Hi All,
Coming up on my first winter with chickens and guineas and wondering how late in the year I can expect them to sustain themselves by ranging. The flock has ranged all day, everyday since they were old enough and have fed themselves primarily this way all summer. They always had minimal grower available and a coffee can of scratch grains most days but have gotten by on foraging most of the time. (we are "reclaiming" a 1.5 acre property that is very overgrown, FULL of ticks, skeeters, etc. So there's plenty to go around.)
Fall has moved in fast and cold this year (upstate, NY) and I have been steadily increasing the amount of feed and scratch grains they get. I've done this mostly in response to night time low temps as the coop is just getting fully winterized now and we've had nights in the 20's already.
I want to keep them scratching as long as possible as we are getting a second wave of ticks right about now but I obviously dont want to starve/stress them. Are there guidelines/indicators I can use to decide when to start keeping the feeders full? When I do, they stuff themselves, then relax on the woodpile. Not a lot of ticks get eaten that way. So, as I said, I want to hold off as long as possible. Not to mention saving on feed cost. Thanks!
Coming up on my first winter with chickens and guineas and wondering how late in the year I can expect them to sustain themselves by ranging. The flock has ranged all day, everyday since they were old enough and have fed themselves primarily this way all summer. They always had minimal grower available and a coffee can of scratch grains most days but have gotten by on foraging most of the time. (we are "reclaiming" a 1.5 acre property that is very overgrown, FULL of ticks, skeeters, etc. So there's plenty to go around.)
Fall has moved in fast and cold this year (upstate, NY) and I have been steadily increasing the amount of feed and scratch grains they get. I've done this mostly in response to night time low temps as the coop is just getting fully winterized now and we've had nights in the 20's already.
I want to keep them scratching as long as possible as we are getting a second wave of ticks right about now but I obviously dont want to starve/stress them. Are there guidelines/indicators I can use to decide when to start keeping the feeders full? When I do, they stuff themselves, then relax on the woodpile. Not a lot of ticks get eaten that way. So, as I said, I want to hold off as long as possible. Not to mention saving on feed cost. Thanks!
