Free range vs feed

[mrslaura]

If my chickens free range every day, do I still need to keep feed available? Would the free ranging take care of their needs?

 

[kattabelly]

Where in the world are you? How many chickens are you keeping on how much land? What kind of chickens are they? What forage will they have access to?

People will be able to answer your question better with some more information.

 

[nuthatched]

Do you have flocks of feral chickens running around?
If not, always provide feed. There's not enough in the environment to sustain them.
If yes, still provide feed.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

My chickens free range all day at the edge of a forest with lots of forage available to them (berries, nuts, bugs, plants, grass, hay, etc) but I still give them a couple scoops (roughly 4 cups) per day minimum for ~15 birds. If they eat all that I give them another scoop before bed. In the spring and summer they eat less dry food. Right now they are foraging all day and still eating ~6 cups of dry food. I hope this helps.

 

[Penpal]

Please add your location.
Let them free range in the morning and give them feed them 1 to 2 hours later. The more they eat from the land, the less feed they will eat. So, going into winter you'll find they eat more chick kibble.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the forum! Glad you joined!

Where are you located? In this case I'm more concerned with your climate but your location can come in handy when answering many things. If you modify your profile to show your location it will always be available.

Chickens used to be feral. They took care of themselves with no help from humans. But thousands of years ago some were domesticated. They still mostly took care of themselves but over the centuries they were selectively bred to improve egg laying, meat qualities, or to be more decorative. We started restricting them as to where they could forage for food and moved them to where winters were harsher. Some came to depend on humans more.

I grew up on a small farm in the hills and ridges of East Tennessee. We'd get some nights near or below zero Fahrenheit and some snow, but usually the temperatures and snow were not that harsh. Some chickens slept in trees. If there was snow on the ground we'd toss them some shelled corn but otherwise they fed themselves. Obviously they were not getting many bugs or creepy crawlies during the dead of winter but we had cattle and horses so the chickens could scavenge grain and plants from the hay. They got nutrition from the horse and cow poop. There were a lot of dead vegetation, some if it still had seeds attached. These chickens were not large for their breed, but they stayed healthy. Some pullets even laid some eggs in the dead of winter. Some people will consider us cruel and abusive toward out chickens because we were not pampering them with treats and special conditions but we were poor. The chickens were there to provide eggs and meat, they were not pets. Many small farmers had similar flocks that were treated the same way and those flocks thrived. Think of this. The chickens mostly fed themselves, and you got eggs and meat that did not cost you much of anything. How good does it get?

Many locations, especially in warmer locations, have feral flocks that live year around. Mike Row on Dirty Jobs did an episode on feral chickens in Miami. They were catching them but acknowledged that they would never be able to eradicate them. They are too well adapted to live off of the land there.

I don't know what your winters are like so I don't know how well they can live off of the land where you are. What kind of forage do they have? They will need a variety to get the nutrition they need. Another huge issue is predator pressure. Some people can go years without a predator attack, some will get wiped out pretty quickly if they try free ranging.

Most of us do not have the ability to let our chickens live off of the land. We don't have the climate or forage for it. I don't know what conditions you have. I don't know your goals for them, you are not going to raise show chickens this way. Can your chickens feed themselves? I don't know. The answer for most of us is "no".