How many Chickens can feed themselves on 1/3 acre?

[freevillein]

I'm moving some of my old hens (stopped laying or maybe 1-2 eggs per week) to the goat pasture for the summer for tick and bug control, and I'm trying to figure out if they'll be able to feed themselves. I'm having trouble finding anywhere that actually says the amount of space a chicken would need to be self-sufficient. I know it depends a lot on what the space is filled with. Mine's a weed/grass field with some ant hills (not fire ants). I'm speculating that I'll still have to feed them some, even if I only put 4-5 in there. The fenced area is about 1/3 acre. What do you guys think?

 

[Folly's place]

I think that they need a safe coop at night, and free choice feed there. They will eat lots of stuff outside, but have what they need at the coop. Mary

 

[Lanicus]

I currently have 4 hens on about a 1 acre area, they are constantly eating and wandering but do still come back to the coop to eat, though not very much

 

[Spangled]

My chickens strip an area clean of grasshoppers in less than a week and then there are no more grasshoppers the rest of the summer. I suppose it's the same way with ticks, but I think they got eradicated years ago since I can't remember the last time I got a tick here by the house. So, I'm not sure that you can depend on there being that many bugs for your old hens to eat.

It might be easier to do some sort of feeding in the morning (You know, maybe all they can eat in 15 minutes), then let them free range all day, and then put out feed an hour before sunset so they can get their fill before bedtime OR some other similar arrangement. I'm not advocating this set up because all I ever do is just leave feed out for them while they forage when they feel like it.

I'm of the belief that unless the breed is something like possibly an American Game and closer genetically to the "original chicken in the wild" that they can't survive off the land. Well, maybe they can survive, but at what level of health and well-being? I think that today's egg-laying chickens, having been bred for year round-egg production for the last 100 years or so, have been "selected" over the years to the point that their genetics force them to need at least 4-6 ounces of feed a day if they are making an egg that day. Most of them are trying to make an egg every other day at least.

While I would love to have my chickens survive off the land, I don't want them to be in a constant state of hunger or have health issues due to lack of good feed. I'm sure you don't either. But it's a tightrope walk because we all want our hens to have a good life and be comfortable, but not cost an arm and a leg to feed.

Basically, I think there are no web sites that give stocking numbers for acreages of chickens because poultrymen years ago learned that it's not economically possible to raise chickens on just the land and make a living. You've got what sounds like retired hens and poultrymen always sent the retired girls to the slaughterhouse or where ever.

I have seen numbers in books and probably online concerning "grass-fed" chickens. I think it's in ... hmmm. I don't see my book here. It's some recent book that says that hens can only get 5-20% of their feed intake from foraging on a good piece of land with plenty of grasses and forbs. The study they did with I think four different sets of chickens in one of the last chapters. Very interesting stuff. But who knows where mine is right now -- too many bookcases.

 

[Lanicus]

I totally agree. Chickens just aren't bred for surviving off the land alone. However I have noticed that chicks that were hatch and raised by hens are much more "gamey" and self-reliable than ones raised in a brooder.

 

[Spangled]

I have noticed that chicks that were hatch and raised by hens are much more "gamey" and self-reliable than ones raised in a brooder.

X2

And the standard dual-purpose layers that are raised by more "gamey-style" hens are even better at just getting a quick bite in the morning and then spending all day digging for their food and then "topping off" at the feeder in the evening. Of course, I'm not usually out there all day and might miss seeing them eating their lunch at the feeder.

 

[freevillein]

Thanks for the insights, folks. It sounds like the general consensus is that chickens can't survive on forage alone if they're producing eggs. I do have a "free range" rooster who let himself loose a few weeks ago who seems to be doing well foraging around the farm, but he has access to the feed the rabbits drop as well.

It's problematic because I can't let the goats eat the chicken food, but what I've started doing is sprinkling corn around the chickens all sneaky like when the goats are occupied across the pasture.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

A chicken being self-sufficient and foraging are two different things. Chickens live in flocks, so it is hard to really know the true answer to your question. I do know that a chicken in a true or un-limited free range situation can be expected to travel 400 yards in every direction, or range over about 25 acres from a central location. Sometimes every day and at other times maybe once a month.

 

[Spangled]

I do know that a chicken in a true or un-limited free range situation can be expected to travel 400 yards in every direction, or range over about 25 acres from a central location. Sometimes every day and at other times maybe once a month.

Do your chickens do this? Or where did you find this information? What kind of chickens are you talking about? Jungle Fowl?

My dual-purpose (10+ breeds) and egg layers (Campines, Hamburgs, etc.) ... living in an unlimited free range situation (they can easily walk under the lowest barbed wire strand if they come across a fence) never ... and I mean never ever ... travel further than 100 yards from their house. Sometimes their house is a hoop house for the spring - fall and we move it around, but they still never go more than 100 yards from the house on any given day. Never do they go 400 yards and they could go a mile in any direction if they wanted to. Some of the chickens we've got are 3, 4 and 5 years old--so they know their way around--yet they don't travel. Okay, maybe they went 125 yards that one time when a few of them were chasing grasshoppers, but that was a little odd and it was only about 3-5 chickens who just weren't paying attention.

Do you mean if I didn't have any feed out for them ever? Then they would be forced to go on walkabout to find food?

Are your chickens running around in a forest? Mine seem to feel safer in forest-like areas and seem to go further once they are in an area like that, but they still don't go more than 100 yards away from their house and never 400 yards away into the woods.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

[1] Do you mean if I didn't have any feed out for them ever? Then they would be forced to go on walkabout to find food?

Are your chickens running around in a forest? Mine seem to feel safer in forest-like areas and seem to go further once they are in an area like that, but they still don't go more than 100 yards away from their house and never 400 yards away into the woods.

[1] If you were hungry and with no expectation of being fed would you go on a 1/2 mile walkabout for food?

Yes, my chickens like the woods and have access to a wooded area.

Can be expected to and doing something is mutually exclusive. Free Range means just that. It is analogous to the open range in Pioneer days when everyone allowed their Hogs, Horses, Cows, Goats, Sheep, and poultry to run wild and feed everywhere except where crops were planted. These areas were enclosed by rail fences to keep livestock out. Later barbwire replaced the split rail fences and later still the farm animals were the ones fenced in and crop land became the new open range. So to me "free range" is just what it says, free, open, unlimited, and unfettered. However a meat bird isn't going far. He would run off too much weight, the exercise would stress him and his muscles would become tough and fibrous, Not Good Eats.

A diminutive breed or bantam can be expected to stay closer to home.

I have pointed out many times that strong and direct Sun is deadly to a chicken. Once we remember that our domestic chicken is nothing but a sub-species of the Red or Gray Jungle Fowl can we begin to see why your chickens prefer to forage in a wooded area with plenty of shade.

By feeding your birds you reduce their free range tendencies. Chickens unlike humans only work as hard as is necessary to feed themselves. Besides in a true free range situation foraging is dangerous work with predators lurking behind if not in every tree. Also the more beaks there are to feed in a given area, the further you can expect your chickens to travel to fill their craws.

400 yards is less than 1/4 of a mile from a central location.