@Beekissed I will respond to your response to my comments. I was referring to the "know it all" people in my particular neighborhood, not to people here on this site. You were not a target.
Maybe your bald eagles do not bother your birds and for that I am glad. The ones here have become not only a pain to the small chicken owners, but are actually becoming a problem at the truck stop right off the interstate a couple of miles away.
The only way I could stop the predation by the eagle was to keep them locked in. Shooting the eagle was not an alternative, or he would have been long since disposed of. There are several farmers in the county west of me that call them bald headed vultures due to the problems they have with eagles and their newborn calves. They will attack cows having newborn calves, and attack and kill the calves. SEEN IT. Had a conservation officer that actually did dispose of an eagle that had targeted a farm that was calving their cows out within an acre of the barn and such to try to prevent it.
My birds that are in "chicken tractors" are not in a dirty pen that is overcrowded and never moved. They were moved around the garden, with plenty of soil to dig in, and added their manure to the garden. Or on the lawn and moved daily so they always had fresh grass and did not kill the soil or the organisms. They are not being overcrowded and baked under a tin roof with no more than a 10x10 space to move in. I do not keep the meat birds in a chicken tractor. Only my individual purebred show birds that I mate for egg saving. I have some of the "old breeds" New Hamps and different colors of Large Langshans. Also have had many other breeds over the years.
The trailers that the layers were in were out in the pasture but were not that far from the edge of the woods. I never had more than an occasional lost bird, except for the pack of dogs, until the eagle moved into the area. The birds would go out and spend the better part of the day outside, except to come back in to lay and get water. The cows liked to play with the 5 gal waterers, so they were kept inside. The chickens spent a good part of their time scratching through all the cow patties in the field. Yes they had free choice feed in the coops, but I fed less than half of what they were "supposed to eat" because they were free ranging.
The birds got so they were scared of any and every shadow that crossed the sky because of the eagle. I had conservation people, the extension office, you name it, they were there.... to try to come up with an alternative to the miserable eagle. I sat there and used the shotgun to scare the stupid bird off, trying to convince it that this was not his private free meal smorgasboard. I would not let them out til late afternoon when I could stay there "babysitting". My birds are pretty savvy, even the ones in the chicken tractors, to any shadows flying overhead and will duck right into the house part. Implying that I did not care about the birds was really uncalled for. Chicken tractors are good alternatives if they are used in the manner they are designed. The worms would have little mounds of soil where they had come up and taken down some of what the chickens leave behind so it is not a barren or smelly or poopy ground.
We've had a couple of guardian dogs. Had some of these know it all neighbors actually call the dog warden saying we were being cruel by making the poor dog stay out there with the animals. They took to feeding the dogs across the fence. I wish they had been Anatolians, to be more "protective" of their own space, maybe they would have bitten the dam neighbors....
I was in and out of there 2-4 times a day. The dogs were not neglected. Caught the one neighbor enticing the dog out through a spot in the fence to their house with canned food, which I did not feed them with. Had the law involved and actually filed charges against this neighbor. So I can speak with some experience.
The donkey used to run the eagle when it landed, even though I don't think he cared so much about the chickens, but about the calves. We also are having major problems with the black vultures during calving, and I have had them go after a just fresh cow and her calf as she is trying to clean it off. The eagle was hanging with that group sometimes too.
So I am glad that your birds are in an environment that they are safe from most all predators. I hope that you never do have to deal with what we have dealt with. There were no untruths in my response to your post, and the bitter bile was because there were no alternatives to the situation we were dealing with.
I have successfully free ranged hundreds of birds over the years. But there are areas/times that it just doesn't work.
My current situation has my cornish x free ranging on some mostly brushy wooded ground and they are 8 weeks when I get them and been raised inside up until then. They need about 3 days to get with the program and learn about going out to scratch and run and grab bugs. I nearly fell over laughing at 2 that wanted the same bug and they were chasing each other trying to get the bug and one was trying to stop to eat it and the other would grab it and run in the other direction. These birds are not near where the eagle was the problem. The only fence they have is to keep them away from the road on one side, because there is alot of traffic and I don't need them out there.
You've got a whole yard full of 'em, CC! 
I agree....it's totally uncalled for. I apologize for the implication as I know it doesn't feel good to have someone accuse a complete stranger of not caring for their animals simply because they choose to free range. 
