Providing Feed for "Free Rangers"

[itgns]

So at the moment, my chicks are only five weeks. They go outside in a little pen during the day and have access to water at all times. Then at night, I bring them back in to go into their brooder, which has food in it. I woke up the next morning to put them outside to find they had eaten all of the food in the feeder, which was unusual.

Are they just growing and need more food than I anticipated?
Or am I "starving" them when I put them outside even though they can eat whatever they find? Should I have the feed out there with them while they munch on grass and bugs?

 

[TTracy]

Yeah, they need a lot of food! Chickens use a lot of energy growing! There may not be enough natural food for them in the pen during the day. I would move the food to the pen with the during the day, so they always have some available.

 

[SunnySkies]

I raised FR type birds this summer. I did 12 hours free feeding, 12 hours with no food. They free ranged beginning very young...and they still ATE. We didn't get to process until they were 11 weeks old, and we used something like 13-14 bags of feed, iirc (thr last 10 days were a waste of feed).

I did have feeders out there but they got 12 hours with feed. I went out at 7am to feed and topped up again mid afternoon and let it run out at 7pm.