Feeding and free ranging thoughts/tips/debunking?

[PhantomSlayer]

Its fine lol 9 chickens and 5 ducks. The ducks they wont even let out because the ducks run from everyone so they dont think they'll come back if their let out. I personally feel like my sister in law in underestimating chicken and duck care. . My 11 year old niece takes care of most of the animals currently. Our 10 acre property is split for two houses. Their house which is closest to the road and our house is on the back side of the property on a hill. So even if I want to decide the care I don't have much say. But I can still suggest it to them and even if they dont do it I'm planning on convincing my parents to have a chicken coop and maybe space for turkeys up on our side of the property. So this information is extremely helpful for the future. My mom wants the turkeys for some reason lol.

 

[Coops Dad]

Our chickens free range and usually don't stray more than a couple hundred feet from their coop. They've got six acres that I plant cover crops on for them to forage, plus they have access to pellets for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon.

A few adventurous ones have occasionally strayed as far as the front of the house, about a hundred yards from their coop, but those are the RIRs. Rhodies are the honey badger of the chicken world.

 

[PhantomSlayer]

They don't need any extra food if they are fed a formulated ration, a pile of leaves is good for entertainment.

I doubt they "Formulate" anything outside of gaming since their kids do the feeding of animals lol

 

[NatJ]

I doubt they "Formulate" anything outside of gaming since their kids do the feeding of animals lol

The feed company does the formulating. The chicken owner just has to buy a bag labeled "chick starter" or "chick grower" or "all flock feed" or "layer pellets" or something of the sort. That food, plus water, should provide everything the chickens need in their diet.

Chickens can be fine without free ranging.

 

[nuthatched]

I doubt they "Formulate" anything outside of gaming since their kids do the feeding of animals lol

I'm sorry, I forgot you're newbie. Formulated, meaning, an actually feed such as layer feed, all flock, flock raiser, chick starter. Etc. Something sold in pelleted or crumbled form.
Not scratch. Ever.

 

[PhantomSlayer]

The feed company does the formulating. The chicken owner just has to buy a bag labeled "chick starter" or "chick grower" or "all flock feed" or "layer pellets" or something of the sort. That food, plus water, should provide everything the chickens need in their diet.

Chickens can be fine without free ranging.

It was a joke sorry lol But yeah they probably just buy whatever is cheapest and works for both chickens and ducks.

 

[PhantomSlayer]

It was a joke sorry lol But yeah they probably just buy whatever is cheapest and works for both chickens and ducks.

Basically calling my brother and sister in law not smart outside of games. I can only suggest what I've learned here but I won't be surprised since the first attempt at them raising plymouth rocks several years ago ended with them dying because their water froze over inside the coop and wasn't replenished daily But hey maybe with my niece being old enough to care their water will replenished everyday.. Hopefully..

 

[Morrigan]

I always have plenty of water and food available at all times. They also have access to a large yard, plus daily food/vegetable scraps.

But commercial feed is totally fine, if that is what works for you. I'm sure the chickens would appreciate access to free range, but if you have too many predators in your area to do so safely, or it doesn't work with your schedule, they can manage in their run.

If you are worried about boredom, there are a lot of threads here about boredom busters -- hanging cabbage, etc. to give your chickens something to do in the run.

 

[chick rookie]

I can't free range anymore as now I live in town but when I lived on the farm yes I free ranged but our entire property which only consisted of about 5 acres was all fenced in either horse fencing or yard fencing but they had free range to go anywhere they wanted on the property I had really good healthy chickens and really good eggs lots of babies if you're into raising your own checks I think it's an awesome idea free ranging is way better I always left food and water out for them anytime they wanted it and they always come home at night well every once in a while I had a couple troublemakers that would try to go in a tree but then I bring them home a couple times and then they got the picture they're supposed to go into their house... Lol
But with every pro there's a con predators I have lost a few to predators I have lost a lot to predators I should say but I had a whole lot of chickens it's just nature it happens if you're going to free range that's a risk but I think the health benefits for the chicken are worth it. The last 3 years I lived on the farm we got a Great Pyrenees that roamed the farm I didn't lose near the chickens I did before I got them so you might want to think about getting a guardian dog. They make great family dogs too they are awesome they protect everything on the place including the humans... Lol

 

[knurse1]

Free feeding is best. A run should have at least 8 square feet per chicken, and free ranging doesn't really make up for tight quarters. You can free range but you'll loose chicken faster due to predators. Maybe fence off a large portion I agree with everything you said