Self sufficient feed

[Dinoroar]

Well that video’s good enough for double linkage. Justin Rhodes visits so many cool innovative farmers.

 

[writerskramp]

Can chickens live off of a compost area and free ranging and some veggies from the garden? And the occasional fish and guts I go catch?

YES!

 

[Vicker]

1/4 pound of feed per hen per day, or sometimes a bit more. Also, that measurement is for dry food. If they are eating lots of wet things (like grass or vegetables or fish or live bugs), they will need more pounds because the water makes it heavier without providing any more calories.

A lot of what they're foraging will have very high nutrient content despite the water content.

 

[vpatt]

I am wondering more about the predators that you may have. I've seen some videos about using only compost and it always sounds good, but it does sound like a lot of work. I'm trying compost in the run because we have foxes and the chickens cannot survive for long against them while free ranging. Right now I only have 6 chickens and I don't have near enough compost to support them. But I've only started this very recently and I feed them the same as I would without compost. My main reason for the compost is to give them something they like to do since free ranging is not possible right now. I will eventually get more chickens but I have never had more than 30. I think I understand what you want to accomplish with your chickens. Have you lost many to predators?

 

[Bill752]

Grass is quite nutritious, remember the buffalo back in the day but they also went where the grass is & 200 chickens is a lot of mouths to feed so unless you're growing corn & soy beans for them as well as what the garden & compost produces I'd recommend feeding them a commercial feed around dusk so they don't go to the roost hungry. Being a former avid fisherman you could also catch some minnows while you're out & about, they can only eat just so much & our chickens love frog legs & everything else on a frog. As long as you aren't overgrazing the land then you should have a plentiful supply of earthworms as well. My wife was feeding our dog cooked hamburger but I told her that the chickens would convert the beef to eggs & if you can get a free supply that's protein also! When I ran my own hatchery a lot of savings is about who you know. I got shredded paper for bedding from the local bank having made arrangements to pick it up by their dumpster on their day to shred. Tomatoes is a good crop for chickens since one plant produces a lot of tomatoes multiplied by several plants. Last year the chickens discovered they loved the leaves of the Bitter Melon/Gourd which we were using to provide more shade. Starting at the bottom leaves they then went to jumping to reach the leaves until the bravest of them got to the top of the plants eating all that they wanted & dropping some down to the less fortunate ones & they still didn't kill any of the plants! After the frost killed the plants then that was it for the year & we hadn't pulled the vines down in time for them to eat all of the leaves. If you buy a sack of feed a month with carryover into the next month then you're doing great & so are your chickens. Ducks are also good at foraging for their food but they sure go through a lot of water! We have an aluminum boat that we use to supplement their water with rain water...and the chickens love that also & ours love frog meat! And once your garden is producing then ducks keep the bugs out while leaving all of the vegetables alone & their manure won't burn your crops.

 

[RooStar Chicken Gang]

Was gonna make a threat on this topic, sufficient feeding of chickens.. you have two hundred though.. that's a lot.

Of course there's scraps, and veggies from gardens to give to chickens, everyone knows an does this. They eat mice and rats too that may b bout, small lizards, bug ect.. when free roaming. Another thing people can do is get some meat, if you want to buy it or use road kill is up to you seeing as this is about sufficiently doing it you can use the road kill option and you put it in a bucket and let flies put a heap of maggots in it, then give to chickens.

But b good to hear other ideas people got.

 

[Caseyvdb]

Because chicken feed is cheap and a complete balanced food.

my friend makes his own pellets from Lucerne hay and some additives. he feed about 30 kg a day and make 1000 kg at the time

 

[gtaus]

Can chickens live off of a compost area and free ranging and some veggies from the garden? And the occasional fish and guts I go catch?

Lots of good comments already. Feeding 200 chickens would take lots of food waste. I was thinking about the Justine Rhodes video that was already posted, so it possible, but you have to have enough food waste input.

Another option comes to mind is the Icelandic chickens. They are not a breed of birds, but rather a landrace fowl that evolved living on their own means and are excellent foragers. Last time I checked up on them they were not sold locally, but could be ordered online. They were expensive. What I was thinking is that a person could start off with a small flock of Icelandic chickens, let them live off your land with supplemental food waste, compost, fish remains, etc... and over time they would probably populate to a sustainable level.

IIRC, someone already posted that feeding 200 chickens waste food would require pickup loads full of waste food every week. I suppose that would be possible if you get waste food from restaurants on a commercial basis, like in the Justin Rhodes video. Some of the modern breeds are better foragers than others, but I only have 10 chickens and cannot imagine how much waste food 200 chickens would require to stay healthy.

On a smaller scale, here is something for your consideration. This video is on 25 chickens, but I think he had about 100 chickens at some point. Anyway, lots of good videos related to your topic on his channel.

 

[TOR]

Just a guess, but the OP is in a different country than the US. Grandfather raised fighting birds. Wonder what kind birds the OP has?
Does not seem to have as much of a predator problem or so it sounds like. If had birds roosting around my house after a few days they would no doubt be gone.

interesting

 

[Bill752]

Rereading these posts I remembered a hobby I had almost half a century ago & if you have a basement, storm cellar, or a cool moist place then get some aquariums & raise night crawlers! Back in the day I'd fish at night when I worked dayshift & fished during the day when I worked the nightshift, but if you drink coffee then feed the used coffee grounds to them & let them reproduce before feeding the parents to your flock. I got my "breeders" by going out after dark & collecting them after a rain so all it cost me was time and a couple flashlight batteries. Night crawlers are both male & female so just 2 would produce 2 batch of babies at a time.