sticking to free range & avoiding laying feed

[gjensen]

There is a difference between surviving and thriving.

 

[Going Quackers]

Quote: I think that is truly the key, my standard chickens all range... the group of all hens in particular they don't consume much food, it's in their coop and they will go 'share' where the ducks are(again free ranged) but as said overall quality of forage varies massively which greatly effects the ability of no commercial feeds vs having.

Staying on top of the flocks health and being willing to change/alter is the key to any flock working well, really.

 

[witchwriter]

my girls are thriving beautifully! thank you for noticing



and this is the one, the red on the left, that escaped the owl - she lost quite a few feathers and looks rough still

 

[witchwriter]

I think that is truly the key, my standard chickens all range... the group of all hens in particular they don't consume much food, it's in their coop and they will go 'share' where the ducks are(again free ranged) but as said overall quality of forage varies massively which greatly effects the ability of no commercial feeds vs having.

Staying on top of the flocks health and being willing to change/alter is the key to any flock working well, really.

i so want some ducks but hubby says i have to master chickens first

i am so willing to change if/when necessary. just read up on sour mash for chickens and started a batch yesterday. they aren't liking the cracked corn, or i should say they are liking the sunflower seeds better, and i want really yellow yolks. poked around the web a bit today and found out the sour mash is good for parrots too! now i can add something new and beneficial to their diet.

deb

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Chickens really don't prefer to eat grass. They do however eat more succulent greens like clover, alfalfa, beets, radish, turnips, etc. and any new shoots. When I rotate my pastures, they eat all those other things and the grass is the only thing left.
Depending on the size of the area and stocking density, chickens will eventually eliminate most of the protein sources Even in a place like Florida, with a much longer growing season than here. New bugs won't be forthcoming in December and January.

In the following site you may want to click on the list of links on vitamin, mineral and amino acid deficiencies.
http://www.poultrynews.com/New/Diseases/Merks/207001.htm

Here's a list of all nutrients chickens are known to need.
http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G8352

 

[gjensen]

Chickens really don't prefer to eat grass. They do however eat more succulent greens like clover, alfalfa, beets, radish, turnips, etc. and any new shoots. When I rotate my pastures, they eat all those other things and the grass is the only thing left.
Depending on the size of the area and stocking density, chickens will eventually eliminate most of the protein sources Even in a place like Florida, with a much longer growing season than here. New bugs won't be forthcoming in December and January.

In the following site you may want to click on the list of links on vitamin, mineral and amino acid deficiencies.
http://www.poultrynews.com/New/Diseases/Merks/207001.htm

Here's a list of all nutrients chickens are known to need.
http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G8352

Those are good points. Chickens will eat grass, but that is not the bulk of what they are foraging. They will eat the grass especially, for a lack of options. Not all grasses are equal.

Yes they quickly deplete the resources over the area they range.

Every location has a deficiency or deficiencies.

It is a false economy to think that their is any money saved, unless no money is spent at all.

My experience as showed me that they do best when they have the best of both worlds.

To the comments on a lack of luster in the feathers, and smaller size is an equivalent to deficiencies in the diet and stunted growth. I do not see any good in that, and I have a hard time with the idea that this makes them healthier.

Birds allowed to roost where they will, will disappear one by one until there is no more.

I think a healthy balance between the extremes could be to give the a quality ration in the evenings before they go to roost in a secure shelter. Filling their crop full of a balanced ration before going to roost may be a good option. It will also reveal whether or not they are satisfied with the day's foraging. Or doing it in the morning, and pulling them off of the roost to see if their crop is full.

The ideas of keeping chickens naturally is not without fault. It is not as if they are a natural part of these environments. They are livestock that are raised for the production of meat an eggs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Well said.

Jungle fowl, domestic chickens' ancestor, only laid a clutch of eggs or two a year and lived where the forage supplied their limited needs. It is the rare environment that can meet the nutritional needs of a modern domestic fowl.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Chickens really don't prefer to eat grass. They do however eat more succulent greens like clover, alfalfa, beets, radish, turnips, etc. and any new shoots. When I rotate my pastures, they eat all those other things and the grass is the only thing left.
Depending on the size of the area and stocking density, chickens will eventually eliminate most of the protein sources Even in a place like Florida, with a much longer growing season than here. New bugs won't be forthcoming in December and January.

In the following site you may want to click on the list of links on vitamin, mineral and amino acid deficiencies.
http://www.poultrynews.com/New/Diseases/Merks/207001.htm

Here's a list of all nutrients chickens are known to need.
http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G8352

Those are good points. Chickens will eat grass, but that is not the bulk of what they are foraging. They will eat the grass especially, for a lack of options. Not all grasses are equal.

Yes they quickly deplete the resources over the area they range.

Every location has a deficiency or deficiencies.

It is a false economy to think that their is any money saved, unless no money is spent at all.

My experience as showed me that they do best when they have the best of both worlds.

To the comments on a lack of luster in the feathers, and smaller size is an equivalent to deficiencies in the diet and stunted growth. I do not see any good in that, and I have a hard time with the idea that this makes them healthier.

Birds allowed to roost where they will, will disappear one by one until there is no more.

I think a healthy balance between the extremes could be to give the a quality ration in the evenings before they go to roost in a secure shelter. Filling their crop full of a balanced ration before going to roost may be a good option. It will also reveal whether or not they are satisfied with the day's foraging. Or doing it in the morning, and pulling them off of the roost to see if their crop is full.

The ideas of keeping chickens naturally is not without fault. It is not as if they are a natural part of these environments. They are livestock that are raised for the production of meat an eggs.

To the comments on a lack of luster in the feathers, and smaller size is an equivalent to deficiencies in the diet and stunted growth. I do not see any good in that, and I have a hard time with the idea that this makes them healthier.

That is a fair comment. I’ll try to explain what I was talking about. My actual comment was not that a lack of luster means they are healthy. My comment was

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 could have phrased that better. Some people feed things specifically to make the chickens look better. One trick to get shiny feathers is to drizzle oil on their feed. That will shine the feathers up but I don’t consider those feathers shiny because of good health. I consider that artificially making them look like they have a healthy sheen.

What some people consider stunted growth may be more their normal growth. Artificially feeding them a high protein diet to make them grow bigger may be more unnatural than letting them reach their natural growth size. There is certainly opinion in this one.

What chickens need is a balanced diet. That means oil, fiber, minerals, protein, and many other things. Feeding them too much of a good thing is not necessarily a good thing. Good quality forage will provide those things. Very few people on this forum have really good quality forage and many that do can’t access it because of predator pressure.

For those that are lucky enough to have the conditions for their chickens to get good forage the chickens can do quite well on that forage. Part of that too is your individual goals. If you are raising chickens for show, no, that will not be sufficient to win ribbons at shows. That will require a special diet. If you are expecting a large egg every day then you need to feed them to support that kind of laying. They are unlikely to get enough on forage alone to support that, especially the large part of that. They can still lay pretty regularly, even most days, but the eggs won’t be as large. If you are wanting to rush them to butcher age, you need to feed them to meet that goal. If your goals are more around an average sized egg and average sized chickens and you have the conditions where they can forage for most of all of their feed they can do extremely well on that forage.

Yes they quickly deplete the resources over the area they range.

Could you explain your experience with this on high quality forage where they have the ability to range? I lived it. I grew up on a farm where the chickens fed themselves most months of the year. But they were totally free range. They had large areas to forage. They were not contained.

It is a false economy to think that their is any money saved, unless no money is spent at all.

I’m sorry. I don’t understand this comment at all.

Birds allowed to roost where they will, will disappear one by one until there is no more.

Most of our chickens roosted in the hen house, but some slept in trees year around. They did not disappear one by one until there is no more. We would go years between predator attacks. But a fox or dog would finally find our flock and have to be dealt with. Growing up, I remember one dog and one fox. That was not disappearing one by one.

Different people have different predator pressure. Chickens allowed to forage or roost without protection are certainly at risk. It is likely you will have losses at some time or another. I can’t truly free range here because too many people drop off dogs in the country. I have to keep them inside an electric netting or abandoned dogs would wipe me out. We don’t all have the same conditions any more than we have the same goals. Predators are a huge issue for most of us, but not all.

They are livestock that are raised for the production of meat an eggs.

Again I have trouble understanding exactly what you mean by this. You can find some bad apples in every barrel, but most people that raise livestock understand that an unhealthy animal does not produce. The norm is that people that raise “livestock” provide adequate food, water, protection from predators, and appropriate shelter. Calm contented animals produce best. Sick, mistreated, or underfed animals are not in anyone’s best interests. Taking care of “livestock” is normally a 24/7/365 job. You are all the time looking out for the health and well-being of that animal. It is a fulltime job.

We all have our own goals and our own ways to deal with these different issues. I know my ways won’t suit many other people. I’m not going to assume that my way is the only right way. There are many things that work.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There is a difference between surviving and thriving.

I agree there is a difference in surviving and thriving. One member I highly respect on this forum has told the story of how some chickens went feral in Northern Michigan and survived the winter finding their own food and water. I certainly consider that surviving.

But when I see chickens take part in normal flock activities, chasing june bugs and grasshoppers, scratching around for food, taking dust baths, acting healthy and vibrant, laying a decent number of eggs, broodies hatching and raising chicks, and where the vast majority of eggs that are incubated hatch, why would that not be thriving?

 

[ECBW]

X2 on Ridgerunner.

Not sure when feather luster was brought up, but do people actually look at their birds, thinking... hmmm the chickens are not shiny enough?