while my son (whose 29) was in high school he kept hens as part of his FFA project. After he went to college I got stuck with keeping track of them and they were not laying as much, so when he got home for Christmas, we liberated them at the state fishing lake park! since their wings not clipped, figured they at least had a chance to get into a tree if the coyotes or hawks didn't get them first! Will say chicken "sh#!" makes good addition to the compost pile! But don't miss them (think the dogs and our resident coyotes do though)