100 percent free range question

[Hartj88]

I have 7 chickens I have free ranged without feed for 3 years. Not like a few hours a day free range or in a big yard free range. They are in the middle of over 240 acres in Georgia and they get out of the coop at daybreak with a guard dog on the property but not always with them. Then return to coop at night. Just got 75 more chickens and trying to slowly get them off feed. Does anybody have a way that they cut the feed back on them until they no longer need it. Birds at 12 weeks and half are doing pretty good but the other half just starve themselves until I feed them. Won’t even attempt to forage.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What breeds do you have and how are you housing and feeding them? I'm kind of searching for straws, I don't have a clue. You'd think they would learn by watching others if instinct didn't take over.

I grew up on a farm like that in the ridges of East Tennessee. The vast majority of our chicks were raised by broody hens so she taught them. On the few times Dad got baby chicks at the co-op to improve the stock he just turned them loose at the hen house and left them on their own at around 3 weeks of age. Those were broods of 12 chicks, not 75, but I don't know why that would make a difference.

 

[LaurenRitz]

Personally I'd put the resistant chicks in chicken tractors so they don't affect the others with their resistance. Divide by degree of forage ability. Then one day per week put each tractor in an area that is swarming with bugs, and don't feed them that day. Check crops at the end of the day and adjust accordingly. At the end of a month you should have a pretty good idea which need to be harvested.

I have 10 13 week old chicks and 5 at 8 weeks, and one that just hangs out on the coop. She's obviously getting something, but since I'm feeding 1 quart per day for 15 birds I suspect she's not too happy.

 

[Mrs. K]

It might be you are past capacity for the area being used. Feed from the ground is not limitless.

Mrs K