How much do you feed if you free range?

[kyle7630]

How much feed should you give chickens and guineas if they free range all day? Mine free range from about 7ish am to around 8ish pm. They still swamp the feed that I put out though like they are starving. All are less than 3 months old right now. All look plump and healthy except one who is not growing well. Eats plenty , just small.

 

[Bi0sC0mp]

i feed my free range chickens once a day about a coffee can full

 

[Melilem]

Hmm maybe they are one of those breeds that are rotten foragers. I let my birds freerange because I havent gotten around to fixing the fence

I just leave a full feeder and waterer by the pen and let them eat whatever they want. So, I guess my answer is I feed my free range chickens 'choice'. I guess I could measure how much food they've eaten....I will put that on my list.

 

[bayouchica]

I keep feed & water out at all times,in different places in our yard. I have over a hundred chickens mostly standards & some bantams... they go thru 50lbs. of Layena in 2 weeks or more,depends on how hot it is.

 

[kyle7630]

Thanks for the info. I always read on here that most of them eat so much free ranging, that they hardly touch their feed. Not at MY house! These boogers eat like crazy.

Should I throw some feed on the ground in different areas to encourage them to forage?

 

[hinkjc]

We offer free choice feed as well with free ranging. Depending on the location, environment and season, they may not be able to get everything they need nutritionally from free ranging.

Jody

 

[krjwaj]

We free choice and the 5 girls eat about 20 oz grain/day. We have been giving them fruit and yogurt to fill them up!

 

[Beekissed]

I used to feed once a day in the evening for my rangers. I usually put out a certain amount of feed and monitor for left overs. If none, I put out more each evening until I noticed they were getting full on X amount of feed with just a little left over. Then, that was the amount I would feed each evening. I would just adjust this amount with the bird's consumption levels. Now, however, I offer free choice, as sometimes I go on vacation for up to four days and am using continuous feeders to compensate for that. Too much trouble to feed daily now and put up the continuous feeders, so free choice it is.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
Ditto.

I give free choice and my feed use goes way down.... but it does not stop. They get a few acres to roam and could go further if they wanted, but still gobble down food before bed and in the morning. If the season is dry (yeah right out here), there is snow out, weather is bad, food consumption sky rockets. You could see how much more they would be eating if you feed them cooped up for a day and then saw how much they ate when they free ranged. I bet you'd see a lot more being eaten if they were cooped. Plus, at 3 months they are still growing fast and eat tons.

 

[Chirpy]

I also leave their feed available 24/7 but mine only get to free range for between 5 to 7 hours each day.