Help! Chickens stopped freeranging

[Mortimer]

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Yeah, they all pretty much ate off the land, other than leftover table scraps a few times a week, scoop of scratch every so often if we didn't have much in the way of leftovers for a few days. We had pretty normal egg production, 3-4/wk from the Delawares and nearly 1/day from the RIR's

I think this winter they just got used to being fed every morning, and started bum-rushing me every time I stepped out the door expecting food. All winter they got a bucketfull of feed every morning by 7:30am, now I'm skimping out on them!

It's not the cost so much I guess, although ~$15/month would be nice to not spend. I just expect them to do what chickens do, roam around & scratch up the place!

 

[gritsar]

My feed costs go way down when there's lots of things growing for them to eat.
From now until wintertime rolls around again, they eat a few bites out of the feeder before going out, the hens grab a bite or two when they come back to the coop to lay their eggs and a few bites in the evening before going to roost.

 

[damselfish]

Here are some thoughts on what has worked for us.

If there is any food coming out of the house to the chickens, carry it away from the house and place it in a particular spot...the compost pile is ours. They know where to go and will run from wherever they are as soon as they see the container. We get great compost too.

Ignore them on the porch. No treats, no pets, no chatting, no yelling. Walk right past them and call them as you go taking them to a spot you prefer. Treat them nicely (with food at first, later petting or whatever) when they arrive where you want them. Hang out with them there a little while. Soon they will get the idea. Remind the kids of this, they may love playing with the chickens on the porch. Teach them to have fun playing with the chickens somewhere else! Install a bench or haul over some lawn chairs to sit on (seriously!).

No people food from people who are eating, ever.

Do not treat at only one time of the day, change off.

If you're keeping the bags of chicken feed in the house or garage, find another place for it.

Scattering any special treats where you want them to forage is a great idea. You will never break the association between "you" and "food", and there's no need to try. You just need to break the association between "food" and "house" and "morning".

Good luck!

 

[PhlyinPheBee]

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We got hit with 90 yesterday and my girls hung around in the shade. Did not get out in the yard until it was all covered in shade. My ladies are just a bit spoiled!!!!

 

[Weasleymum]

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Maybe if you could go out into the pasture where they used to range and widely scatter some scratch. Maybe then they'd get the idea and they wouldn't starve in the process of retraining them.

I think that's a really good idea. I got my new girls when they were 6-8 weeks old, and introduced them to the concept of "food on the ground" by scattering scratch feed in their run. They learned really quickly that the seed was good, but so was the grass and the bugs! Now when I let them out of their run, they scratch all over the yard.

 

[montcapu]

my girls love to forage all day at the first signs of spring, maybe that is bc they are cooped up all winter (we had a bad winter this year) but I would suggest you to spread treats in the lawn, they will get the hint eventually that their food is out there and not at the house....
then you will be lonely at the back door, but at leas they are doing what they are suppose to be doing ini the lawn

 

[Mortimer]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. Been awhile since I was on here to update.

For the last week I've been giving our 25 or so birds about a bucketfull of mixed scratch/crumble, thrown out by hand near the treeline on our property, which seemed to be their favorite hang-out area last summer.

So far it seems to be working so-so. Unfortunately I'm fighting the weather here as it's been raining CONSTANTLY and the back porch is the most sheltered area of the yard. During breaks in the rain I'll lure them out with some scratch/feed and toss it in the treeline, and they gobble it up, but tend to go back to loitering at the porch when it starts raining again.

Had enough sunshine yesterday I was able to get the garden plowed, and they loved that! Spent all day scratching through the freshly turned dirt out there.

I'll keep on it, it seemed to be working pretty well at first until this gloomy weather started. Hopefully we'll get some sunshine in the next few days and they'll get the idea!

On a side note -- one of our BR's decided to go broody this week. Will probably start another thread with some questions on this but we're gonna try to let her cook us up some baby chicks!

 

[thekla]

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HAHA -- it seems we have! Darn freeloaders . . .

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We've never had much of a predator problem here. An opossum somehow got into the coop once over the winter, and I discovered it nearly dead the next morning when I went to let them out. Didn't see any wounds on it, so I don't think the roos hurt it, I think maybe it was poisoned or something and ended up at my place to die. Other than that, nada.

The "run" is somewhat protected, cobbled-up weldwire and chainlink fence around the coop area 4'-6' high. They just fly over it when they want out.

I may try luring them out towards the pasture/treeline area and throw out some scratch as ChickyTocks suggested, that seems to be where they spent most of their time foraging last summer. But I'm afraid that will still give the impression that I'm the food source.

LOL - that possom was probably playing possum...it's what they do when threatened - once you dumped it somewhere it probably waited a bit and then took off. (one fooled my dad when he caught it in a live trap...)

 

[Mortimer]

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LOL that did occur to me, definitely -- he may have started out playing possum but when I was through with him it wasn't an act anymore . . .

I've been luring them out to the pasture/treeline area once a day with scratch/feed and it seems to have finally done the trick. Maybe it was the weather (finally stopped raining) maybe it was me, I dunno, but they're spread out all over the place now, scratching it up, like they should be!