My roo goes free range all day after getting a serving of FF feed each morning all he will eat in one go. I planted collards, lettuce, and beets in the veg garden late summer so they will be available to him in fall. He gets his fill every day. The collards are now gone (his favorite) and he is working over the last of the beet greens. Apples falling off the tree are another of his favorites and they are also near gone. We've had a lot of rain and wind recently.
He is finishing up a hard moult. I put out a bowl with a slice of rusk-ed 100% whole wheat bread soaked in just enough buttermilk to saturate it. He gets it once a day until feathers are in for the winter.
I got a pumpkin at the close out sale at the local fruit/veggie stand for two bucks and have it in the garage to go through the freeze thaw cycle this winter.
In two weeks I'll be picking up four RIR production pullets. They will go onto the same diet. My feed bill is very small. I've been feeding out of the same bag of poultry feed for a while. About a cup of day into the FF. The bulk of my roos diet is home grown, foraged, or produced from the pantry.
The winters here in the PNW are so wet that once green stuff stops growing I will use coupons to pick up bags of romaine to get greens into him at little cost. I put the lettuce head in a couple inches of water in a bucket and put it in a corner of the coop. Free choice when he needs it during the cold months. I won't spend a lot of $ on this sort of greens. Only until the spring arrives and the foraging gets better and the greens are coming up in the garden.
He is finishing up a hard moult. I put out a bowl with a slice of rusk-ed 100% whole wheat bread soaked in just enough buttermilk to saturate it. He gets it once a day until feathers are in for the winter.
I got a pumpkin at the close out sale at the local fruit/veggie stand for two bucks and have it in the garage to go through the freeze thaw cycle this winter.
In two weeks I'll be picking up four RIR production pullets. They will go onto the same diet. My feed bill is very small. I've been feeding out of the same bag of poultry feed for a while. About a cup of day into the FF. The bulk of my roos diet is home grown, foraged, or produced from the pantry.
The winters here in the PNW are so wet that once green stuff stops growing I will use coupons to pick up bags of romaine to get greens into him at little cost. I put the lettuce head in a couple inches of water in a bucket and put it in a corner of the coop. Free choice when he needs it during the cold months. I won't spend a lot of $ on this sort of greens. Only until the spring arrives and the foraging gets better and the greens are coming up in the garden.