Trying to reduce feed-cost with free ranging, will it work?

[GC-Raptor]

If you go to the Purina section in feeding and watering your flock. How many nutrients does a chicken need. 38 nutrients in the correct proportion to maximize health and egg production.
I offer a layers feed and water 24/7 in their coop year round. I also let them free range in the afternoon 1 to 3 1/2 hours before sunset, depending on the time of year.
Feed consumption is 1/4 to 1/3 in summer compared to winter. GC

 

[Jesus solano]

Thanks for the clarification! I'll be sure to feed them in afternoon. Thanks again everyone, I probably would've made a mistake not giving them feed lol.

 

[Naser]

The best way I found to reduce feed cost is to give them 24/7 layers pellets in treadle feeders, Mine free range 24/7 and have access to layers pellets, oyster shells and grit 24/7. If you use treadle feeders be sure of two things, First is your smallest hen can use it, Second large wild birds and animals have no access to it.
Free range does supplement feed but doesn't replace it.

 

[centrarchid]

Yes, you can reduce cost but it takes resources in terms of acreage and in most instances changes in land management plus increased investment in predator management. I can even go most of the year with no feed inputs when flock size is small. In my setting, energy is first limiting so as free-range forage comes up short scratch grains (can vary greatly with respect to makeup) can be used as a lower cost supplement. I have to pay attention to chicken behavior in order to determine when more nutritional inputs are needed, otherwise chickens will range too far away.

Some people have actually done this with a smaller number still doing it. Such free-range keeping for most is a lost art to be sure.

 

[centrarchid]

Something I will point out is that chickens free-ranging do appear to eat more, regardless as to source. Walking about and foraging, especially when weather is factored, is more energetically demanding than being confined to a coop or run where we a protecting birds even from drafts. The free-range forage needs to be sufficient to meet those increased needs.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm with Centrarchid on this. It's possible in the good weather months but it requires excellent forage. Very few people have that. I grew up on a farm that kept chickens this way. We never fed them during the good weather months but supplemented their feed in winter. This is the basic model that has been used for thousands of years all over the globe on small farms. I'll emphasize, the quality of the forage is very important. If your native rock includes a lot of limestone you might not even need oyster shell or amoher calcium supplement.

Your goals come into play also. You are not going to raise show chickens this way. They require a special diet to get big, nice, and pretty so you can win ribbons. Well fed birds make better eye candy. Your egg size will not be as nice as if you feed them a good diet. They may not lay quite as many eggs but if you are not feeding them you compensate by having a few more hens. Their body size will not be as big as when you feed them a high protein diet. You can still eat them if that is the goal but there won't be as much meat on a carcass. Our hens laid a fair amount of eggs and had a great hatch rate. They were not suffering.

Smaller chickens like games are generally better foragers than larger breeds though I think Centrarchid does pretty well with Dominique. Our chickens were a barnyard mix that had a lot of game in them, but Dad would occasionally mix in some New Hampshire or Dominique to improve the flock. Bantams could do quite well in these circumstances but I'd stay a long way away from Silkies because they can't fly and birds with head-dresses that can't see because of predator issues. Even with games or such predators are a huge issue.

I can't raise them that way here. I don't have the forage and predators are a big issue, especially dogs dropped off in the area. I don't know what the right answer is for you. I'd suggest a partial feeding at least and pay attention to your egg quality and your chickens. The chickens are not going to be as big as chickens fed a higher protein diet. Their feathers might get to looking pretty rough since they have to work for a living. That does not mean they are unhealthy but pay attention to them.

 

[song of joy]

Based on carefully tracking feed consumption, I determined that my flock ate 30 to 40% less commercial feed per month in the spring, summer and fall due to free-ranging.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I see, so feeding them once a day? Man, I was hoping to have chickens for free lol.

Having chickens for free is a pipe dream.
You will get out of your chickens what you put into them.
Depending on how much kitchen waste you have in relation to how many chickens you have, that can help but you can't feed them things we shouldn't eat - like too much bread, anything else with too much salt, sugar or lots of artificial ingredients or anything else humans are prone to eat that have little nutrition.
If you ever said where you live, I missed it. As others have said, that determines what portion of their intake can be supplemented by natural sources around them.
The breed you raise is also a factor. Some breeds are excellent foragers and some are virtually worthless at finding their food.
I free range all by birds but where I live, there's virtually nothing to find out there from December to March. They eat about half the feed in May than they do in January.
Regardless, I still keep feed available all waking hours. Chickens are voracious eaters. If no feed is available when their crops are empty, they'll eat something. That could be bedding, feces, tree bark, rocks, whatever. I'd rather they eat feed.
When optimal nutrition (provided by feed) is diminished, production and possibly health and longevity will be curtailed.
The nutrient requirements of chickens are well known.
http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G8352
If their food intake is deficient in some, they'll likely be compromised.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You could give us more information. # of birds, breeds, acreage, weather, types of forage available, etc..
It doesn't take long for a few chickens to strip a small parcel of vegetation, bugs and seeds.

 

[Jesus solano]

HI! Thanks for all the responses. I currently have 15 chickens. 1 naked neck(rooster), 2 Rhode island (one rooster, one hen), 4 leghorns (brown, all female), 2 new Hampshire (both female) and 8 red sex-link hens.

We have little over an acre of land were they forage. We have a couple of trees, most of them being fruit trees. They used to ignore the apples, but after one brave chicken decided to peck at one, everyone else found out how delicious they were. They have grass, but it isn't the lush green grass you would expect, lots of dirt patches, and has more weeds that grass haha. We really don't have bugs, or at least the bugs that come up from the ground and venture of. So we decided to get a tarp and lay in securely on the ground, every 3-4 weeks we move it and the chickens start scratching and eating away at all the worms and bugs there. Besides all that they get food scratch.

During the spring, its rains only a couple of times. This is the time of year when vegetation starts to grow and bugs start to appear. In the summer, it gets pretty hot, the hottest it got this year was around 105F but the chickens don't mind, as long as there is plenty of shade and fresh water close by they're all good. It barely even rains during the summer. In the fall, the temperature drops to the low 50s and 40s. It also starts to rain again. By winter, the snow blankets our whole town, covering up around 2-3 feet of snow. But that's when they gobble up all there feed haha.

Predator wise, we had a problem with our neighbors dog but we got it fixed, and currently saving money to build a fence. Besides that we don't have problems with predators, but we do eagles here. But so far we never had problems with them.

Our location is eastern Oregon.