Oh I love chickens! I own ~28 chickens currently. An assortment of primarily large breed egg layers. Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, Speckled Sussex, Araucana, one Barred Rock x Rhode Island Red mutt rooster, and one lone Cornish Cross hen.
We raise ours for meat and eggs. We sell most of the eggs, as farm eggs are quite a rare commodity around here that most folks are willing to pay a little extra for.
I'm getting ready to put in an order for 25-50 meat chicks to raise up for slaughtering later this year. The ones we got last year sure made some tasty meals this winter, and saved on our meat trips to the store for sure. Plus its nice having an appreciation of where your food comes from, knowing what exactly went into it and such. It tends to make one less wasteful.
And now for my lecture...
One should always put their chickens back into a secure pen at night. Lots of critters find chickens a delicacy, and if mine weren't locked up at night, I'd have a lot less I know. If they roost in trees, poke them out with a stick after dark and manually put them in the pen. It's really not hard. They'll figure it out eventually.
If you switched pens with them, always keep them penned up for 2 weeks to a month so they know that that is their home now. Otherwise, they'll run right back to the old pen and not go in as easily.
some of them figured out how to fly away
Most chickens have a hard time flying over a 6 foot fence, let alone any great distance. So I doubt they're like sparrows and just "flew away". More than likely they wandered too far and something ate them.
And especially with the fancy bantam breeds, they really shouldn't be left to roam around on their own due to their small size. I've had red-tailed hawks make attempts at mine when I was in the yard watching them. They're more of a fancy breed that really needs to stay penned up away from mud if at all possible. The feathers on their feet can really be a problem if they get caked in mud.
During the summer mine do roam around the yard when I'm out. They really love to eat grass and bug around the woods and stuff. But during the winter its just too risky, too many predators who're hungry and looking for an easy meal. Plus, not as much grass or bugs.
And now for the pics I've taken..
Their home and fully-enclosed pen, it'd take a coon with a bolt cutter to get in..
The inside of their home with the roost, food bin, and nest box..
Red, my Buff Orpington rooster..
Yeti, my Araucana rooster..
Yeti, Red, and some hens..
Some of the eggs I've gotten...the Araucanas lay the green and blue ones..
A pic of the last two roosters to bite the dust..
