The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[pigeonguy]

my cat will eat the chicken feed if the chickens don't polish it off. My cat eats anything though ans still is not fat. He begs like a puppy during the day and hunts most of the night.
When I free range my chickens they eat less than a pound per bird per week, even the roosters. I soak my feed if it was dry they would eat more. During the winter when I was feeding dry food in the coop and there was no real food intake from outside, the chickens ate close to 1.5 pounds per bird per week. The roosters were little hogs too. I would toss them out of the coop so the girls cold eat first. We did have signs of mice so i limited their food to what could be eaten in 15-20 minutes several times a day. Pretty much they would get food every time I went to check for that first million dollar egg.

My cats eat the fermented feed also and the chickens eat the cat food I do ferment in the winter months not the summer Because they get so much fresh in the summer and still eat about 4 ounces a day some are lazy and eat more than others I let them eat all they want at first that was a lot but the longer they had free access the less they ate but then the more they free ranged. The point is that 50 pounds a week is not to much for 30 chickens with limited access to free range in my opinion.
Do I remember waiting on that egg I thought it would never happen.

 

[bhawk78]

It's been hard to keep cats away from my chickens!!

 

[RedRidge]

Quote:
I have a chart I use for my various breeds... most of my production birds and my SFH eat about .25 lbs/day dry... HRIR will consumme about .33lb/day dry.
These numbers are total feed... they don't even eat half this much when free ranging.
Also... I ferment and my FF weighs 2.25 times more than when it is dry (yes I am anal

), so I use 2.25 times the dry weights above for actual daily feeding.

This is adult birds beyond 6 months of age... I have a graduated chart (as you can imagine with my analness

) that hangs on the feedroom wall for what chicks get per each week of their age.

I am "supposed" to be helping several on here balance their rations, and I apologize for just now getting back to a normal schedule... it's been a crazy few months here... youngest left for college, oldest got married, MIL past away, fall lambs are being born, a new calf is due any day, and my parents moved/downsized - all in the same month.
I am finally getting the garden plowed under and getting my winter lettuce in and beginning to think about culling most of my cockerels for the winter... in addition to taking a deep breath and remembering to be thankful for all the blessings in my life... so please bear with me and I hope to get to everyone's ration balancing help this week.

 

[RedRidge]

Quote: Me too on the tshirt!

The worst is when I'm in the coop without my "gathering bucket" in the winter (a small pail with some hay or grass in the bottom to pad the eggs from getting broken when I gather). If it's winter, I've often put an egg or 2 in the pocket of my jacket and forgotten. Then go out and bend or squat down to work on something and end up with a broken egg seeping through my pocket. Or several days later put my hand in my pocket and there's an egg!

Now WHERE did I leave that egg bucket?

Oh well... the bucket in my hand that I feed from will do....

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote:
I have a chart I use for my various breeds... most of my production birds and my SFH eat about .25 lbs/day dry... HRIR will consumme about .33lb/day dry.
These numbers are total feed... they don't even eat half this much when free ranging.
Also... I ferment and my FF weighs 2.25 times more than when it is dry (yes I am anal

), so I use 2.25 times the dry weights above for actual daily feeding.

This is adult birds beyond 6 months of age... I have a graduated chart (as you can imagine with my analness

) that hangs on the feedroom wall for what chicks get per each week of their age.

I am "supposed" to be helping several on here balance their rations, and I apologize for just now getting back to a normal schedule... it's been a crazy few months here... youngest left for college, oldest got married, MIL past away, fall lambs are being born, a new calf is due any day, and my parents moved/downsized - all in the same month.
I am finally getting the garden plowed under and getting my winter lettuce in and beginning to think about culling most of my cockerels for the winter... in addition to taking a deep breath and remembering to be thankful for all the blessings in my life... so please bear with me and I hope to get to everyone's ration balancing help this week.
I have a chart in excel, right now it only varies by age and layer vs meat. And
I have not worked in my adjustments. It is just the chart I got from the hatchery. But I have some nice lookup formulas so I can type in the age and number of chickens in the pen and Bam the recommended amount of dry feed for a day is right there.
But if my chickens are acting hungry and can't free range then I will give them extra. Of course I give them less when they are out all day finding their own food. I only use dry wood in the winter when I have to feed in the coop.

 

[aoxa]

I always have read 6 ounces for large chickens and 4 for small ones. If you divide a 50 pound bag by 30 chickens that is 1.6666666 pounds per bird per week divide that by 7 days and you get .238 which is a little less than 4 ounces a day. Thats in the area of what I feed. My coop is mouse free as far as I can tell The cats go in there a lot and I don't ever find droppings.

She's free ranging AND soaking, so that is a lot of feed for her situation. Also a few are bantams, and most are young as well.

 

[mlowen]

Regarding "anal calculations:" I have a strong streak of "eh...that's good enough." Fortunately, I only have 5 birds, so I don't have to be as careful if I had a real flock & made my living from them. They can't really range much, and I am away from home from 7:30-5:30, so I have dry feed available all day. I feed about a cup & 1/2 or 2 cups of FF each morning. It's a mix of feed and scratch and BOSS and barley. Any left in the trough the next day goes into the deep litter for "hunting." They get food scraps, raw liver randomly, and as much time in the garden/yard on weekends as I can give them. I just bought my second 50 # bag of feed (first one was bought on 7/26) and have not completely finished what was in the dry feeder, yet. I calculated each bird is eating about a pound of bagged feed per week. All are about 5 months old. One Wyandotte, two barred Rocks and two Leghorns. Sound reasonable?

 

[Leahs Mom]

I think that's close to what mine are doing when the oldsters have been locked in the run all day long. They definitely eat way more when stuck in the run. Considerably more! I think it's boredom...like me locked in the kitchen with a full fridge.

 

[aoxa]

like me locked in the kitchen with a full fridge.

That is a dangerous situation right there.

I shudder to think...

 

[Leahs Mom]

I did it! I make an all glass waterer!

More info and photos coming soon...and thanks to MLOWEN for the inspiration!