Anyone only freerange their chickens?

[Nyboy]

Getting supplies because of storm got me thinking. Can chickens feed them self. I know a lot has to do with the land and breed of chicken. Does anyone not feed their chickens during the growing season? How much bug and weed infested land would each chcken need? what about geese dont they eat grass?

 

[catjac1975]

I think they need grain to produce eggs. They would live but they have been bred for production based on grain. My chickens have been on strike. 1-4 eggs a day from about 25 hens. Yesterday I got 5 and today I got 12. I gave them extended light starting 2 weeks ago and I guess it is finally paying off. I did note extra aggressiveness from the roosters with mating and with fighting each other. That seems to have passed.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't really know anything about geese since we never kept any, but geese live by the golf course here and are not fed. They have actually increased in mumber so much they are a nuisance.

Dad never fed his chickens unless there was snow on the ground. They had a pasturefield to forage in. I hate to give an area they need partly because the area they need depends on the quality of forage. In East Tennessee we kept maybe 20 chickens over the winter, the numer would then go up as they hatched and raised them, then the number would drop back down to 20 or so as we ate them. They probably never left a 4 acre area and never stripped that at all.

I can't do that. Predators here won't let me, especially people dropping dogs off in the country for the good life.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Dad's chickens were not fed grain and still produced eggs. They did not all produce an egg a day, but consider the efficiency of getting a lot of eggs and never buying any feed.

 

[seedcorn]

Geese can free range, need no grain.

Chickens, will feed themselves based on adequate amounts of weeds and insects. But they need a large area. Running in a back yard, they will starve.

Footnote on the geese--expect them to take up residence by your door. Very curious animals, actually nosy! Manure, oh boy, can they produce manure. But no cheaper animal to own.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Nyboy - Our chickens free range all year round. I always provide 16% protein pellets or crumbles (whichever is on sale) for them to eat anytime. Most of the time they totally ignore the 10# feeder in the hen house in favor of the grazing areas in our farm. Even in the winter. They usually range an area of about 2 acres of lawn, 3 acres of tall weeds/grass, and +/- 600 ft. of creek bed and a 2 acre pond. Oh yeah - my gardens, too. We have about 20 chickens now and the feeder only needs to be refilled about once a month. Egg production has been fairly steady for several years now at an average of 0.7 eggs per day per chicken or 14 eggs/day for 20 chickens.

 

[digitS']

The presence of other livestock and their feed makes all the difference to a free-ranging chicken.

A landscape covered mostly by houses, garages, driveways, and streets is not a good one for free-ranging and productive backyard flock.

We aren't on BYC so I hope I don't have to research every word but I've read a couple of studies on Junglefowl. If I remember right, a flock of a half dozen usually range over about 5 acres. This seems remarkably small to me but this is, after all, in parts of the world with 11 and 12 month growing seasons. Further, the half dozen birds are the size of bantams and probably have a combined weight of less than 10 pounds. The hens lay a couple of 5 to 8 egg clutches each year.

An average American home probably sits on less than 1/4 acre. Two Orpingtons weigh more than 10 pounds.

NYboy, you seem to recognize that some breeds of domestic chickens don't get around as well as others but keep in mind that it is the surplus nutrients in the hen's diet that have to be there for her to produce her nutrient-rich eggs. Expending a lot of energy to gain a low-protein diet won't result in many eggs.

One half of my coop is fully insulated. The window comes out during the winter and is replaced by another access door. That window faces north and I just leave a low-watt bulb on a timer in there all year. At the summer solstice, there is 16 hours of light - indoors as well as outdoors here. At the winter solstice, there is 16 hours of light in the coop. It makes a good deal of difference in laying and also allows the birds to have plenty of time to eat during the coldest weeks of the year.

Steve

 

[Mickey328]

You might check with backyardchickens.com Lots of folks there free range only. We don't have the space unfortunately, nor the right breed for it. Ours are pastured...in a portable coop/run that's moved every 3 days or so, so they have access to grass, weeds, bugs and such, but we still have to feed them. I've cut the food by about 25 to 30% by including pretty much all the weeds we pull, growing clover and comfrey, and adding yogurt and kitchen scraps for them. They don't need any sort of grain for egg production.

For free ranging, you need to consider both the size of the area and the cover available...if it's just wide open space, you're sure to lose quite a few because they've no place to hide. You also need to make sure you have a breed that is good at it.

 

[Nyboy]

Thanks guys I only have 6 hens. living in the city it is a half hour drive each way to get feed. Because of the storm I was wondering about how things where done the "old fashion way" Sometimes I do run out of feed and its a couple of days before I can make the drive for more. I buy wild bird seed at supermarket hens love it , but pricey.

 

[catjac1975]

How is the cleanup going NYBoy?