Feeding free range chickens

[jermajay]

Hi, I am trying to work out how to minimise food bought in bags, for environmental reasons, for future chickens. I am wanting to buy some Silkie chickens to breed and raise as pets to sell. Would like to have 3 or 3 hens and a rooster - the paddocks vary in size but will probably move every week or so anyway.
They will be kept with a chicken tractor in the horse's paddock, so they have plenty of grass, hay, as well as insects, flies and grasshopper around the manure, and whatever table scraps we have. Can I supplement anything else? I can breed mealworms (or grasshoppers, but that would be annoying as they hop away) or grow fodder, from wheat or oats?

Also, will they need 'layer' pellets or standard ones? They will be laying, but less than actual chickens used for egg eating, so is it necessary?

 

[jermajay]

*crickets, not grasshoppers

 

[nuthatched]

Well, silkies don't need that much feed. But for breeding they need extra vitamins and calcium, calcium only for the hens though. You'll need more hens per rooster, otherwise the hens will be mated bald.
In my area, silkies are pretty common so make sure you know your market to see if it will be worth your while.
Personally, I'd sell hatching eggs, that eliminates incubation, feeding, grow out pens, irate 'karens' that are upset you sold them roosters when they can't have roosters, extra chicks, extra roos and the care of it all.
Or schedule hatching. Once every 6 weeks hatch a batch, sell as strait runs, make sure the buyers know that these are chickens, no matter how cute and fluffy they are.

 

[jermajay]

Well, silkies don't need that much feed. But for breeding they need extra vitamins and calcium, calcium only for the hens though. You'll need more hens per rooster, otherwise the hens will be mated bald.
In my area, silkies are pretty common so make sure you know your market to see if it will be worth your while.
Personally, I'd sell hatching eggs, that eliminates incubation, feeding, grow out pens, irate 'karens' that are upset you sold them roosters when they can't have roosters, extra chicks, extra roos and the care of it all.
Or schedule hatching. Once every 6 weeks hatch a batch, sell as strait runs, make sure the buyers know that these are chickens, no matter how cute and fluffy they are.

How many hens per rooster would you recommend? I heard around 4-5 is optimum, different for silkies? How should I seperate calcium for hens vs rooster?

Silkies are pretty expensive around here, $50 for adult hen, $25 newly hatched chick, $50 per dozen fertile eggs - I think I'll try hatching this year and see how they hatch rate is, if it's good then will sell live as that's $250 extra just for an extra couple weeks of waiting.

although roosters could be problem, they are usually sold at around $15 around here, but worst case scenario can sell them for meat

 

[nuthatched]

How many hens per rooster would you recommend? I heard around 4-5 is optimum, different for silkies? How should I seperate calcium for hens vs rooster?

Silkies are pretty expensive around here, $50 for adult hen, $25 newly hatched chick, $50 per dozen fertile eggs - I think I'll try hatching this year and see how they hatch rate is, if it's good then will sell live as that's $250 extra just for an extra couple weeks of waiting.

although roosters could be problem, they are usually sold at around $15 around here, but worst case scenario can sell them for meat

Most people recommend at least 8 hens per roosterror. You feed them an all flock feed and have oyster shells on the side.
Other than that, your set up sounds nice.

 

[neo71665]

If you gonna keep them in a tractor I would only do one rooster per tractor, then fill it up with all the hens you can fit per size requirements.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I would still provide feed. A mobile chicken tractor does not provide enough opportunity to forage for all of their food. You can supplement with mealworms but they are very high in fat and you'd be supplementing a lot to make up for what they are lacking in foraging, so fatty liver disease would be a higher risk. My girls free range on 5 acres and I still provide feed, but I've seen a post or two around BYC where people let their girls free range with no supplemental feed. I think the key there is they free range.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

8-10 hens per rooster is the normal rule of thumb, I am unaware of any adjustment for Silkies as a breed (there may be one - I just don't know).

Restricted free ranging in a chicken tractor will reduce feed consumption some, but its not a balanced diet - particularly if your pasture is a monoculture (all, or mostly, one plant) - as I infer yours to be. You will want to feed a balanced commercial mix, free choice oyster shell for additional calcium, and observe the flock behaviors to judge how much is enough, but not too much.

The rule of thumb is 1/4# per bird per day - and that does get adjusted for breed - Silkies don't tend to need as much, but do favor more protein (low body weight, lots of feathers for the size).

I free range my own flock of around 55 birds (in the signature, below) on multiple acres of mixed vegetation (and bugs!). In theory, they should average out around 14# of feed a day. I actually feed about 10-12# per day, a little more in winter, a little less right now while most of it is in seed. Saving around 20-30% on my feed needs.

My pasture has three kinds of clover, numerous "grasses" (perennial rye, bluestem, panic grass, St Augustine, fescue) plus grains like flax, red sorghum, red and white millets, and small numbers of radish, cudweed, melons and squash, some common worts, vetch, brassica, various herbs, wild blackberry, muscadine grapes, probably a dozen things I'm forgetting. Its anything I can get to grow here with little work on my part. The birds and the goats love it, looks terrible.

/edit in the past I've had corn, sunflower seeds, wheat, winter peas, and my Amazon shopping cart has amaranth and quinoa in it to try next. I scatter it in a suitable area, at a suitable time of year, pray the birds don't find it all, and wait.

 

[jermajay]

Just to clarify, they will be kept in tractor only at night, to keep out foxes - free ranged during day.
Thanks for all the replies - 8 hens is a lot more than I was expected so glad to know now.

 

[Brooks_]

8 hens is a lot more than I was expected so glad to know now.

I'm in the process of upping my ratio from 12:1 to 15:1. 8 seems simple.