Free-Range flock won't range far

[Mammachix]

Hi,

I have close to 40 hens/ducks and an issue with how far they will range from the coop...not far. Last year they would range all over our 5 acre property. There were a dozen at that point. Chicken math has occurred this spring and we are up to forty with half of them being juniors. We also have 3 male guinea hens (soon to be gotten rid of). They are supposed to range even further. However, they are bullies and all they do is hang out near the food pans bullying the juniors, keeping them away from the mash. I feed them a wet mash, several scoops in the morning in about five different pans, spread out around the area outside the coop. There are 3 different waterers as well.

It's pretty annoying that they seem to hang out in one area near the coop for much of the day. I want them to travel a bit further and eat more ticks! I pretty much feed them in the morning around 8:00 after I let them out, and then again around 5:00 so they can fill their crops before roosting.

One other issue I'm having lately is a couple of Red Comets that are laying humongous eggs, and getting egg-bound as a result. I've had to give calcium injections and epsom salt baths weekly to two of them. They do have bins of oyster shell and crushed egg shells in several spots both in the coop and outside near their food.

Any ideas for me? I wonder if I'm over/under feeding. The mash is a mix of grower crumble/scratch/BOSS in a 6:1:1 ratio that is slightly fermented and then fed moist, not wet. Thanks for any help.

 

[Kelsie2290]

I would try cutting out or down the morning feeding and/or try feeding them farther away from the coop / where you want them to be ranging. If you have a lot of young birds and Layers you don't want to cut down so much you stunt their growth and hurt egg production, but with the Comets having problem think I would try less feed to start with. With the free ranging, does the area where you want them seem "safe" to the chickens? ie if it is open ground and they are seeing hawks around this year they may be afraid to range right now, putting up some things in the area you want them to go to use as shelter might help (also place to feed them).
With the Comets, usually would say lower the protein % and amount that you are feeding them ... do you know what the protein% of the mix you are feeding is?... usually Grower (not Starter) and BOSS is around 16% and scratch 10% , so you shouldn't really be that high ... is your pasture really good right now and they are finding a lot of bugs etc and getting a lot of extra protein? If these are older birds, it may also partly be their age/breed, they are bred to lay huge eggs and when they get to be 2-3 years old and the egg size increases as it normally does, they are just laying eggs that are too large... usually in commercial flocks they would be culled by the time they are two so it isn't a problem.