Can they do good with just free ranging and snacks

[Onyxflock]

Crazy how they've changed, huh?

And NOT just chickens!!! Anybody out there Gluten Free? Peanut intolerant, or addicted to Pepsi? Or taking your 1-A Day, calcium and/or supplements each day?
How many of those Grand parents lived to be 80-90 years old before the 1950's?
This ain't your Grandma's generation - that's all there is to it.

 

[Chicalina]

And NOT just chickens!!! Anybody out there Gluten Free? Peanut intolerant, or addicted to Pepsi? Or taking your 1-A Day, calcium and/or supplements each day?
How many of those Grand parents lived to be 80-90 years old before the 1950's?
This ain't your Grandma's generation - that's all there is to it.

So true. Our fruit and veg and cereal crops don't have as many vitamins and minerals in as they did 50 years ago. Intensive farming methods have killed the soil, so we have to pump in artificial fertiliser etc but it's far inferior to the natural nutrients the soil used to contain back in the day, which then went into the crop.

 

[ninja333pirate]

My chickens love horse feed. You havent seen scary until you've seen a mom take her day-old chicks to eat AT THE FEET OF A HORSE.

The feet are not what's scary about that, I have seen a video of a horse slurping up and eating a baby chick before.

 

[ackie]

The feet are not what's scary about that, I have seen a video of a horse slurping up and eating a baby chick before.

that's terrifying.

 

[Fluffy Lambs]

The feet are not what's scary about that, I have seen a video of a horse slurping up and eating a baby chick before.

WHAT!?

I've seen plenty of hens take chicks to eat what the horses drop.

 

[coledabomb]

The feet are not what's scary about that, I have seen a video of a horse slurping up and eating a baby chick before.

 

[ackie]

WHAT!?

I've seen plenty of hens take chicks to eat what the horses drop.

I haven't watched the video but I assume it was an accident.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

He has no business working in the chicken department if he's giving out that kind of idiotic advice.

Unrestricted feed, except for Cornish X being raised for meat on mildly-restricted feed to prevent leg problems, yes. But his advice to mix scratch with the feed is the equivalent to telling you to feed your child on a diet that is half cookies.



The situation of game chickens in a tropical environment and dual-purpose/meat breeds in a temperate backyard is completely different. Your method should not be attempted anywhere that doesn't support a population of feral chickens already because that's an indication that the environment does not have the natural nutrients available to support a chicken that's not being fed by humans.



Your grandfather was probably raising his chickens on a diversified farm where they had access to the feed that the other animals spilled and were picking undigested grain from horse and/or cattle manure.

Additionally, chickens from generations ago weren't nearly so productive as our chickens today. In this poultry book from 1921 they were recommending a feed and management system aimed at making chickens profitable by getting 100 eggs per year -- from LEGHORNS!

Today I get more than that from my Brahma, who is considered a relatively poor layer at about 4 eggs a week.

x3

and I can cite MANY MANY MANY more studies in support.

Yes, in certain very limited conditions, with certain landraces in their native environment, an entirely free range diet is adequate. Not what most of us would call productive, but at least adequate to the bird's health. For most of us, in different environments, with differing breeds, it doesn't begin to meat a bird's needs, much less our needs for productivity out of those birds.

I've 55 birds +/- on many acres, in a zone with a long long growing season and a very varied pasture - but even at the height of summer I can't short my feed more than about 35% in spite of their free ranging 12 hours a day. Its a nice savings, don't get me wrong, but its certainly NOT an un-supplimented free range diet. Nor can my birds "clean up" after other farm animals, unlike the homesteads of yore - I don't have any (apart from the goats, whose feed is less valuable nutritionally than the chicken's).

 

[Isadora]

That was vile

 

[U_Stormcrow]

How many of those Grand parents lived to be 80-90 years old before the 1950's?
This ain't your Grandma's generation - that's all there is to it.

Very Few.

And if you would prefer the CDC's data...