Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Achickenwrangler#1]

I'm not claiming to be an ole timer-but as stated earlier (you'll get to it soon!) moderation is key...if you decide one week to give nothing but fruit, or fish emulsion or suddenly change over to a completely new system, yeah, it can have side effects. Tossing some apples in the run or feeding a handful of berries isn't going to bother them...but remember fruit has natural laxitive properties and chickens won't stop eating when they've had enough of a good thing, so just cause it's fun to watch a ten pound rooster hop in the air to pluck a berry from your fingers...unless you want ten lb fruity poop all over your poarch.....beware! Eggs? I can't understand how it would ever make them stop laying or change the flavor of the eggs....biologically I just can't figure that one out...I wish a physiologist would explain that one to me...someday I'll run into one and be sure to ask.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Only on page 70, but I got a question for the OTs...does feeding fruit to the chickens cause them to stop or slow down on laying? The local feed store told me it does, so just wanting to verify since we're coming in to the fruit season...

I feed our tomato and watermelon scraps to the pen I want eggs from the most. We try to spread it around, but currently I have two orders pending for White Chantecler eggs. The Chantecler pen gets priority.

No offense with your feed store, but he sells feed. Of course he thinks scraps will cause them to not lay.

Just continue to feed the same amount of layer ration, but offer free choice fruit/scraps. We mow/bag the trim areas of the yard and once a month we mow the paddocks. This grass clippings all go into the breeding pens. They eat a lot of it, but also compost the rest. In the spring their pens will be cleaned and placed on the garden.

Remember that Grandma's chickens always laid well and she always fed whatever scraps she had.

 

[Ridgerunner]

When I was a kid ours free ranged in an orchard. They had all kinds of apples and pears on the ground during the season, plus any plums we kids missed. Blackberries grew wild in their range. Lots of blackberries. Although they had free choice, they never over-ate enough that the eggs or their health suffered.

If you keep them locked up and you provide all the food they eat, moderation is more important. You are in a different situation. I still would not over-worry about it as long as you give them a good selection and don't get ridiculous about it.

 

[thedragonlady]

Only on page 70, but I got a question for the OTs...does feeding fruit to the chickens cause them to stop or slow down on laying? The local feed store told me it does, so just wanting to verify since we're coming in to the fruit season...

As long as your birds are still getting their regular ration free choice, you can let them have all the fallen fruit they want. The crows and squirrels are hitting the pears in the orchard where my Orps range, and the Os are busy pecking at the still unripe pears. All through this awful heat, my girls have laid an egg a day. I think the pears are just adding some more moisture and a little sugar for energy to the birds' diet. I had an old Cocker who would eat all the blueberries and pears that he could get in season. The fruit amazingly never affected his tummy.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Optimum wording, free range, and in season...kind of goes hand in hand...I'm often surprised when some one says they free range and it's maybe on a quarter acre, that's not free range to me, having a bird go get his own berries and dumping a gallon into his food bowl is a distinction as well..odds are the chicken will eat his fill and go on to something else, if it's available free choice, as nature intended then fine...let em have it...if it's all they get in a ten by ten cell then it might make a difference. My chickens would work really hard to reach berries six feet in the air, they have to settle for what fell on the ground, and then, they tend to pick out only the best part of it.

 

[loanwizard]

Optimum wording, free range, and in season...kind of goes hand in hand...I'm often surprised when some one says they free range and it's maybe on a quarter acre, that's not free range to me, having a bird go get his own berries and dumping a gallon into his food bowl is a distinction as well..odds are the chicken will eat his fill and go on to something else, if it's available free choice, as nature intended then fine...let em have it...if it's all they get in a ten by ten cell then it might make a difference. My chickens would work really hard to reach berries six feet in the air, they have to settle for what fell on the ground, and then, they tend to pick out only the best part of it.

Just curious as to what you would consider free range? To me it simply means no fence. I have 4 acres and mine use all of it plus a little State ground as well as the neighbors woods (Very little)... Not trying to be rude obnoxious or anything of the ilk, just piqued my interest.

 

[Ridgerunner]

To me, free range is another one of those phrases that means different things to different people. Legally you can call chickens with access to a run with absolutely no grass "free range" chickens. Yeah, right.

To me it depends more on quality of forage than anything else. If they have access to sufficient grass and weeds, grass seeds and weed seeds, all kinds of creepy crawlies, leaves or dead vegetation to scratch and peck in, all that, then I think of them as free range.

Right now mine don't have all that. I've got them in electric netting because of predator problems. Once this drought is over and I have my numbers back up, I'll try again. The predators that were causing problems are gone but with this drought, too many things are on the move.

 

[cubalaya]

free to range wherever they want and come back to the coop at night. thats free range.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

I think ridgerunner defines it best. I don't have a fence for ever in several directions, but they seem to only use twenty acre circuit, woods grass pasture. Variety of different plants and bugs. Right now I'd say my broody is done with her pen of @500 sq ft, she has been over every inch in a week and it's close to time to move on....before it turns into a dirt patch. Quality forage, not depleted in a week.

 

[loanwizard]

I don't have fences either, but my chickens seem to stay inside I would guess about a 5 acre area. I never see them by the pond, they do like the shade of the woods, and luckily, I have kept the coon and possum at bay although I have suffered some loss. I just set 82 eggs yesterday to get ready for next year. I think maybe one more set like that will suffice. Figure 82 eggs, 41 hatch, 20 pullets x 2 equals 40 fresh hens for next year plus my 1st year hens from this year, and eat some old barebacks. Gonna have to change my diet to more chicken for sure.