How much fermented feed? Free range chickens.

[LloydHomestead]

Hello! I have 26 chickens. 10 buff Orpington (2 male). 10 black Australorp (1 male) and 6 bantam silkie (2 male). They are 11 weeks old. I’ve been feeding them fermented food since I got them at days old. At 8 weeks started letting them free range a few hours on 11 acres, now they are outside most of the day. And they always seem SO hungry. I feed them 4 cups of fermented feed a day and snacks of mealworms in the evening to get them inside. Sometimes when I go in their run without food they peck me like they’re mad. Should I be feeding them more?? I really want them to be mainly free range. So I’m not sure how to get to that with out making them angry lol pics for cuteness.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

the "thumb rules" are based on weight, not volume. The "thumb rules" suggest adult, full sized birds should get about 1/4# dry weight of feed each day, the banties obviously less. So you are looking at 5# of feed plus the banties, call it 6# of feed per day. Less the value of their forage (unknown).

Fermenting makes it impossible to measure dry weight after the fact, but since there are 2 cups of water in a pound, and water tends to be more dense than dried feed, its likely you are feeding slightly less than about 1/3 of the recommended amount of feed to meet your poultry's needs, and hoping the pasture does the rest. To double check that, measure and set aside 2# (dry weight) of feed in a seperate container, and ferment it as normal. NOW you can measure for volume.

I've never had savings from my pasture greater than about 35% - some people do better, some obviously do worse - and I certainly will once my pasture goes out of season and my savings drop to 10-15%.

That leaves only two ways to know if you are feeding them enough. One, watch behaviors. If they feed for 8-10 minutes then walk away, leaving feed behind, you can cut the amount fed slightly and continue to monitor/adjust/monitor. If they gobble it asll up in 3-5 min then beg for more, adjust upwards/monitor/adjust. I do this with my own flock. The other thing you can do, and again, I do this with my own flock, did it today - you get up inside your birds and poke around. With regular cullings for table, you get a consistent series of weights and a chance to ensure birds aren't depositing too much fat, or too little, and that they are well put together.

You can try condition scoring, its not fatal to the bird in question, but it takes a while to develop the skill (I haven't yet), and you need a reference to compare too.