rarely in the road, but the amount of dust the dirt road produces makes it hard for chickens to see and hard for people to see. 
2. I've noticed that if you just sit on your porch and glare at people as they come up the driveway, they slow down.