i recently got some POL pullets with the intention of letting them roam free around our village and surrounding countryside - as is the norm here in Bohemia - but have kept them in a pen until they now untill they all started laying in the nestbox as i feared that 1. that they might get lost until familiar with their "home" 2. that they may lay away and i wouldnt find the eggs.
all are laying and i just liberated them - only they just hang around the pen! do chickens have a homing instinct, will they ever become explorers ;) and if so, will they find their way home to lay eggs and roost?
any advice much appreciated.