Free range feed

[sanydhange]

Can i feed only wheat to free range chicken?also how much space is required for free ranging chicken per bird

 

[ChickenCanoe]

No, you can't feed only wheat. Even free ranging on fertile, well watered, pristine pasture, they still need a complete feed - they will just eat less of it in summer. In winter, free range chickens will eat twice as much.
Where are you located? Describe the forage.
The breed of chicken will also determine the answer to your question. What breed are you talking about?
It doesn't matter if it is duram, hard red spring, hard red winter, soft red winter, hard white summer or soft white summer. There just isn't sufficient essential amino acids nor a plethora of vitamins and minerals to provide what modern chickens need to be healthy and productive.
According to the Label Rouge program, 22 square feet per bird is required of excellent pristine pasture in summer

 

[sanydhange]

I live in india where there is summer ,winter and monsoon .4 months for each season.right now its monsoon and there's lot of worms because there forage is soil

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I live in india where there is summer ,winter and monsoon .4 months for each season.right now its monsoon and there's lot of worms because there forage is soil

OK. Thanks for clarifying. That does change things a bit. It also means, you probably don't have a great variety of complete feeds like starter, grower, starter/grower, meat maker, all flock, finisher, layer, breeder, maintenance feed, etc..
I hope you took my original remarks for what they were worth. Good luck.

 

[cmom]

I have always provided feed to my birds even when I did free range. I don't free range anymore due to too many losses in the past from predators but all of my birds have nice large pens. I give them grasses, seeds and grains in addition to their normal feed. Good luck and have fun...

 

[U_Stormcrow]

No, you can't. and it depends entirely on what's in your pastures to forage on, which will vary seasonally.

Animals are made of lots of protein. Proteins are made of amino acids. There are a handful of amino acids that animals either can't make on their own, or don't make enough of on their own. They are called "limiting" amino acids for that reason - if they can't get them through their diet, it causes problems.

In the case of chickens, its a short list. Methionine, Lysine, Tryptophan, Threonine get mentioned the most. Wheat lacks lysine, threonine, and two others I didn't mention that chickens need, leucine and histidine. It can vary wildly in Methionine. (table 6) You would essentially be turning your birds loose and praying that they find those, in sufficient quantity, on their own each day. 0/10, do not recommend.