Free ranging vs. Feed

[sunnyvera]

Adding my 2 cents - I observed a flock of 20+ chickens raised ONLY on corn. It was pathetic - fat chickens (only 1-1/2 yrs old) that did not lay. Plus they were not active - like couch potatoes. Just sitting all day. Also they were feather-picking and eating their eggs (when one finallly laid one) Their run was just dirt, they had eaten anything green in it. I almost wanted to rescue them. The lady could not understand the problem. People should do a little homework before taking on the caring for an animal. I truly felt sorry for them. Please learn from this.

 

[Medicine Man]

As a good steward, it is incumbent upon you to provide your chickens with what they need. Foraging is supplemental. Nothing can be assumed.

 

[hansolo]

Thank you EVERYONE!
I really enjoy reading your posts!

to: Ridgerunner:
Very educational again. I noticed my chicks are not as crazy with eggs as when they were little. Maybe they don't need as much proteins now or maybe they got enough from the garden.
Speaking of corn, I used to give them fresh corn on the cob when I had to go to work and leave them in the brooder indoors all day when they were younger (4-6 weeks). They will peck them until it is completely cleaned, which take a long time so they are not bored to death. Now they are outside, it becomes a special treat to them only.
I was thinking about to let them free range in our entire yard, or restrict only to side yard, and decided to fence our vegetable gardens only and let them run free. Our yard is not landscaped, poop doesnt bother me too much, but I do worry if they start doing too much digging. We will see. They are too young now to tell.
These few days we are teaching them the coop as home (they just got moved outside) so they were confined to side yard only next to their cabin. I can tell one of girls is not so content (or maybe i am just crazy chicken lady).


to: WoodlandWoman
My three girls are 8 weeks and they haven not learned to eat vegetables yet. They love grass but are indifferent to the lettuces and cabbage I try to feed them. I will keep trying. We don't have tomatos here yet, but one of my girls loves sun-dried tomatos. I am happy for her. I gave them grapes and rasins only in small amounts - too much sugar.
My girls are like me, they love starchy food, rice, pasta, fresh corn... over eggs! I try to give them brown rice and such.
When reading your post I am imaging green pastures but we are in an urban setting. We have a patch of grass, weeds, plenty of dirt, slugs (they don't yet like these), and lots of earthworms.
A friend of mine picked up chicks at the same time as I but hers are bigger in size. She feeds them mainly Feed and oatmeals. I started mine on all kinds of stuff since they were little. In that sense I think starter feed is like baby formular and grower feed is like cliff bars or something. I would think that if I feed them what I eat, they should have a balanced diet, but as Ridgerunner and others mentioned, problem is with "complete" and "balanced". I understand the need of feed for commercial production, but maybe laying too much is not that great for them.

Yesterday I feed them some human food (cooked brown rice etc.) in the morning and they finished in 5min. Upon my return, I try feeding the same human food but they dont seem hungry. They ate (and spilled) some of their feed. I have no idea what they got from our garden, how can they NOT be hungry?!

I need to research on this forum how to offer feed so they don't get spilled, wasted a bunch or attract other animals.

 

[mom2jedi]

I cannot offer any nutritional information on specific feeds but I can offer my personal experience. I've had chickens for about a year and a half now. I did not give any of my babies anything other than chickstart except for the occasional meal worm because they did not have access to grit. When they were old enough, they went out to the coop and run which they loved scratching and digging in. I never ended up feeding flock raiser simply because I missed it somehow in my research and just kept them on chickstart till they were old enough for layer. My girls have layer available 24/7, have access to the run daily which is green at the moment thanks to all the rain we've been having, and occasional treats. With 20 (well 21 but my two silkies count as 1 where food is concerned) hens I go through about 25# of food every week. They also have free access to oyster shell.

As to egg production, my production dipped over the winter but I still got a handful of eggs every day without supplemental lighting. Now that spring is here, I'm averaging over a dozen a day. My chickens are very happy with nice red combs and wattles and come running when they hear me call them. I guess that makes me a "crazy chicken lady" too!

ETA Oh! I forgot, I was going to tell you about my feeder! DH made me a great feeder using a Home Depot bucket and black rubber horse bowl. He drilled 4 holes in the side of the bucket near the bottom using a 1 1/2" drill bit then attached the rubber bowl with galvanized bolts through the bottom of the bucket (he had to drill the holes first). I can't remember what size bowl it was but it was big enough that there was room for the chickens to eat easily around the bucket. You can purchase feeders at feed stores or TSC but they are on the expensive side considering my homemade one was only $15! This didn't work for a waterer however so I ended up purchasing one of those and will eventually get a second one.

 

[hansolo]

Thank you. I love your story
It is good to know because we bought 25 lb of starter and still a ton left.
My girls are outside taking a sand bath now.
This morning they were not interested even in rice. As soon as they were let out, they run to the grass, dirt and compost bin...

 

[cmtigger]

Quote:
If you use the baby formula analogy with the chicks, it is correct, however I don't think you understand baby formula. Human babies are supposed to ONLY have breastmilk or baby formula as their food source for their first few months. After those first few months you can give them small amounts of other food, and not until they are a year or so should they be depending on other foods for the majority of their nutrition. Chicks grow faster, so condense it into less time and consider their size. Better nutrition will also produce bigger (not fatter) critters. The fact that your friend didn't throw as much other stuff into their diet at a young age could be why hers are bigger- they got the vitamins and minerals they needed. Just feeding from your diet is not the same thing- we're not birds and our nutritional needs are different. A balanced diet is different for birds than it is for us. Also, the birds are bred to lay often, if it slows down (other than seasonally or for age) it means that they have malnutrition or an illness and that leads to a lot of other problems. Restricting feed to control laying is not a good idea.

I'm just getting back into chickens again after a 4 1/2 year break, but in the past I let my chickens free range, but fed them every night with layer feed.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I think it says a lot that your chickens are smaller than your friends, that are the same age. To me, that says that your chickens have not been getting all the nutrients that they need. I would cut what you're adding to their diet way back and let them eat formulated chicken feed as the majority of their food.

You can read more about chicken nutrition for awhile, to help you understand how to add other foods to their diet, in a way that doesn't cause a malnutrition problem. Not getting enough of the right nutrients is not only a growth or laying issue, it effects the immune system in a negative way, too. If they're running around the yard for a bit every day eating grass, they'll still be healthier than if they only ate commercial feed. They'll also be healthier than if they ate an unbalanced diet.

 

[hansolo]

Well, since this week they are running around the yard free all day and go back to coop at night.
They started roosting at night since maybe 3 weeks ago. My friend's girls still do not roost. So I am not sure. I just transitioned them to the coop since Wednesday. They were never confined there and tonight they found the coop all by themselves and were roosting inside. Amazing birds.
Actually, one of my girls, an Australorp was really small, still not feathered at week 4-5. I was so worried BUT she caught up!
She is the most curious, the most daring and the most human friendly one. I almost thought she is a bantam but she seems to catch up in size.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Sometimes a particular chick has trouble and doesn't grow as well as the others. I'm glad yours has done so well catching up. She sounds like she has a great personality. They sound like they're transitioning really well to the coop, too. That's great!

 

[stonykill]

from my own personal experience, here is what I have found.
I have 18 free range Sumatra's. Free range, not cooped (Being Sumatra's they just plain refuse to be cooped), who are fed about 2 lbs of layer crumbles/cracked corn mix a day. I put it out in the morning, they nibble at it, then go foraging. They find most of their own food. Sometimes at the end of the day, there is still food left in their bowl. Everywhere you read about Sumatra's it is said they are poor egg producers laying only 2 eggs each a week. My hens average 4 eggs each a week. They start laying consistantly almost a month before my cooped/penned RIR's do. I was so impressed with the free range, that my RIR's now free range all day. Only returning to their coop to lay or eat crumbles/corn or drink. Their egg production is better, and they are genuinely happy now. They were quite bored all penned up.

So I guess what I'm saying is, a chicken given the opportunity will forage for all the nutrition it will need, all on it's own.