How Often to Feed?

[gtaus]

My chickens free range on my farm. I have been feeding them twice a day but would like to go to once a day. They are fat and healthy and scratch lots of bugs. How often does everyone else feed their free range chickens?

My chickens are in a fenced in chicken run with bird netting covering overhead. Although they are not free range, they would eat the grass in the run. When the grass was all eaten, I started dumping in grass clippings from mowing. Now I am also dumping in leaves from fall cleanup. I do have commercial feed available to them 24/7 and I use a 5 gallon bucket with PVC elbows which I have hanging in the coop. I also have a 3 gallon metal waterer in the coop. For my 10 chickens, I have to refill the feeder and waterer about once every 10 days (and I only fill up the 5 gallon feeder about half way). My girls prefer almost everything else first before eating their commercial feed, which is fine with me.

In theory, I only "feed" my birds once every 10 days when I refill the feeder and waterer. However, I do spend time in collecting grass clippings, leaves, kitchen scraps, etc... and feeding that to the chickens, but that is all work I would be doing anyway so I really don't count that as more work just for the chickens.

 

[cmom]

When I had my first flock around 50 years ago the birds primarily free ranged then. Due to losses from predators I don't free range anymore. The birds ave very large pens. When I do open their gates they don't go out very far and usually go back into their pens. They appear to be happy in their pens. Our property is mostly open pasture so there are few trees and none close to the coops and pens, but all of the pens have nice shade trees in them and rain/shade tables for them to get under. The pens are covered with heavy duty netting and have concrete under the gates, all due to predators in the past. I do give them flock blocks of seeds and grain for them to peck at and grass clippings from my mulching mower, which they love to scratch through. All of the coops have hanging feeders which I fill about once a week so they always have feed available to them. All of the coops have auto waterers. I have a lot of birds. This picture was taken last winter here in Florida.
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[cmom]

I don't know why the attachment isn't loading. My computer died so I'm using a very old netbook.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I would like to know from the OP where they live. That will make quite a difference, at least seasonally. Also, what breeds do they have and what types of greenery?
Grasses aren't the best forage nutritionally for mono-gastric animals like poultry and swine.
Breeds like leghorns are pretty good foragers but they are just too productive to go any time without feed available. Some other breeds like Hamburgs, Cubalayas, Fayoumis and Penedesencas are incredible foragers.
If one has unlimited pristine forage with lots of lush tender forbs, weed seeds and plenty of small vertebrates and invertebrates 12 months out of the year, good foraging breeds can find much of their sustenance free ranging. That would require a climate like Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and maybe Hawaii.
Those conditions and feedstuffs just aren't available in a backyard with a grass lawn.
To answer the original question, I keep feed available all the time. My flocks all free range over about 3/4 of an acre. They sometimes venture farther afield. There is a vast variety of green forage. But in winter, they'll eat 3 times as much feed as they do now. From mid October to mid March, there just isn't enough to sustain them, from December through February, there is virtually nothing.

 

[Folly's place]

And expecting a bird who lays 300 eggs each year to do well on forage is beyond unrealistic!
We have selected for vastly enhanced traits in many of our domestic animals, and they need equally enhanced feeding programs to support this.
Dairy cows producing 100+ pounds of milk each day can't live on pasture alone either!
Mary