Best way to feed chickens?

[CaramelKittey]

Hi, I’ve been doing research on ways to feed chickens cheap and organicly. I have a garden where I can grow a lot of plants. My birds are free range and have access to many bugs and plants. What do you feed your birds?

 

[Animals45]

I feed my chickens 15% eggration pellets.

 

[1cock2hens]

20% all flock with oyster shell on the side. I feed eggs back sometimes(hardboiled). my hens free range. My roosters don't have that privilege so I throw in clumps of grass with the dirt still attached from time to time. when I'm thinning some of my plants like my strawberry plants I throw trimmings in for them.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I feed a 16% later pellet but also supplement with canned fish.
During only I switch to an 18% pellet and still give fish but twice a week instead of once a week.

 

[centrarchid]

If the acreage available is sufficient and it has enough high quality forage then there is the potential of going without using feed of any sort. Most people do not have enough land for that and birds ranging farther makes predator management, especially during the day more difficult. When I am operating with minimal feed inputs, I can get by with using just scratch grains. If egg production drops off then either a grower feed with oyster shell is made available or simply a complete layer pellet in limited amounts. There are stages of this and you need to learn how to read your chickens and make adjustments.

How many acres and chickens involved?

 

[CaramelKittey]

If the acreage available is sufficient and it has enough high quality forage then there is the potential of going without using feed of any sort. Most people do not have enough land for that and birds ranging farther makes predator management, especially during the day more difficult. When I am operating with minimal feed inputs, I can get by with using just scratch grains. If egg production drops off then either a grower feed with oyster shell is made available or simply a complete layer pellet in limited amounts. There are stages of this and you need to learn how to read your chickens and make adjustments.

How many acres and chickens involved?

I have 24 chickens currently and 8 ducks.

The free range place that they are in is fenced in however, they still have a lot of room. Altogether, my parents own 24 acres where we could expand the chicken yard if needed.

Thank you for the advice!

 

[CaramelKittey]

I have heard of people giving their chickens cat food to boost protein. We have a cat and give the chickens a handful of cat food when they need it however, we haven’t needed to give them cat food for a long time.

 

[centrarchid]

You will not be able to protect an area of 24 acres. Even the 6 acres or so 24 chickens here would require for total free-range nutrition during production season would be tough without dogs helping a lot.

Cat food is not cost effective. I would look first into simply mixing soybean meal and corn gluten meal into your scratch grains and present the mixture as a fermented product to increase palatablity.

You can also work to make so the area is more productive. Can you provide photographs showing what the acreage they have looks like? I suggest concentrating on an area that is within a 100 yard radius of where the birds are housed at night.