OK not to feed chickens?

[ChickenCharmer]

Someone asked me if it was fine to keep a couple chickens in a 1/3 acre grassy area and not feed them? Let them forage for their own food? Is that alright?

 

[blue fire]

I think it is up to you, we have ours on 1/2 an acre, but we keep feed out and they eat it, but not all the time, they do forage.

 

[houndit]

I know people that do that. The chickens generally are not very healthy and do not lay hardly at all. I know a man that had hens but he did not want to feed them. He kept them in a small portable pen and did not feed them. He always wondered why we got eggs and he did not. It also depends on the breed. I have read that Fayoumis are so small that they can forage for all their own feed given a large enough space. Some breeds are better than others. I try to encourage our birds to forage as much as possible. I will always feed them however. They do a lot better if they are fed. I know so many people that feed their birds and do not feed them enough. Then when I purchase them they double in weight and do a lot better.

Edited to say that depending on where you live. In the winter there is not a lot to eat in some places. Here it is under snow a lot.