molting/protein?

[LeslieDJoyce]

They are getting  protein in their grasses too.  (Consider grass fed beef cattle)  Now you probably won't speed a hen through molting on grass alone.  but it's in there.  And among the grass blades as you know is the animal protein (insects, frogs) to compliment the grass. Free ranging is set up for a complete diet for your chicken, in my opinion.  As fall wears on to winter, I notice my birds are ranging farther and farther from my yard to find what they need.  Sort of amazing if you look at it from afar...but then I get nervous of course and more neighborly if  you will and scuttle them back home with enticing offerings.  LOL.

Just this fall with molt and daylight hours shortening-egg supply not keeping to my needs I bought some Amish eggs from my grocery store.  This guy has his hens raised on hay, outside birds to some degree, but I can tell they are being fed mostly bagged feed.  The yolks are much paler than my grass fed  free ranging girls.  Grass = more betacarotene in the egg and perhaps the more delicious flavor.

Cows and chickens are completely different. The protein in grass is low. Of course there are bugs & critters in grass. Are there enough? Probably not reliably enough. And probably not year round. And certainly not if there are very many birds competing for it. Domestic chickens are not the same as wild fowel ...

Though some people can get away with not feeding their free-range flocks and have gorgeous healthy birds, I personally think it is irresponsible to recommend that as the only right way to keep chickens. Especially in backyards where the range area is limited in size and diversity.

I don't believe it is wrong to feed your birds.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Cows and chickens are completely different. The protein in grass is low. Of course there are bugs & critters in grass. Are there enough? Probably not reliably enough. And probably not year round. And certainly not if there are very many birds competing for it. Domestic chickens are not the same as wild fowel ...

Though some people can get away with not feeding their free-range flocks and have gorgeous healthy birds, I personally think it is irresponsible to recommend that as the only right way to keep chickens. Especially in backyards where the range area is limited in size and diversity.

I don't believe it is wrong to feed your birds.

Wow.

I don't think it's wrong to feed my birds either. Mine are lucky enough to have a choice each day. Stay at the coop and feed on their pellets and grains or go out and free range. Each day they'll chose free ranging. And they tell me a lot by the choices they make each day. I'm pretty sure I didn't write a complete post about my set up and just offered my two cents on grass and free ranging not realizing it would be so misconstrued and distorted as "the only way to go." I DO REALIZE that not everybody has the same set up.

Irresponsibility is not considering every tidbit of information you glean from BYC for your own set up and not paying attention to your birds needs, behavior etc.

Just a bit too snappy here...bye.

 

[centrarchid]

Cows and chickens are completely different. The protein in grass is low. Of course there are bugs & critters in grass. Are there enough? Probably not reliably enough. And probably not year round. And certainly not if there are very many birds competing for it. Domestic chickens are not the same as wild fowel ...

Though some people can get away with not feeding their free-range flocks and have gorgeous healthy birds, I personally think it is irresponsible to recommend that as the only right way to keep chickens. Especially in backyards where the range area is limited in size and diversity.

I don't believe it is wrong to feed your birds.

No one here is recommending not feeding free-range birds, especially when forage is inadequate for supporting them. When forage is adequate, then feeds of any sort and do say any, do not hold a candle to what natural foods provide. The feeds used when forages are inadequate for supporting the number of birds kept. I run the full gamut with respect to intensive confine where all nutrition if provided as feed to intermediate where natural forages are supplemented by formulated complete feeds or an incomplete mix, and with a small number of birds that get essentially all on their own. I think it is wrong to feed them improperly by going to extremes with respect to what feed is made of without recognizing the value of compromise.

 

[suebgbr]

I have seen a site that is selling freshly picked alfalfa or bales of drier alfalfa. Is this any good for chickens? Would they use it to eat or bedding?

 

[cafarmgirl]

Chickens love alfalfa hay, they will pick out and eat all the little leaves, leaving behind the course stems. Alfalfa is high in protein and calcium.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Wow.

I don't think it's wrong to feed my birds either. Mine are lucky enough to have a choice each day. Stay at the coop and feed on their pellets and grains or go out and free range. Each day they'll chose free ranging. And they tell me a lot by the choices they make each day. I'm pretty sure I didn't write a complete post about my set up and just offered my two cents on grass and free ranging not realizing it would be so misconstrued and distorted as "the only way to go." I DO REALIZE that not everybody has the same set up.

Irresponsibility is not considering every tidbit of information you glean from BYC for your own set up and not paying attention to your birds needs, behavior etc.

Just a bit too snappy here...bye.

Thanks for clarifying. It really did read to me as if the post stated that chickens are like cows ... so inasmuch as this thread is about "supplementing" a flock of chickens with extra protein during a hard molt, emphasizing the probably rare circumstances where a flock can thrive on forage alone seemed to me to merit a cautious counterpoint post. Of course I cannot intuit anyone's complete setup by a single post, and I really did my best to not misconstrue or distort what was written or be personal about it in any way. I did not wish to insult anyone or sound snappy. I'm sorry I've offended you.

And in case I've offended anyone else, I'm sorry for that, too.

 

[TwoCrows]

I have seen a site that is selling freshly picked alfalfa or bales of drier alfalfa. Is this any good for chickens? Would they use it to eat or bedding?

I regularly feed my birds alfalfa. Once in a while I will throw a flake of this hay in the run and they go crazy eating the leaves and the tiny seeds in the hay. They don't bother much with the hay stalks itself...mostly the leaves.

If you buy it freshly picked, it is better to season it or let it dry out. So if you can, go for the drier stuff. The fresh wet stuff can cause lots of diarrhea and is very high in protein. Sometimes too much.

Now, some birds won't touch alfalfa, so you take your chances with it. LOL My birds can't free range, so anything green in color gets wolfed down no matter what it tastes like. LOL

 

[suebgbr]

Brilliant! A question you probably can't answer but can horses eat alfalfa as well? Just thought I might as well buy it in bulk as it is coming from the bottom end of England (Cornwall) and I live in the North West (Near Manchester)

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

No one here is recommending not feeding free-range birds, especially when forage is inadequate for supporting them. When forage is adequate, then feeds of any sort and do say any, do not hold a candle to what natural foods provide. The feeds used when forages are inadequate for supporting the number of birds kept. I run the full gamut with respect to intensive confine where all nutrition if provided as feed to intermediate where natural forages are supplemented by formulated complete feeds or an incomplete mix, and with a small number of birds that get essentially all on their own. I think it is wrong to feed them improperly by going to extremes with respect to what feed is made of without recognizing the value of compromise.

I'm sorry for the digression from the topic of this thread but ... I've noticed an interesting trend pertinent to the quoted post ... potential customers (eggs and meat birds) asking me if I feed my birds animal proteins or soy or corn or GMOs or kitchen scraps or extra Omega 3s or if my small-farm backyard flock is "Certified Organic" or if I confine my birds at all or if the eggs are fertilized or do I feed the birds or or or ... the list goes on. It is a spectrum of concern, each with a perfectly valid reason behind it, and though I do expect that customers putting in the extra effort to buy from a farm will be especially discerning, some of their concerns surprised me at first. I think the most recent surprise was someone asking if the birds are "gluten free," meaning had the birds ever been fed gluten. No, the birds/eggs are not gluten free by that description. Before that someone visiting the farm told me they wanted to make sure the chickens had an "exclusively vegetarian diet" while the flock was literally fighting over a snake in the background. Ummmm ... sorry ... no. You'll have better luck with factory-farmed eggs for that one.

At first I wasn't sure where potential customers were getting their ideas about the "right" way to keep birds. Jumping ahead in this conversation to one specific point pertinent to the post I've quoted ... after googling around a bit I did find plenty of recommendations out there for people to find eggs and poultry (meat) that had *never been fed anything but natural forage.* Some of these sources seem to indicate the word "pastured" in the description of the product means that the birds have never been offered prepared poultry feed, and to not "pasture" the birds was abusive. I'm sure that definition of "pastured" is rarely, if ever, the case for someone keeping enough birds to sell quantities of eggs and meat. So now I'm careful to explain to people that I do feed the birds as part of the product description. It worries me that some people might think "what the customer doesn't know won't hurt them" ...

 

[Bogtown Chick]

LeslieDJoyce as a fellow chicken enthusiast I accept your apology. I find your research and considerations on this thread admirable and we're all here to learn. I apologize too as my response defending my practices was probably more zealous than it needed to be. This is a nice thread and I don't want it brought down...

I think, especially if you live in a colder climate and pasturing is not possible year round...the "comprimises" come into play in order to practice good animal husbandry. Here is a video of a company in our region that pastures their chickens for the most part but even in the summer for their business to survive they need to supplement feed to keep up with the demand it appears.

I think it's hard to please people that probably don't fully understand what it takes to keep a chicken happy and nutritionally healthy and productive for eggs or even meat.