Feeding my free ranging flock

[mmcburney3]

Hi everyone so I let my flock free range pretty much every day and they go to their coops at night. Now my question is do they need access to food in their coop 24/7? Up until now I give them food at night but they act starving when I do it and around the time I feed them they start to follow me around. No one looks underweight and I see them constantly eating bugs and insects etc around the property (they have 5 acres to roam). They also all lay good and get access to oyster shells 24/7. But do I need to give them feed more? Lol I thought a main reason of free ranging is feeding them less.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hi everyone so I let my flock free range pretty much every day and they go to their coops at night. Now my question is do they need access to food in their coop 24/7? Up until now I give them food at night but they act starving when I do it and around the time I feed them they start to follow me around. No one looks underweight and I see them constantly eating bugs and insects etc around the property (they have 5 acres to roam). They also all lay good and get access to oyster shells 24/7. But do I need to give them feed more? Lol I thought a main reason of free ranging is feeding them less.

No.

I free range mine. I feed once a day. Initially, I fed in the evenings, for several reasons.

1) I wanted them to return to the coop so I could get a head count for the evening.
2) I wanted to ensure they had full crops overnight
3) I wanted to make sure they understood that if they were to eat againbefore evening time, they would need to go out and forage for it on their own - it was a way to motivate the Cx to move. Lazy bums

I now feed in the morning, though feeding in the evenings is probably superior practice. I don't have Cx any more - all my birds are good natural rangers, I only lock the coop for hurricanes, so there is no extra predator protection by putting them in coop for the night, and the timing is more consistent/practical for me (I'm also a lazy bum). Finally, when I overfed in the evenings, it attracted mice, rats, and other vermin - about the only benefit to feeding in the AM is that they have more time to come back hungry if I do overfeed first thing.

Now, having said that, relying on pasture to bend your feed curve is all well and good, but it invites a little more uncertainty into their diet. and being prey animals, chickens are very good at hiding illness, injury, deficiency. I get around that by paying very careful attention when I take birds to freezer camp. Getting all up inside them gives me insight into the condition of the rest of the flock in ways that visual observation and "condition scoring" do not.

 

[saysfaa]

Hi everyone so I let my flock free range pretty much every day and they go to their coops at night. Now my question is do they need access to food in their coop 24/7? Up until now I give them food at night but they act starving when I do it and around the time I feed them they start to follow me around. No one looks underweight and I see them constantly eating bugs and insects etc around the property (they have 5 acres to roam). They also all lay good and get access to oyster shells 24/7. But do I need to give them feed more? Lol I thought a main reason of free ranging is feeding them less.

24/7 is not needed. More than once a day might be.

Some birds are much more willing to forage than others. Being hungry will get all of them to work at foraging but some will get by while others thrive under the same conditions.

Being raised by a broody who knows how to forage in that location would make more difference for the "willing to get by" temperaments than the hustlers.

In a rich environment, it may not matter much whether the chicks are raised by such a broody.

I wouldn't be able to tell if a chicken was underweight by looking at it with its feathers on. There may be ways to tell that I don't know about.

Laying good might be an indication they are getting enough. It might not be. The most common breeds have been bred for "persistence of lay" part of which means the rate of lay is much less responsive to what the hen is eating than birds that don't have much persistence of lay.

Begging for food, especially near feeding time is decidedly not an indication they are hungry.

And part of the answer to whether to feed more depends on your goals and philosophy.

 

[McChooky]

Hi everyone so I let my flock free range pretty much every day and they go to their coops at night. Now my question is do they need access to food in their coop 24/7? Up until now I give them food at night but they act starving when I do it and around the time I feed them they start to follow me around. No one looks underweight and I see them constantly eating bugs and insects etc around the property (they have 5 acres to roam). They also all lay good and get access to oyster shells 24/7. But do I need to give them feed more? Lol I thought a main reason of free ranging is feeding them less.

I free range my chickens so they're on clean ground,have fresh air, get more sunshine and more exercise. I also have automatic feeders and multiple waterers and feed mine treats or mash to encourage them to stay close to the coop