- Oct 13, 2008
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A.T. Hagan :
Is the true definition of FREE RANGE to only allow your chickens to find their own food?
No, that is called neglect. Even if all you're giving them is a handful of corn every day you still have to feed them.
I agree. This notion of getting something for nothing is a fallacy of reasoning. Consider that chickens aren't wild animals, but domestic ones. They aren't meant to survive by foraging on their own exclusively. If people want chickens they don't have to feed, they should get some wild Red Jungle Fowl. (there's plenty running around over here, BTW, if you want 'em
) Like the wild birds they are, they can forage for their own food, and don't need protection or shelter, BUT... at the same time they are small, scrawny (eating them is like eating tough squab), essentially impossible to catch without traps (they won't let you get close), and lay only a handful of small eggs a year (they don't have the genetics or the required nutrition to lay productively). And if they did lay eggs, you wouldn't find them most likely because they have the intact survival instincts to hide them well. Oh, and then you would have to give them a very, very large, preferably forested area to find food in, because they have to roam from place to place depending on what fruits are in season, where the bugs are, etc.
If instead people want to keep an animal that is larger, more productive, and tamer, then they have to keep up their side of the domestication bargain by providing adequate care to support and protect that animal.... That's the deal you make.
That said, there is a happy medium between wild chickens and production breeds. Many heritage breeds combine decent foraging ability (and other useful vestiges of their wild instincts) with decent productivity and usefulness... plus many other admirable traits... But they still need to be fed...
Is the true definition of FREE RANGE to only allow your chickens to find their own food?
No, that is called neglect. Even if all you're giving them is a handful of corn every day you still have to feed them.
I agree. This notion of getting something for nothing is a fallacy of reasoning. Consider that chickens aren't wild animals, but domestic ones. They aren't meant to survive by foraging on their own exclusively. If people want chickens they don't have to feed, they should get some wild Red Jungle Fowl. (there's plenty running around over here, BTW, if you want 'em
If instead people want to keep an animal that is larger, more productive, and tamer, then they have to keep up their side of the domestication bargain by providing adequate care to support and protect that animal.... That's the deal you make.
That said, there is a happy medium between wild chickens and production breeds. Many heritage breeds combine decent foraging ability (and other useful vestiges of their wild instincts) with decent productivity and usefulness... plus many other admirable traits... But they still need to be fed...
