Ravenous Chickens After Free-Ranging

[annieH]

Hello All,

This is my first post here. We got 3 Rhode Island Reds in April.

I am wondering: why are the chicks so ravenously hungry after being in the garden and free-ranging for hours?

Thanks!

 

[ChicKat]

Hi annieH,
welcome to the BYC forum. I would think that since they are chicks....they are growing at a fast rate, and therefore just like any 'kid' they are always hungry. Either that, or they weren't too successful while they were free-ranging.

What feed do you have for them? Or were they hungry for treats? That is a totally different story.

When I feed mealworms to my little piglets...you would think that they hadn't eaten for weeks.

 

[centrarchid]

Forage quality of free-range maybe very poor, effectively nothing to eat or otherwise deficeint in something feed has lots of. Even when forage quality high, at end of day chicks in particular like to top off their crops before going to roost and the feeder is an excellent location for that.