[GaltAdonis]

When I was a kid, something like 50 years ago, there was a family that lived
about a half mile from us that raised chickens. We, I and my parents,
lived in the suburban part of town, where I’m assuming chickens were
forbidden, even back then.

But this family lived on the other side of a narrow strip of woods on a road
that was considered by the suburban snobs to be the ‘poor’ part of town.
They had a coop for the chickens, but they were always running around in the woods.
The chickens seemed to thrive there.

[oldasrocks]

I have read some funny/sad stories. One lady said she turned the chicks out in the back yard and could not understand why they died.
Very few people know how to build a decent coop. Chicken wire is to keep chickens in not varmints out. People do not understand it takes 4 months for chicks to grow up and lay eggs. Then cannot understand pullet eggs at first.

[Blueflag]

Free ranging chickens still return to the coop to roost at night. Ya lock em in to keep the predators out, and the birds like it.