how many chickens per acre of land if free ranging?

[gypsyroseplus6]

We are thinking about getting chickens for my parents property. (We ended up buying a home with no land but they have 12 acres. 5 of which is field). They need the pest control (SOOOOO many ticks!) and we need the meat and eggs. SOOOO how many chickens could we safely have? I am between RIR and NHR. How much food would we need if they have field and woods to eat from?

 

[yyz0yyz0]

Depends!

Sorry but that is really the only answer.

Depends on the quality of the free range land and what foods are available to the chickens. For the most part the more varied the landscape the greater the supply of foods for the girls.

Depends on how much "quality" you want out of your eggs and meat, are you willing to settle for 3 eggs/wk due to low nutrition or do you want 6 eggs/wk per chicken.

for today's chicken keepers, Free Range is mostly to supplement what we provide for them. There was a time back in the day where the chickens were mostly on their own in regards to finding food, but they probably had multiple manure sources to pick through for bugs and leftover seeds and the egg/meat production back then was probably less then today's levels.

Free Ranging will cut down on your use of commercial feed but how much you can't know in advance. Only time will tell.

 

[mmorgan79936]

Depends!

Sorry but that is really the only answer.

Depends on the quality of the free range land and what foods are available to the chickens. For the most part the more varied the landscape the greater the supply of foods for the girls.

Depends on how much "quality" you want out of your eggs and meat, are you willing to settle for 3 eggs/wk due to low nutrition or do you want 6 eggs/wk per chicken.

for today's chicken keepers, Free Range is mostly to supplement what we provide for them. There was a time back in the day where the chickens were mostly on their own in regards to finding food, but they probably had multiple manure sources to pick through for bugs and leftover seeds and the egg/meat production back then was probably less then today's levels.

Free Ranging will cut down on your use of commercial feed but how much you can't know in advance. Only time will tell.

This is couldn't have been said any better! I didn't free range on our 20 acre farm only because the prederators were so bad and after losing many I decided to not free range. Now that we are in a country neighborhood with 2 acres I do allow them to free range. I currently have a flock of 35 and they do awesome. I have a compost pile in the back corner and they love sifting through it daily plus they get scraps from dinner and I do make them breakfast just so I know they are getting nutrition. It's just a peace of mind for me and I am retired with 4 teenagers not much for me to do anymore, lol. My girls give me about 5-6 eggs a week when it's not in the 100's! I do also keep Oyster Shells and chick grit in feeders in their coops just in case. They know where it is and go to it as needed.

 

[chickensfinally]

We are thinking about getting chickens for my parents property. (We ended up buying a home with no land but they have 12 acres. 5 of which is field). They need the pest control (SOOOOO many ticks!) and we need the meat and eggs. SOOOO how many chickens could we safely have? I am between RIR and NHR. How much food would we need if they have field and woods to eat from?

I don't know how good chickens are, but I have heard guineas are *great* at tick patrol! Maybe some of each --Carrie

 

[mmorgan79936]

I don't know how good chickens are, but I have heard guineas are *great* at tick patrol! Maybe some of each --Carrie

Guineas are awesome for Tick control but the problem we had was they would fly to the wood line first chance they got and we lost them lol. Eventually I had to coop the flock because predators were a problem and even having the 10 ft fence they would always fly over it so if you get them make sure you clip their wings if you don't have an enclosed run. They are very flighty