Free Range forage diet?

[GC-Raptor]

With no adult chickens to learn from, as in your case, I would wait till they are at least 4 months old to free range, supervised for a week or two.
I didn't let my first chickens free range till they were a year old. But my 5 girls have a 500 square foot run. I let them out for 2 hours, before sunset, when it's not raining.
They have unlimited access to layers pellets and water. which they eat less of when foraging. GC

 

[AllynTal]

I have a flock of 39 in three different age groups. I have always let mine free-range all day even when the first group was only 3 weeks old. They were outside in a run from 4 days old (they had access to the run from hatch, but they were big enough to navigate the ramp at 4 days) and at 2 weeks, I opened the run to let them free-range late in the day each day and then at 3 weeks, I started opening the run door in the morning and letting them free-range all day.

When they were little, they stayed close to the coop, which is right along the edge of the woods. They have plenty of cover under the shrubs along the trees, under the coop, under the house and deck, et al. Even as chicks who had never seen an adult chicken, they were already tuned into the fact that cover is good and being out in the open is bad. As they got older, they ventured further out, but still had cover under cars, the boat, woodpile, shrubs, et al. We have an acre of property and half of it is wooded. The chickens have full access to the whole property all day.

Predators are your biggest concern. The chickens are fine to free-range; it's the predators that you need to worry about. To date, my biggest worry during the day is aerial predators, so making sure the chickens have plenty of places to take cover is a priority. At night, everyone is locked in the coop, so I have less worry about nighttime predators though I will set a live trap if I suspect I have one hanging around after dark.

Even though they all free-range all day, I make sure they have free-choice chicken feed and I feed them a 22% meatbird feed. I like the higher percentage of protein in the meatbird feed. If they eat less of it because they get food elsewhere, at least I know the feed they do eat is high enough to offset.

Also consider growing some forage for them if you plan to free-range. You can do a search for "forage grasses" or "forage seeds" and find plenty of forage blends that you can use to seed areas of their range to provide nutritious greens for them to feed on.

 

[lazy gardener]

Buy and plant some comfrey. They love it and it's high in protein. You can either get seeds, or root stock from sterile plants (they make seeds that aren't viable).

What kind of comfrey are you using? Are they eating it as they free range, or are they eating it when they put it in a run with them? I bought Bocking #14, and have it planted in my run. It's a lovely plant, and I clip it for mulch/compost, but have yet to see a chicken touch the stuff.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

What kind of comfrey are you using? Are they eating it as they free range, or are they eating it when they put it in a run with them? I bought Bocking #14, and have it planted in my run. It's a lovely plant, and I clip it for mulch/compost, but have yet to see a chicken touch the stuff.

I have both, but the stuff they eat from (because it is better established) is the sterile kind (bocking 4 and 14). Same stuff as the other, you just don't have to worry about it becoming invasive. They eat it some while free ranging, but devour it when I have to go off and leave it with them in the run. I eventually want to plant it in the run along with Broadleaf Plantain (which I have a lot of). I'm going to experiment with drying it and crumbling it into feed this winter.