Feed Management Methods [Poll]

[bruceha2000]

My birds forage some then hang out under the bushes or go into the barn for long periods of time and go back to foraging later. Thus I think their "free range" time could reasonably be considered to be a fair bit less than the hours the barn door is open.

 

[Brooks_]

My birds forage some then hang out under the bushes or go into the barn for long periods of time and go back to foraging later. Thus I think their "free range" time could reasonably be considered to be a fair bit less than the hours the barn door is open.

I think that comes back to intent. You intended free range; they free ranged back to the barn.

 

[Krugerrand]

I just want to say that whether 4 hours is long or short is relative to the expected activity. For example, I spend 4 hours driving to and from work daily would probably be thought of as a long time. I get 4 hours of sleep at night would be thought of as a short time. 4 hours of exercise daily seems excessive for most people. 4 hours at work daily is a short time to have to work. 4 hours to eat dinner…super long.

If one group of chickens gets to free range for 30 minutes every night, and then gets 4 hours on the weekend of range time, it would probably feel like a long time. If they usually free range but one day “only” get out for 4 hours, it would seem short.

4 hours to get caught up with the thread after I voted.

BTW, I have 3 hens that stay have 24 hr access to their run. They are let out to enjoy the 1/2 acre suburban lot as they wish probably 6-8 total hours over the course of a week in good weather. In bad weather they can go a week stuck in their run. Fortunately, they like to stick to the outskirts of the garden and the fence line. If they wanted to go into the yard where the kids play, they'd get their area cut down significantly.

 

[boatagor]

We just moved from the suburbs, where my 6 hens were confined the vast majority of the time to a 16x10 coop/run combo because of predators and escaping the yard, to 14 acres, where they free range from around 10am-6pm every day. They mostly stay in the cleared area around the house, which is probably an acre, and rarely venture into the rest, which is all wooded. Most of the people I know that have lost chickens to predators (my one loss included) have said it was at dusk or earlier in the morning, so I am trying to keep them locked up during those "dangerous" times. I work from home and check on my ladies about once an hour. I am impressed by their awareness of hawks, unknown birds, and random other things that send them running for cover. I also have a batch of babies in the basement about to go out to start integration. Then I will have 11-12 total, depending on how many of the babies end up being boys.

 

[MaryJanet]

Do you need to correlate the hours spent ranging to the length of the day? 3 hours ranging when there are only six hours of daylight is still half the day. When the days are long it might be only a fifth of the day.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Do you need to correlate the hours spent ranging to the length of the day? 3 hours ranging when there are only six hours of daylight is still half the day. When the days are long it might be only a fifth of the day.

No. The questions here were partly to help me write questions for 5he next poll. No series of questions will perfectly cover every situation. Just trying to establish some broad trends.

 

[MaryJanet]

My birds forage some then hang out under the bushes or go into the barn for long periods of time and go back to foraging later. Thus I think their "free range" time could reasonably be considered to be a fair bit less than the hours the barn door is open.

I see this behaviour at my house too. They fill up on forage then nap/digest under the bushes before filling up again.

 

[ManueB]

I see this behaviour at my house too. They fill up on forage then nap/digest under the bushes before filling up again.

Me too, for the adult birds.
I was surprised that the chicks forage almost non stop until they drop from exhaustion!

 

[peeper89]

WHA!! for the voteees yeah

 

[Perris]

I've looked for Dept of Agriculture analysis of various pastures and they only deal with the vegitation. Anything on or below the ground is ignored. Chickens eat some of that ignored stuff.

Another common oversight is tree fodder. They eat young tree leaves that they can reach. Ash, willow, hazel, birch, beech, alder and lime leaves are 15-21% protein, on average, plus assorted minerals (varying with the ground they grow in, of course), and my chickens regularly strip the first growth of the bottom of the beech hedge each spring. Which raises the obvious point that forage quality is highly seasonal - something may be there one month and gone the other 11.