Self sufficient feed

[ChickChic00]

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?

 

[Kiki]

No.

 

[ChickChic00]

No.

Why?

 

[Kiki]

Why?

Because chicken feed is cheap and a complete balanced food.

 

[ChickChic00]

Because chicken feed is cheap and a complete balanced food.

Not when you have over 200 chickens.

 

[NatJ]

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?

It would depend on how many chickens, and what climate, and how much space, and how much food they were able to find in that space. Even if they live, they might lay less eggs, or produce less meat, as compared with how they would produce if you provided a complete food.

If you want to try something of the sort, I suggest you buy a complete chicken food and make it available to the chickens at all times. Most chickens prefer to eat what they can forage for themselves, so they will probably find as much food as they can, and then use the feed you provide to fill in the gaps when foraging isn't enough.

For the complete chicken food, it can be chick starter or flock raiser for chickens of any age (even adults, even meat birds), or layer feed is an option for adult laying hens, or meat bird feed is a good choice for meat birds.

I found an article on another site, addressing almost exactly what you asked:
http://www.plamondon.com/wp/save-money-on-chicken-feed/
I do not actually know how well it works, but I did find the article interesting to read, especially because it gives explanations, not just statements of what to do.

 

[ChickChic00]

It would depend on how many chickens, and what climate, and how much space, and how much food they were able to find in that space. Even if they live, they might lay less eggs, or produce less meat, as compared with how they would produce if you provided a complete food.

If you want to try something of the sort, I suggest you buy a complete chicken food and make it available to the chickens at all times. Most chickens prefer to eat what they can forage for themselves, so they will probably find as much food as they can, and then use the feed you provide to fill in the gaps when foraging isn't enough.

For the complete chicken food, it can be chick starter or flock raiser for chickens of any age (even adults, even meat birds), or layer feed is an option for adult laying hens, or meat bird feed is a good choice for meat birds.

I found an article on another site, addressing almost exactly what you asked:
http://www.plamondon.com/wp/save-money-on-chicken-feed/
I do not actually know how well it works, but I did find the article interesting to read, especially because it gives explanations, not just statements of what to do.

Thank you, I'm trying to raise over 200 chickens without buying any feed. I will give them as much feed from the garden or something I can grow as much as they want. I don't need them to produce a lot of meat or eggs. Thank you so much for the information and help though!

 

[MountainWoman73]

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?

It depends a lot on where you live, and on how good the hens are at foraging. I know places like Hawaii have feral chicken populations. (In Colorado they'd definitely die.) Chickens will forage and eat all those things you mentioned for sure. But I would still offer laying feed. They'll eat some of it and some of the other stuff.

 

[MountainWoman73]

Thank you, I'm trying to raise over 200 chickens without buying any feed. I will give them as much feed from the garden or something I can grow as much as they want. I don't need them to produce a lot of meat or eggs. Thank you so much for the information and help though!

Uh.... No. Might be feasible for 3 or 4, with a LOT of forage space and a year round growing season.

 

[NatJ]

I'm trying to raise over 200 chickens without buying any feed. I will give them as much feed from the garden or something I can grow as much as they want. I don't need them to produce a lot of meat or eggs.

What do you use these chickens for?

You say you do not need a lot of meat or eggs, so I just don't understand why you would have 200 chickens.

If you want a certain number of eggs, it is often cheaper to have just a few good layers, instead of having lots of poor layers. It has to do with how much feed is needed to keep a chicken alive, and how much more feed is needed for them to lay eggs.

There is a similar pattern for meat chickens, too. The feed they need to grow is not much more than the feed to just keep them alive--so you might get more meat by feeding a few chickens than by giving the same feed to a larger number of chickens. That applies whether you are buying chicken food or having them forage for their own food.

For how much food 200 chickens need: if they are all adult laying hens, they need about 1/4 pound of feed per hen per day, or sometimes a bit more. So that would be at least 50 pounds of feed per day. Meat chickens probably need more than that per bird. Baby chicks do not need as much in the first few weeks, but that stage does not last long.

Most people do not have enough land (even with compost pile and garden) to produce that much food for chickens every single day, all year long. 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.