Letting chickens forage ONLY?

[chooniecat]

If FORAGE is the word(not sure). Have a customer that is looking for pasture fed ONLY chickens(for eggs) as she is striving for a grain free diet(which I respect as she is slender,very healthy) but before I go online trying to research this wondered if anyone had FACTS about doing such a thing. And you would obviously have to feed them SOMETHING in the winter(snow) or I envision my domestic chickens starving to death. Do they sell grass based diets? I know I hear stories of "wild" chickens that my grandma used to catch and cook but it doesn't seem like the majority of chickens born would make it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You are in a colder snowier climate than I was raised in, but I'll tell you how my parents handled their chickens.

We never locked the hen house door. The chickens were not restricted by a fence in any way, except the fence that kept them out of the garden. The hen house was in a pasture field, not that far from a barn full of hay, and not that far from a woodland. We would go years without a predator attack, but then a fox or something would find the chickens and have to be dealt with. Most would sleep in the hen house but some roosted in trees outside, even when the weather got below zero Fahrenheit. I'm mentioning this to show mainly that they were not coddled pets but were considered livestock and probably meet your definition of "wild".

The only time we ever fed them was when there was snow on the ground. Other than that they foraged. There was a barn full of hay nearby and sometimes some would go inside there and eat some of the seeds on that hay. We fed hay to cattle outside on the ground and they could get some of the grain that the cattle missed, but there was not a mad rush by the chickens to that potential food source when we fed the cattle, so I don't think they depended on it too much. Even in the winter with all green stuff dead, they could find vegetative matter and grass and weed seeds to eat. If there was snow on the ground, we would shell corn and feed that to them, but not unless there was snow on the ground. Some of the first year pullets would lay through the winter, but the older hens would molt and stop laying. The eggs were not double extra huge sized like you can get if you stuff the hens with extra protein, but they were decent sized when they did lay. During the summer, they laid very well and the eggs were decent sized.

These were mainly chickens raised by broodies, not raised in a brooder. I've noticed with mine that broody raised chickens forage much better than brooder raised chickens. Practically all the chickens made it through the winters and summers. These chickens were a barnyard mix, mainly mutts, but with Rhode Island Red, Dominique, Australorp,some game, and who knows what else in their background. Occasionally, but not that often, Dad would pick up a dozen chicks from the Co-op and raise them in a cardboard box on the back porch to bring in new blood. At about 5 or 6 weeks old, he would turn them loose and they were on their own. Most of those made it, but they had the other chickens to learn from.

I don't have any scientific studies to refer to. Just my memories from a lot of decades ago. It is a different world now. Thanks for the chance to go down memory lane.

 

[EastmanEggs]

ANSWERS HEREThe facts are IN !

I have spoke with my grandparents, my great uncle, and some older people who raised chickens waaaaayyyy back. (Think 1940s etc.)

They had 10 acres, 7 tilled with corn & soybeans. The lawn was an acre (not magnificently mowed as 21st century lawns) and the other 2 acres were unkept wooded/flood area with weeds etc.

They had 40-60 chickens in a 10x20 chicken house with nest racks (no dividers to call a box) and straw all over the ground.

Well water was provided from the spigot, carried to inside the coop.

The chickens would receive table scraps, husks, peels, slop, and the occasional spoiled bread. They were not given 'feed' but were regularly fed scraps. The remainder of their diet was found in the wild. (Can't certify what they ate, but it's safe to assume bugs, grasses, clovers, etc)

Eggs were collected twice daily and were sold to the local grocery store. (Technically they bartered the eggs for groceries and then the store sold the eggs to a supply company, but did not resell themselves.)

Chickens were culled each late fall before winter. Many, especially old hens, were butchered. Not all at once though- they were taken as needed. Almost everyone had chickens, some had 4, some had 400.

Grains from the fields and silos were purchased from neighbors during winter. Feed existed but was pricey when you could get grains for cheap. Again, egg production tapered off and many culled to eat. It was believed to be cheaper to raise a chick than to keep unproductive old hens all winter.

As far as FREE RANGE ONLY, most chickens free ranged!! Granted they got scraps and treats occasionally, many found their food just fine.

Predators were common and appearently so we're rats. Losing a chicken here and there was "just the way it is.". My grandfather took his BB gun or .22 onto the coop roof (he can't remember) and shot rats on the ground below. He says they were " the size of rabbits!"

The birds were not as big. He said they looked fit and slender- but not sickly or thin. They were like those- he said pointing to a leghorn picture in the McMurray catalog. The birds weren't as fat and thick, they were fit and active.

Also, he said they locked up the coop at night and did not EVER even think of heating it. He laughed at the idea. "Hell we let 'em stay inside- they kept warm on their own. They huddle up."

Lastly, he said the chicken meats were nothing like today. Today's breasts alone are bigger than most of our chickens entire meat. (I'm guessing a lot of Hybrid, GMO, and superbreeding affects this too)

Anyhow- that's what the old folks say.

I will be ordering all kinds of day old chicks to add to my collection next month. Different kinds, etc. I will free range only a few and see how they fair.

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Anyone else hve first hand experience, or know someone who free ranged ONLY?

 

[Chris09]

Does anyone know how honey bees were first domesticated? Chickens are about as domesticated as European honey bees are. The only major difference is that all honey bees can fly and sting, while thanks to humans only a few chickens keep these vital survival skills, and the more someone searches for a chicken that they can "pet" the faster these survival skills disappear.

I would say that chickens are domesticated more on the lines of most of todays livestock, cattle, sheep, goats etc.
Most of todays chickens wouldn't last 2 years before showing signs of malnutrition without human aid, the European honey bee can.

I agree that too many people are trying to make pets out of poultry and imo the more they do the more useless they become.

 

[sunnyvera]

I will kick my 2-cents in. I bought some 6 month old pullets from a man who never feeds his chickens (that I could see) They are outside and in the yard and meadow all day - eating whatever they can find. I saw waterers here and there so they were watered. At nite they put themselves to bed in a disgusting-looking shed. They would stay outside until it was mostly dark, probably not wanting to come in but get those bugs that come out at dusk. Anyway, the 6 pullets I got from him were healthy, just very lean. When you picked them up you felt skin and bone. He even bragged that next year he would get 200 more to sell. (sure, they cost him nothing to feed). He gets them early spring and sells in the fall. I must say they are good layers now (they are BA), but took forever to get that first egg. I was not impressed and truly felt sorry for them as they tried to stay alive. There were other houses around - not like he had 100 acres to let the girls roam on. I think we have to be balanced and meet in the middle somewhere on this topic.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Let me add that I do not raise my chickens the way my parents did. I do let mine free range but I always have feed available for them. I do lock them up at night. I live in different times, in different conditions, and with different goals.

With the increase in human population density and the change in land use, I don't think chickens could survive all that well from a predator aspect now where I was raised. I'm sure there are still some people doing it a lot like my parents did, but that method just does not work if there are too many humans around. As far as them being able to live off the land they can if they have a lot of area. They will not be as productive as caged animals fed a special diet designed to maximize production, whether eggs or meat, but they can live off the land. And they can live off the land much better if their Mama taught them how to do it.

How many wild or semi-wild animals are fat? Skinny seems to help them in the survival mode. I'd even propose that a "skinny" chicken might be more healthy than a fat one, though probably not as productive.

 

[UrbanGrower]

I'd shoot for the most varied and pasture based diet I could supply, while still maintaining 16% protein and plenty of energy to keep up weight and production with whole grains. Basically everything you get from a standard layer feed, without the feed.

 

[dsqard]

Ok I might (well probably

) will come off sounding like an idiot but what exactly does she expect chickens to eat? You have your "organic" people who want only plant based protien feed (from my small understanding of what "organic" means) and now someone who doesn't want them to eat grains. I am sorry they are omnivores not ruminants. If they are allowed to "pasture feed" they are going to eat bugs, grass and any seeds they can find. I guess I just don't understand why people think changing the way an animal has evolved to eat (i.e. vegitarian food for dogs and cats) is going to give you a healthy animal. OK off my soap box now.

 

[EastmanEggs]

From what I found on some other threads... Chickens are good foragers, very adaptable, and afterall. this is how our forefathers raised chickens! It should work.

Im going to try with 50 straight run birds this spring.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Very interesting thread. Fun to read the memories of years gone by. Interesting conjectures. Definitely differing opinions and philosophies.

I personally think it is important to remain balanced in your philosophy and chicken rearing approach...neither becoming too commercialized (where profit is the only bottom line) nor becoming too romantic towards "natural" and the way they did it years ago (presuming then was more sustainable and "natural").

To support my conclusions, let me wander a bit into nostalgia of my own childhood.

My grandma (and grandpa) grew up on farms in the late 1800's. When they married in 1919, they owned a farm in South Dakota, which they lost during the dust bowl (not bad farming on their part, just the drought and those dang blasted locusts). This forced an exodus to the west (yes, via Grapes of Wrath migration) to set up family homesteading in southern Arizona. There they raised customary food stuff and livestock just for the family, as cheaply and easily as possible, as grandpa found living better by doing postal work. Years later when Grandma "retired," she took her savings and followed her life long dream to go into the egg business, which would have been the late 40's through early 60's.

She strictly raised for egg production and sold her eggs to stores and customers, so set up for business. She was still living in southern Arizona, so in a dry arid place. Even in the arid place, I'm sure the chickens would have found something for foraging year round, like on their homestead farm, but the coyotes would have picked them off fast and her eye again was for production. So, she kept them in large, open to sunlight but secure pens and coops, and fed them predominately, if not solely, commercial feed. I know this for a fact as, living with my grandparents, I grew up wearing clothing from the cast off commercial feed sacks...back then the feed company made sacks out of nice linen with flower prints. I remember the day grandma was bitterly disappointed that the feed sacks changed to rough burlap. I was overjoyed that her Scotch nature didn't continue to use those sacks for my clothing. (It's a little awkward when you match the feed bags at the feed store, but burlap would have been horrible to wear.)

She purchased her young chicks in the spring...what seemed to my young eyes like a truck load....and they were delivered by a truck straight to the farm. She heated them in a large building with overhead lamps. The cheeping was deafening. So she did not brood with brooding hens.

She collected eggs daily, and there were always a lot. And I remember her washing, candling and sizing eggs to place in cartons according to USDA standards.

The birds, from what I remember in my mind, must have been predominately White Leghorns or more likely White Rocks, as they were heavy enough to butcher and get some meat. We butchered young hens for the dinner table. I know they were hens and not cocks as we would salvage any new pullet eggs from them as we butchered, and it was my job to do the "treasure hunt" to see if there were any eggs in the new pullet. She only occasionally used her older hens, and only for pressure cooked stewing, as in her opinion they simply were not worth the effort as they were always stringy and chewy and off tasting being older. She had a strong dislike for older and farm "foraged" birds.

How strong her dislike was made clear when I was in high school. My French class held a dinner to raise money for a class trip to tour Western Europe (which I went on). The whole class was enlisted to cook and provide the food. A number of us were assigned Coq a Vin, and someone had donated an older flock of hens, whom I am pretty sure did a lot of foraging with some feed, and little oversight, as I remember going to their small homestead to get the birds. As a class we went out and plucked them on butcher day, then took our apportioned lot to cook at home. Grandma took one look at those birds and promptly threw them away and went to the store and bought nice fryer chickens saying "you can't do nothing with these old, spent (and ranged) hens if you want a nice meal for your dinner." I must say that my dish was the one that was quickly cleaned up first, and the difference between those plump fresh fryers and the craggy older foragers was strong...both in appearance and taste.

To sum up...my grandmother was thankful for the new advances that occurred in farming over her lifetime as she had spent far too many hard, lean years scraping a living off the land. She knew her birds would be bettered cared for in pens and houses (with plenty of sunshine and space), supplied with good balanced feed and fresh water. She never once worried about feeding too much commercial feed to the bird but was pleased with healthy birds that laid well and were tender to eat (if young). In her mind, that was far, far better than the skinny, tough birds she had grown up with.

I think the lesson to be learned is to be willing to adapt when needed and not allow any romanticized philosophy to trump common sense and good husbandry or science. It is important to keep a balanced eye when reminiscing about those "good old days" or vilifying the evil commercial ag industry. Many of our changes have come about from honest pressures of food production and survival.

I personally have only 1/3 acre to work with, so little hope of foraging for all their needs. I feed a good quality commercial grain feed, and supply some table scraps. I have, at times, worked with an organic grocer and brought home plastic bins of their produce toss...but be forewarned...you have to get your birds accustomed to eating greens if they have a choice for the commercial feed as they will turn to the feed more than a lot of the greens.

My thoughts, experiences, (and memories)
LofMc