Questioning "the system"

[OHhappychicks]

My limited experience is the same as the other posters. Mine free range all day, but have layer mash available all the time. And like duckinut said, they go out in the morn and don't even look at the feeder. I see some of them during diff times of the day in the henhouse eating the feed, but they don't linger there. Mine are out foraging around unless snow covers the ground or it's too cold. Granted they aren't getting any bugs or greens, but they like to scratch around anyway, then of course they eat more mash.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I do it pretty much like most of the other posters. I let them free range from morning to night most days, but there are times I keep them penned for whatever reasons. I always keep food available to them but it lasts a lot longer in the warmer months. In general, my broody raised chickens are better foragers than my brooder raised chickens, but they all forage a lot.

I grew up on a farm in Tennessee where the chickens were never locked up and were only fed when snow was on the ground. These were a barnyard mixed flock, but occasionally Dad would get some purebreds to keep the genetic diversity going. The purebreeds were Dominique, New Hampshire, White Rocks, and such, the same hatchery chicks we get today. Those hatchery chicks did fine under those management practices despite what some people think of the delicacy of the "modern" heritage breeds.

In my opinion, the commercial feed is all about efficiency. If that is the only food they eat, it contains what they need to produce good sized eggs as cheaply as possible while providing all they need to be healthy while they are laying. If a chicken is not healthy, she cannot be an efficient egg producer. Enough research has gone into it to come up with the most efficient balance. When you start feeding them things other than that feed, then you upset that balance. Not a real problem unless you go overboard on one thing, but they may not produce quite as many eggs at the same size.

I think if they are allowed to forage for their food, they will do fine. But I'll modify that to include proper forage. If all they get to eat is a Bermuda lawn that is kept mown where seeds do not form, is managed where dandelions and other weeds do not grow or produce seed, and they don't have decaying matter to scratch in to find a lot of different creepy crawlies, then they are not going to get a huge diversity of food from that. That type of manicured lawn is the best that some people can offer and that is great. I'd rather they get that than stay cooped up with nothing but their commercial feed, but I think you will find they eat a lot more of the commercial feed in those situations.