Keeping Chickens Free Range

[jenniferlamar70]

Greetings,

I am experimenting with keeping 3 black Australorps free range without supplemental feed.  I bought them as 1 day olds and put them in the coop that day.  The coop has a wire floor and is raised 3 ft off of the ground.  I purchased one 15lb bag of starter.  When the starter ran out, at about 5 weeks, I started opening the door to the coop each morning and closing at night.  The coop has water, but no feed.

Outside the coop, they have access to a small neighborhood backyard of about 4000 sf privacy fenced. The backyard has two trees and 7 raised garden beds.  They spend their day visiting every square inch of the yard, and every raised bed.  The only vegetable I had trouble with were tomatoes within 24 inches of the ground.  They do have one supplement: we daily through kitchen scraps into the compost pile.  All three birds immediately sift through and eat 80% of it.  Then, as trusty gardeners they stir up the compost and level it near perfectly.  They promptly put themselves to bed at 8:35pm each night, and sleep on the highest roost in the coop next to a wire window.

All three birds are now 6 months only, very large and very fast.  They haven't started to lay yet.  For the first 5 minutes that I go into the yard, they will surround my feet clucking loudly.  If I throw a piece of toast, they will each grab a piece and ignore me for the 5 secs it takes to swallow.  If I throw scraps into the compost, they will attack the compost - leaving me behind.  If I stand there and give them nothing, after about 5 minutes, they will wander away.

I can't prove that they are getting enough to eat, but they definitely don't look malnourished.  If anything, they look a little on the portly side.  They are much bigger birds than I had expected.  Still no eggs though.  It is just now starting to cool down.  Waiting to see.

Paul
Georgetown, Texas

Just curious? If your just feeding them whatever and they act starving it could be they are not getting enough nutrients. How do you know they are getting enough. I would say behavior tells you if they are getting what they need. Portly doesn't mean healthy and their are lots of table scraps that can have long term damage even if not noticed right away. I'm not against letting chickens find food themselves but what you describe sounds to me like they may be very hungry. My chickens work great at composting and also free range but we supplement and they have never acted starving. I would be worried about quality of life and also nutritional quality of your eggs when you get them.

 

[Beekissed]

Just curious? If your just feeding them whatever and they act starving it could be they are not getting enough nutrients. How do you know they are getting enough. I would say behavior tells you if they are getting what they need. Portly doesn't mean healthy and their are lots of table scraps that can have long term damage even if not noticed right away. I'm not against letting chickens find food themselves but what you describe sounds to me like they may be very hungry. My chickens work great at composting and also free range but we supplement and they have never acted starving. I would be worried about quality of life and also nutritional quality of your eggs when you get them.

I've never met a chicken that didn't act hungry....even right after they were fed and filled up their crops, they will still act hog wild if you throw down something good on the ground. Acting hungry~for a chicken~doesn't indicate they are not getting enough nutrients, that's just natural.

I wouldn't worry one bit about the quality of life or nutritional quality of those eggs at all....the nutrition to be found out on good forage is so much more high than bagged feeds it isn't even comparable. White dutch clover alone has 17%-33% protein alone(about 23% on average). Protein levels of the average grasshopper is a little over 20%. The minerals found in a natural diet for chickens are more easily absorbed and utilized by the bird than those found in typical feeds as well.

The typical grain based feed is hard for a monogastric animal to digest, so the bagged feeds we typically give to our chickens isn't even completely digested when it emerges on the other end, meaning they don't necessarily glean the nutrition you think they do from those feeds....if they cannot digest them, they cannot absorb the nutrients.

If those birds are looking in good condition on what they are eating, I'd say they are doing just fine. Come winter there will need to be a change in diet~unless you live where you don't get winter~ and one might want to start transitioning them a little at a time now, but fall is an amazing time for foraging...the nutrition to be found in the fall is even more than can be found in early spring...so I wouldn't over do it on introducing bagged feeds right now. Just a little at a time until the forage starts to give out due to cold weather.

Chickens existed and thrived, laid and reproduced well, for thousands of years on free range alone before anyone ever opened up a bag of Purina flock raiser and dished it out.

 

[centrarchid]

Greetings,

I am experimenting with keeping 3 black Australorps free range without supplemental feed.  I bought them as 1 day olds and put them in the coop that day.  The coop has a wire floor and is raised 3 ft off of the ground.  I purchased one 15lb bag of starter.  When the starter ran out, at about 5 weeks, I started opening the door to the coop each morning and closing at night.  The coop has water, but no feed.

Outside the coop, they have access to a small neighborhood backyard of about 4000 sf privacy fenced. The backyard has two trees and 7 raised garden beds.  They spend their day visiting every square inch of the yard, and every raised bed.  The only vegetable I had trouble with were tomatoes within 24 inches of the ground.  They do have one supplement: we daily through kitchen scraps into the compost pile.  All three birds immediately sift through and eat 80% of it.  Then, as trusty gardeners they stir up the compost and level it near perfectly.  They promptly put themselves to bed at 8:35pm each night, and sleep on the highest roost in the coop next to a wire window.

All three birds are now 6 months only, very large and very fast.  They haven't started to lay yet.  For the first 5 minutes that I go into the yard, they will surround my feet clucking loudly.  If I throw a piece of toast, they will each grab a piece and ignore me for the 5 secs it takes to swallow.  If I throw scraps into the compost, they will attack the compost - leaving me behind.  If I stand there and give them nothing, after about 5 minutes, they will wander away.

I can't prove that they are getting enough to eat, but they definitely don't look malnourished.  If anything, they look a little on the portly side.  They are much bigger birds than I had expected.  Still no eggs though.  It is just now starting to cool down.  Waiting to see.

Paul
Georgetown, Texas

What you will see as temperatures drop is they will have an even greater interest in eating. If they must to meet energy needs, then they will begin consuming plant materials they typically ignore. If like mine they will expand area they forage by three or four times and start getting very selective about where they forage. At same time energy needs go up due to cold, productivity of the forage will go down as well. Your compost heap will be more resistant to effects of dropping temperatures. If and when they can muster egg production, feed intake will step up yet again. Watch weight carefully by feeling, not looks. If they cannot compensate for lower productivity of yard and their increased nutrient requirements, then they will loose weight.

 

[lcertuche]

I like to throw a handful of food to my free ranging chickens to keep them coming back at night. I'm not sure I really need to during the summer because they go to their coop every night. In the winter I will give them grain to make up for the loss of frogs, snakes, bugs, etc. that may be missing. They also get a lot of kitchen scraps. I keep them penned up most the time in the winter because everything is hungrier in the winter and I like for them to take care of the garden, aerating (scratching), bug eating, weed killing, and fertilizing. In the Spring turn them lose and plant.

 

[lazy gardener]

Paul, the only concern I might express is the quality of forage in your yard. Is your entire yard manicured, or do you allow plenty of weedy growth that would be packed with seeds, and attracting insects? Just my opinion, but I don't think it's possible for a chicken to get a balanced diet from foraging the "typical residential back yard." (Grass kept low, no weeds.) Also of concern is the yard that is treated with insecticides or herbicides. I'm guessing that's not an issue for you. My birds typically start laying between 17 - 20 weeks so I can't speak to the fact that your birds are 6 months old and not yet laying. A bit of pause for concern. Are they hatchery birds or heritage??? That might make a difference. Any chance that they are hiding eggs on you???

 

[duluthralphie]

If you have enough bugs, seeds and weeds growing in your yard they will do fine, until the deplete the supply. However, I would be concerned when they start laying they will not get enough calcium. I would suggest oyster shells on the side.

We feed lots of left overs to our birds too, knowing they are not getting the food that is best for them, but they enjoy it.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

I've never met a chicken that didn't act hungry....even right after they were fed and filled up their crops, they will still act hog wild if you throw down something good on the ground.  Acting hungry~for a chicken~doesn't indicate they are not getting enough nutrients, that's just natural. 

I wouldn't worry one bit about the quality of life or nutritional quality of those eggs at all....the nutrition to be found out on good forage is so much more high than bagged feeds it isn't even comparable.  White dutch clover alone has 17%-33% protein alone(about 23% on average).   Protein levels of the average grasshopper is a little over 20%.   The minerals found in a natural diet for chickens are more easily absorbed and utilized by the bird than those found in typical feeds as well. 

The typical grain based feed is hard for a monogastric animal to digest, so the bagged feeds we typically give to our chickens isn't even completely digested when it emerges on the other end, meaning they don't necessarily glean the nutrition you think they do from those feeds....if they cannot digest them, they cannot absorb the nutrients. 

If those birds are looking in good condition on what they are eating, I'd say they are doing just fine.  Come winter there will need to be a change in diet~unless you live where you don't get winter~ and one might want to start transitioning them a little at a time now, but fall is an amazing time for foraging...the nutrition to be found in the fall is even more than can be found in early spring...so I wouldn't over do it on introducing bagged feeds right now.  Just a little at a time until the forage starts to give out due to cold weather. 

Chickens existed and thrived, laid and reproduced well, for thousands of years on free range alone before anyone ever opened up a bag of Purina flock raiser and dished it out. 

I have to beg to differ. My chickens only get like that when I feed them treats. They actually don't act starving. Also like another user said it depends alot on location and the variety of things that grow in your yard. I would definitely say their is a quality of life issue if they cannot find what they need in the area they are contained. Also wild chickens lived in a habitat beneficial to there suvival. That's not alway the case in a backyard flock. That's why I said it can work but let the chickens tell you if they are getting enough nutrients by the way they act. Also tables raps are an ok treat but if that's overdone it can cause health issues. Their are lots of foods that can cause liver and kidney damage after a long term diet. Being overweight can be just as detrimental to a chickens health and also can effect them laying eggs.

 

[Beekissed]

The guy said his chickens are finding food and show good conditioning, so I'm thinking they are fine.

Everyone always posts words of warning to people when they discuss feeding chickens on forage and food scraps, like those are toxic waste that can't provide for a chicken's needs, but that's exactly what chickens have been fed on for thousands of years and yet we still have chickens here today, one of the most plentiful food animals on the planet~be they in the US being fed up on bagged feeds or in a third world country eating free range and food scraps they find.

My grandma never bought chicken food in her life, feeding her free ranged flock on a few handfuls of field corn and whatever scraps they didn't feed to the hogs. Her chickens were healthy, productive and just fine all those years...not the nutritionally poor or overly fat or starving chickens you depict.

If the guy says his chickens are in good condition on free range and scraps, I'd say he's doing something right....while all the folks pouring money down the toilet on chicken feed are a lap or so behind on the learning curve.

 

[maryann momhen]

The only thing I would add is that they need calcium to lay strong eggs otherwise theyll lay eggs with no shells or broken shells, you might want to supplement with some layer pellets,unless you're composting egg shells and that's giving them enough calcium, but yeah mine eat their pellets and your still think they were starving when im holding anything in my hand and they think it's a treat

 

[Beekissed]

Actually, most greens have WAY more calcium than any layer ration has. Clover alone has 10% calcium on average, with a low around 5-6% and a high of around 12-13%, whereas the typical layer ration has a mere 4%...most typical yard have a good deal of white clover. Green forage can provide way more calcium than a chicken will need for laying....I don't provide oyster shells no matter the season. I just use layer mash for a supplemental feed, so most of their protein and calcium needs are provided for out on the land.

My egg shells are so hard on forage/free range that I have difficulty cracking them. I can throw an egg across the yard and it will bounce when it lands.