New to forum, and while raised on a ranch, we raised meat animals and milked cows. Now that I am married to a city boy, nearly ten years of fighting the city council, finally got the hens up and running four years ago. Now I only have half an acre for the hens, so I only maintain a single dozen, except in the spring when I am rearing half of the replacement hens and harvest half of the previous years hens. Yes, I know they will lay eggs longer, but the meat gets so darned tough.
Having said all this, you can take what I say with a grain of salt. I once used an organic grain mix, (not scratch), even though every single month I went in, the price would raise by about $2 per 50 lb bag. I happily went along until one day I went in and the feed store no longer carried the organic food any longer. Here I was purchasing a months supply because everything I read said that the degredation of quality and nutrients of older grains was not good. Had I known that I was the only one purchasing the original shipment the feed store had, I might not have purchased it so long. Anyhow, since I was the only one according to the store that ever purchased the feed, they had no intention in ordering more just for me.
The hens are free range on their little 1/2 acre. They have their coop they like to sleep in and lay their eggs. In various locations around the yard they have what I call "day pens" where they have an opening large enough to enter and exit, its covered on the top and one side to provide shade/protection from the elements....its a cute little "city chicken" set up........But when my option was to pay $50 per 50lb bag (by the time you purchase the grain and pay shipping).
Then Gaga, my rather "blinged" hen turned more wild than all her domesticated sisters showed me the light. She would wait till everyone was sleeping, then run under the rabbit cages and hunt for worms until the others got curious as to what she was doing. Hmm, okay, they like worms, so we ordered a worm bin, which turned into a tilled up, floor board over the top---OMG keeps the coop a little warmer from the compost section and the other half worm section. While her sisters were all busy snuggled up in the coop when winter hit, there was Gaga, up in her tree, under a thick branch that kept the snow off of her.....she finally settled in the rafter of the windsurfing shed during the coldest winter nights. Gaga prefers to forage and scratch for her food and doesn't really take to the feeder. I gave her all sorts of complicated recipes and supplements and made all kinds of time hogging special cakes of this and that for her. One day as I was grumbling to myself about all the fruit flies in the new batch of red wheat I got for my wheat grass juice......coupled with Gaga's desire to be a wild little hen......I realized that I failed to understand WHY I was working so hard. I tossed the rest of the seeds into greenhouse flats and grow one for each day through the winter months. Now they get one red wheat, one teff and one various other treat, sometimes sprouted sunflowers, sometimes sprouted peas....they love adzuki bean sprouts. Yes, they love their feed containers (some of them) but they ate very little of what I provided in the summer, rather all they wanted was fresh water and to forage all summer long. So out came the turf, replaced with things such as teff grass, oats, barley, red winter wheat, rye, barley-----all set up in cute little gardens all around the yard......the hens feed themselves. The mullberries that drop from the trees----they love em....as for the strawberry patch, lets just say I haven't eaten a home grown strawberry since they discovered them. Rather than ground cover and flower bushes, we have planted food sources for the hens. The yard looks great, we have parties and everyone always compliments. We grow them at various heights, with various lawn ornaments, mow certain areas, leave some a little more on the wild side. I harvest some so that I can provide them with good forage grains in the winter....but just as I eat seasonal, so do the hens. The shells are thick, well shaped and the yolks are so deep they look nearly red, not orange---certainly not lemon yellow like the store varieties.
The bottom line is keeping your hens happy and healthy. Mine prefer to free range with a treat each day of scratch. They love to be wild, sleeping in the trees in the yard, chasing the worms we have cultured all over for them......Nature once fed them without special bags and lotions and potions and they were healthy.......so rather than forcing that first wild hen to domesticate and be like me, I let her make me a little wild....and now, she gets to have her cake and eat it too.......AND free range like she was once allowed to be. I realize that creating a micro climate of "bird foods" growing live around the yard might not be for everyone.....but all summer long, I fill the feeder up once with 25 pounds of food-----they don't eat from it, but the wild sparrows do....nope those hens love hanging out in the long grasses eating the oats, teff, wheats, barley and fruits from the trees and berries from the bushes.............they will get around to eating that "store bought food" only when they have to...aka when winter hits and the forage options are reduced.
