sticking to free range & avoiding laying feed

[witchwriter]

i have a commercial dehydrator and my parrots eat dehydrated fruits, vegetables, meat - its all natural and the kids use the same mix to flavor their ramen lol. i just plan on giving the chickens the raw parts i can't dehydrate plus table scraps and the legumes. both species will get peanuts and sunflower seeds. i am actually hoping the parrots might like the cracked corn sour mash - more studying to make sure its safe for them. i've been a parrot mom for over 8 years i just came in from raking over a small compost pile and right now the girls are all out there searching for bugs and worms. next year they will have their own garden to forage - nothing fancy, just some squashes, cucumbers, and other vine veggies and basil. i promise they will have a healthy, well-balanced diet.

deb

 

[gjensen]

Every environment is short on something. There would be a deficiency of some sort. Also the birds will eventually deplete an area of what they like and need most. Access to quality forage like that is certainly an advantage, and the birds will do pretty good finding a balance of sorts. Look at it as a supplement and a resource. It will certainly save money, but it is not a final solution.
The catch is that they are not jungle fowl. They lay more than a clutch or two per season.

I like to let my birds forage, and we have decent forage most of the year. What I like to do is keep their feeders full of good feed, and let them do as they please. I see a reduction in feed costs, but they are still eating their feed. That tells me that they still want it and need it. I suspect that their forage makes up about 25-30% of their total ration.

They are better for access to it, but it is not an ideal on it's own. It is a supplement. I say that the best supplement that I can give them is to open the coop door.

 

[Chris09]

i have a commercial dehydrator and my parrots eat dehydrated fruits, vegetables, meat - its all natural and the kids use the same mix to flavor their ramen lol. i just plan on giving the chickens the raw parts i can't dehydrate plus table scraps and the legumes. both species will get peanuts and sunflower seeds. i am actually hoping the parrots might like the cracked corn sour mash - more studying to make sure its safe for them. i've been a parrot mom for over 8 years i just came in from raking over a small compost pile and right now the girls are all out there searching for bugs and worms. next year they will have their own garden to forage - nothing fancy, just some squashes, cucumbers, and other vine veggies and basil. i promise they will have a healthy, well-balanced diet.

deb

Have you did any research on the nutritional requirements of poultry/chicken?
Judging by your "list" of stuff your going to feed I would be willing to say you haven't, so I would advise feeding a regular poultry feed until you spend some time learning what chickens need in there diet.

Also since chickens ferment there feed already there is really no need to feed them a cracked corn sour mash.

 

[witchwriter]

looks like i will be doing some reading on what chickens require to be healthy and make sure they are getting all the nutrients they need. thanks for all the advice. i really don't know where i would be without BYC.

deb

 

[ECBW]

My birds definitely prefer nature's offering, even that dirty water from the mud puddle. On days that they get to free range, the feed consumption drops, inversely proportional. I wish I can free range them full time.

Is it more nutritious? I can only say for certain that they are healthy and productive.

Word of caution to OP, beware of predators.

 

[witchwriter]

yeah, an owl found where they roost but we were lucky the first night and vigilant the next 2 nights - vigilant again tonight just to be safe. thought i had lost one but she came in after daylight a little worse for wear but nothing broken and not bleeding. don't know how she got away but i am definitely more cautious than before.

 

[Chris09]

Is it more nutritious? I can only say for certain that they are healthy and productive.

Actually to a point it's less nutritious since most of what a chicken eats wile free ranging is grass.
The chickens digestive system is designed to digest meats, grains, seeds, and the occasional fruit or vegetable. The digestive system of a chicken does a somewhat poor job processing fibrous plants like grass and even the hulls of oats, sunflower seed and linseed (flax) can be hard for them to digest.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What a lot of people that have not lived it don’t understand is that chickens can do a great job of feeding themselves if the quality of forage is good. That means different grasses and weeds, grass and weed seeds, all kinds of creepy crawlies and other fun things to chase, and rotting vegetative matter to scratch around in. Having livestock where the chickens can scratch around in the poop helps too. If the quality of forage is not great, yes you need to supplement. I’m not sure how good your forage really is. Winter can be a challenge and you will probably need to supplement, even in Florida. I grew up on a farm like that in the ridges of east Tennessee. We did supplement in the winter but in the good weather they were on their own. We ate a lot of eggs and chicken meat. The chickens were not dying from starvation.

I’m not sure what your native rock is there either. If it is limestone, they can get all the calcium they need from the rocks they eat as grit. They can also get calcium form certain plants and from certain bugs. Look at the egg shells when they start laying. If they are hard enough then they are finding enough calcium. If you can get hold of some hard shells from oyster, mussel, clams, or the hard shells from crab, crush that and let them get calcium from that. The clear flexible shells from shrimp and the soft crab parts are chitin which is protein, not calcium, so you need the hard shells for calcium.

Chickens that rely on forage for all or most of what they eat will not be show quality chickens. They won’t get as big and may not have as shiny feathers as chickens fed a specific diet to give them shiny feathers or big bodies. I think they are healthier too if they get to run around getting exercise and don’t eat too rich a diet to where they get too fat. But that’s just my opinion. We all have different goals and experiences.

The eggs they lay may not be as big as chickens fed a high protein diet. They probably won’t lay as often either. To me, that’s not a bad thing. If feed costs is zero, you are still extremely efficient even with fewer eggs. Before they start to lay, the pullets will build up excess fat, mainly in the pelvic region but other places too. That fat is there to give them a reserve if they go broody. They won’t lay if they don’t have enough fat built up. So if they are laying they are getting what they need. Their body does regulate how many eggs they lay and how big they are based on what they eat.

Chickens that lay eggs bigger than the average for their body can have more prolapse or internal laying problems. Also, pullets that hold off laying for a while seem to have less medical problems. Their bodies need to mature enough to support laying. Don’t take this to mean that every pullet that starts laying young is going to have problems. They are slightly more likely to have problems, not that many of them actually will. Tell your family that the pullets will lay better and longer in the long run if they start laying a little later. There is just enough fact in that to be true, but it’s not really that big a deal.

If what you are doing works for you, keep at it. But stay flexible and change something if you have a problem. Good luck!

 

[witchwriter]

i have chubby chickens LOL they are not fat but they sure ain't skinny they run and play and forage all day long. we do have alot of limestaone here and the driveway is crushed oyster shell. they tend to do that alot in this area. i never really thought about that as a calcium source and bought oyster shell to keep readily available. thats probably why they haven't touched the oyster shell i set out. there are about 100 head of cattle which the girls go visit every morning (i just hope they stay away from those psychedelic ones ones lol). the plant life is so varied i couldn't possibly begin to count them. the field right next to us was just turned and the ladies hung out over there before it was planted. not sure what they planted but that will be available to forage as well. there were also blackberries while they were in season. there is no lack of variety here. heeck, i can't keep the frogs out of my house so i am certain there are more than enough to eat.

my 2 black australorps just glisten in the sunlight with silvery green and blue tints shining on their black feathers. my reds are shiny too. the chickens are shinier and softer than the parrots

 

[witchwriter]

Actually to a point it's less nutritious since most of what a chicken eats wile free ranging is grass.
The chickens digestive system is designed to digest meats, grains, seeds, and the occasional fruit or vegetable. The digestive system of a chicken does a somewhat poor job processing fibrous plants like grass and even the hulls of oats, sunflower seed and linseed (flax) can be hard for them to digest.

my chickens rarely eat grass - they are meat eaters. they prefer frogs and lizards and those are in healthy supply here. there is more grass but my girls are scratching in the dirt for worms and grubs. rarely do i see them eat grass. yes, i watch them almost all day long. i am agoraphobic and my chair sits so i can see the whole front yard the only time they are out of sight is in teh early morning when they go "play" with the cows or late evening when they forage in the back yard. my free range girls eat mostly protein.

deb