Advice on how commercial food to feed free range mixed flock.

[Unruffled]

I have a mixed flock of 63 (42 ducks, 17 chickens, and 4 geese) that are all free range during the day and locked up, for safety from the evening until morning. We live on 15 acres of mostly pasture with a little woods but the birds usually only range the same, about, an acre. Also I have two different age groups in both my chickens and my ducks. I have 37 ducks and 5 chickens that just hatched in April of 2020 and the rest of my chickens and ducks are well over a year old so are on layer feed. My geese also hatched in April of 2020.
Now that I’ve spewed all that info out, my question is how much commercial feed do you think I should be giving each age group each day during the warm months vs the cold months when they can’t range for food?Any advice would be appreciated. Also, I supplement their feed with brewers yeast and probiotics.
Thank you in advance!

 

[Stipenvlerk]

I would give them as much as they can eat in approx. 4 hours in summer and 6 in winter.
‘but I’m not an expert, it’s just what I’m used to.
let’s heAR what others have to say

 

[Alaskan]

The answer partly depends on what kind of a winter you have.

I free feed... but I have found that when I had geese in the summer they ate almost zero feed. Geese are huge grass eaters, and got almost all of their food from the lawn. The rest of my flock, chickens and ducks, were never that economical.

However in winter, with zero stuff growing, all of the birds ate only pellets, and the colder it gets, the more they eat. So... in a mild winter they don't have to eat as much.

So... I tend to eat my flock in the fall, until the feed that they are eating, is at a level I am happy to supply.

 

[iwltfum]

Laying hens can really only supplement about 10% of their diet from forage and that's assuming you have good quality poultry forage in your pasture and that the hens are utilizing that forage efficiently. So when the grass (and other pasture plants) is up good, you could theoretically give them 10% less then you give them the rest of the year, but I wouldn't do this. I would just give them as much food as you normally give them daily and hope that they eat a little less of it. I have a similar situation (100% free range on about 16 acres of pasture and woods and about 100 hens) and I always assume my hens will eat 100% of what I give them (which is the the same amount throughout the year), and on they odd day that they don't, I consider it a bonus.

I've also heard that leaving hens to search for forage can cause them to use up more energy, thus needing more calories ultimately, so in that case, it could come out in the wash and you might need to provide them the same amount of food year round and just consider the forage as extra nutrients that will help keep them healthy and make their eggs more nutritious.

 

[Uncle Vig]

I have 45 hens of various breeds free ranging on 2 acres of pasture and an acre of woods. They are very active in both the pasture and the woods, and keep my open compost turned frequently. Being they are always on the go, I free feed them and they all seem very healthy and yield an abundance of eggs. 30+ a day usually!