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Foraging chickens pollI've been asking everyone I meet about how much food chickens can get from pasture in preparation for my forest pasture experiment. At this rate, it's going to take me centuries to compile any useful data. So I've put together a poll that's quick and easy to answer, and which will hopefully compile that data for me. Here's where you come in! A poll is only useful if dozens of people submit their data. Please take a minute to fill in your answers, then email a few of your chicken buddies to get them to input their own data. Hopefully we'll be able to come up with enough information to expedite our forest pasture experiment so that we can all start spending less on chicken feed. Without further ado, the poll: How many chickens have you raised on pasture with little or no input of feed during the summer?
Total votes: 20
How much supplementary feed did you provide per bird per day during the summer?
Total votes: 16
How many chickens have you raised on pasture with little or no input of feed during the winter?
Total votes: 9
How much supplementary feed did you provide per bird per day during the winter?
Total votes: 7
What is your pasture area like?
Total votes: 10
Thank you for your time! If you're
new to this site, you might be interested in one of our homemade chicken
waterers, specially designed to keep water clean in the most
difficult settings.
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Last edited early Thursday morning, April 1st, 2010
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I have around 50 chickens in 2 coops...they freerange during the day and in the summer they eat much less feed. The thing is that I have a big hanging feeder in each of 2 coops and I believe in always having feed avialable. I wouldnt require them to only eat what they can forage, even though they do forage quite a bit here and they are quite lucky in the new england woods with small frogs and worms etc... I also feed kitchen scraps. But I always have a full feeder hanging in the coop. I wish you would design one that would hold alot of feed and refill for them to eat but which they couldnt knock feed all over the floor from;-)
I wish I could help with your survey but I am in the same boat as Melina. I supply my 24 girls and 2 roosters with full feeders. I keep one in the coop (6x12) and one in the closed run (6x16). I believe they prefer foraging and only use the feeders as supplement or when I am not home and keep them in their run (until the garden gets bigger). I even have 8 pearl whites that are not really known for foraging but my golden comets have worn off on them. Using this method I go through about a bag of feed every 2 to 2.5 weeks.
Good Luck and keep posting. After your buckwheat post about greens, I just feed the 5lbs of seed to the cow. I was afraid to start something I couldn't control and just seeded the clover again.
That does seem to be the safe way to do it --- maybe I should follow suit! I'm afraid of not giving our chicks enough feed, so I suspect I actually feed them too much. I'll definitely keep you updated as our experiment progresses.
Golden Comets are such awesome foragers --- I wish they weren't hybrids!
Hi! Interested in your experiment. I have 8 hens and a rooster in high desert like terrain...scrubby pasture and a bit of trees, kind of. I have less than an acre. More like 1/5th. I let them forage, give them lots of table scraps, greens from the garden and reduce a lot any additional feed. I am aiming to see if they can do well, without lots of scratch or laying mash. So far so good, but I am still supplementing a little. In the winter it is tougher, unless I can give them lots of table scraps. The weeds they love aren't available after October and not again until June.....I have one of your waterers, thanks, but they still prefer the open bowl which I change daily and a regular waterer which trickles in as they use it and I clean every 4th day. Love getting your news and look forward to hearing about your various ideas/experiments/news/tips etc.
You might try planting some areas for winter feed --- that's the next step in my current experiment.
Chickens do seem to be creatures of habit --- I've discovered that if you leave an open water source around, they'll drink from it even though the water tends to be much dirtier. It seems to make sense in the long run to take away the old waterers so that they'll drink the clean water.
I started with 24 chickens 7 bantams 17 layers (columbian Wyandotte, Speckled Sussex, New Hampshire, Cuckoo Marans,Buff Orpignton, Gold laced Wyandotte, Silver laced Wayandotte, Salmon Faverolles, and Australorps) When the weather was the worst the Faverolles were still outside pecking around I had to make them go in.
The very best foragers a had were the Speckled Sussex they perferred finding their own "grub", the second best foragers I had were my Columbian Wyandottes. I say "had" because almost all of my babies were killed by a domestic dog.
What I learned from this is that the only chickens I really wanted to replace were the Speckled Sussex, Columbian Wyandottes, Buff Orpington (My Salmon Faverolles survived because they are quite flighty and nervous).
Why would I only replace those three? because they were the best mix of what I wanted for my own flock. Here is what I liked 1) birds that were easy to handle and good around kids 2) birds that preferred free range to food 3) birds that were not aggressive towards the other
These birdies were a Joy to own I would recommend them to anyone.
Thank you so much for sharing! I wish I'd read this before I put another set of australorps in the incubator, because I might have been tempted to try out Faverolles, Sussex, or Wyandottes. Maybe next year....
I'm so sorry to hear about your dog attack!