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No, its a question of balanced nutritional intake.

Honestly, I'm a bit jealous of that run. Dog fennel is taking over a lot of mine - only cure is mechanical removal. The goats eat the tops, but being goats, leave the rest to a height of about 6", then ignore it till its 12-15" high. Enough to block out most other growing things. Ain't...

nope! I have a septic myself. The birds don't seem unusually interested in the field, and don't scratch deeply - inches only. Even their hollows/ground nests are only about 4" deep.

My example differs - my birds routinely go over a 4' gate to get to the other side - or thru the hole at the 3' level, but I don't have old commercial reds or the CX eating machines, and my mutts tend towards lighter/flighty - its the predator awareness I'm preserving in them. As to septic, if...

I believe there is a cost issue. And while electric fencing is inexpensive, it's provides no protection from predation by hawks, owls, etc, and is limited in keeping chickens contained. Good for keeping dogs out though.

^^^ Good point. I'm breeding birds to forage effectively on my property. Definite impact on how far they will range. My Mutts go further than my SLW, which went further than my Dark Brahma. Even so, OP said they had a narrow deep property. As a fellow land owner, I appeciate that they are...

There isn't one I've seen. Most studies are concerned with raising commercial chickens in commercial conditions - in other words, establighing minimum requirements, sometimes maximums (as here), then figuring out the cheapest and alternative ways of ensuring those minimums are met. The calcium...

Mine go out into a protected area about 2 weeks, seasonally, and join the free rangers fully by about 7 weeks, +/- Mine forage several hundred feet from the the coop. When there is a predator attack, they will range less far, then as they become more comfortable, they will re-extend their...

and you should also be aware that the wild chickens in Fitzgerald are human - supported. They had been released to the wild with intent of creating a truly feral flock (as exists in Hawaii and the FL Keys) and the birds moved to town, not maintaining a significant feral population where...

Yes, if you are in the deep blue section, you get your soil tested. BIG difference between soil at .2 selenium and soil at 0.02 selenium (both are blue on the map). If you are in the 0.02 category, you treat the ground to improve the soil, not the birds. Or, you choose a reputable feed with a...

Mostly agree - though there are a few areas which are remarkably low in certain micronutrients. Selenium, for instance. But something you only need to check once (and possibly get your soil tested - once). Its the "sufficiently large and natural area" that's doing all the work there. Most...

Try this. We have lots of studies from lots of sources over lots of years giving us a good idea of what modern chickens need as part of a balanced diet meeting minimum needs for moderate performance. We also have a number of sources, from a number of years giving average nutritional values of...

Yes, you absolutely can - and because its almost entirely water, you needn't concern yourself with the "by weight" rule so much. Watermelon, similar. Many of us offer things like watermelon chilled to help with heat stress - water, some key electrolytes, and of course lower temp. Strawberries...

Here's your high level answer. For thousands of years, as humans domesticated what has become the modern chicken, they (like we) scavenged a varied diet . Those birds were generally smaller, slower growing, and MUCH less productive than their modern equivalent. They roamed larger areas than...

THAT is an excellent start. Strawberries are mostly water, good sources of vitamin C and magnesium, not a heck of a lot else.. If your chickens were given nothing but strawberry plants to eat, that would be a problem - the chickens would eat to imbalance, because they had no choice. Tommorow...

Anything not part of a nutritionally complete, balanced diet is a "treat". It doesn't matter how "good" for your chicken it might be in isolation, there is no ingredient on the planet which is nutritionally complete to meeting a chicken's needs. Meaning anything you give is unbalancing. The...