Raising Free Range Chickens WITHOUT Feed: Do Free Range Chickens Need Feed?

Did you know it’s possible to raise free ranged chickens without commercial chicken feed?

That’s right! Commercial feed is not necessary for healthy, happy chickens. As a matter of fact, most homesteads offer their flocks very little feed, if any; it’s usually reserved for the colder months if they do.

If you want to raise your birds without expensive feed in order to slash your food costs and free up a tight budget (while greatly increasing your degree of self reliance), free range chickens might be your ticket to having a frugal protein source for your homestead. If you found yourself without access to commercially produced feed for your flock, what would you do? Would your chickens survive on the available forage and feed you have stocked?

These happy, free to roam chickens are amazing at foraging, which is a significant advantage when keeping these versatile birds. It will get quite tricky to sustain a large flock; there is a major learning curve, here! However, isn’t that what us homesteaders do best? We learn, we apply, we adapt, we master, and we finally succeed! Well, in most cases, anyways…

What Do Free Range Chickens Eat?

When chickens are allowed to roam your property and forage, they come across many different sources of food. Chickens tend to prefer naturally foraged foods over the dry commercial pellets and crumbles, which you will notice if you continue to free feed them the commercial food of your choice. Free range chickens eat a variety of:

Seeds: Seeds will be one of the primary components of a free range hen’s diet. Seeds may come from flowers, grasses, fruits, berries, and trees. These will appear during spring, summer, and fall.

Nuts: Nuts can be a real treat during the autumn months, when most nuts begin to fall. Large tree nuts, such as walnuts, aren’t a common food source; it would require far too much work to open them. Unless, of course, the chicken stumbles upon a few pieces left behind by a squirrel.

Berries: Berries are a great food source through spring, summer, and fall. If you have a lot of wild berries locally (such as blueberries or blackberries) you can rest assured that your chickens are eating their fill. They will also be eating the bugs that are dining on those berries, as well. Be sure you protect your own berry crops, or they may rob you of all of your berry harvests! Chickens are very happy to peruse your selection of fruit, whether or not you have jams and preserves to make.

Insects: Chickens love bugs, and for good reason: they have very high protein requirements. Unlike most other livestock, chickens cannot live off of green roughage or carbohydrates. They must have plentiful protein, in the form of seeds, nuts, grains, insects, and small reptiles or mammals. Chickens will wipe out every bug in sight, as long as it is palatable. Again, I’m bringing up squash bugs: I regret to inform you that they will not touch those little buggers with a 20 foot claw.

Lizards/Amphibians: It’s crazy to think that your chickens would eat lizards and amphibians such as frogs. However, it is true, and you will eventually see this take place! There is something incredibly prehistoric and nearly frightening about watching a chicken chase and eat a lizard in one bite; while lizards are wonderful for keeping bug populations down, they still (unfortunately) find themselves to be chicken snacks.

Small Rodents: Chickens are incredibly handy for keeping down small rodent populations, such as mice and voles. It takes a quick chicken to catch these critters, but a skilled chicken can make quick work of a booming population. Chickens will eat nearly anything!

Compost Goodies: Nothing makes a chicken more content than a compost pile! Here, they will find a large variety of table scraps, along with the bugs that are responsible for helping to break them down. Some scraps, such as egg shells, are valuable sources of calcium for free range hens. Your compost pile is an incredible source of nutrient rich food for your flock, so be sure to allow them to pick through it.

Do Free Range Chickens Need Grit?

For the most part, free range chickens do not need grit. However, you may want to provide grit for broody hens with chicks that are under 2 weeks of age; this is a very tender age, and grit is important for digestion. Otherwise, free ranging juvenile and adult hens and roosters will find tiny stones and pebbles that they can ingest.

If you are concerned about your chickens, you can always offer grit for peace of mind. It’s always great to have on hand, especially when your chickens are locked up in the coop during extensive inclement weather.

Do Free Range Chickens Need Grain?

Grain is not necessary for free range chickens, as long as your land is able to provide the birds with everything they need to maintain good health and body condition. Grain is an affordable, cost effective food source that is used for billions of chickens around the world; it’s not a bad source of food as it is a naturally foraged item for chickens, but it can be hard and costly to find non-GMO organic grains.

Winter can be very tricky, as all of the natural seeds, berries, grains, and insects become scarce or nonexistent during the colder months. You may have to turn to grain during the cold months; or, you could preserve your own chicken feed for a limited flock of overwintered chickens (such as oats, wheat, soybeans, or corn left on the cob). Many homesteads raise their meat birds and preserve eggs during the spring, summer, and fall, then slash their flock size in preparation for winter.

How to Feed Free Range Chickens During Winter

As the cold of winter sets in, the richness of the land quickly deteriorates. Bugs die out or go into hibernation, berries and seed heads have been largely eaten, and larger prey (such as lizards) are in hibernation. Chickens are left with your leftovers or compost, any preserved feed that you have stored, and the occasional mouse or buried seed.

In order to make it through winter without buying feed, you will need to prepare very well during the spring, summer, and fall. Chickens will still forage for food, but even a small flock could decimate the availability of winter forage long before the green spring grass grows. Watch for protein deficiencies in your birds, such as feather pulling (when birds begin to attack feathers of other birds, or even themselves) or poor plumage; you need to ensure that the birds’ needs for protein are being met. Try these great ideas:

Raising and Trapping Insects: During the warm months, you can trap grasshoppers and other wild insects, or raise soldier fly larvae. These bugs can be dehydrated and stored for winter. Soldier fly larvae can be used to break down animal waste (including animals who have been harvested), compost, and yard waste. The valuable larvae can be harvested as they venture out of the waste to pupate, and are a rich protein source for chickens.

Growing Seed or Grain Crops: If you want to leave commercial feed behind, you might consider growing your own seed and grain crops. Soybeans, sunflowers, wheat, corn, and many more crops can result in a nice harvest of homegrown chicken food that will store well through winter. This is even more important for large flocks in excess of 30 birds.

High Volume Composting: If you can commit to a large, thriving compost pile, the food waste could sustain the birds throughout winter. The larger a pile is, the warmer it is; it will attract bugs, reptiles, and rodents, all of which can be preyed upon by chickens. It’s vital for chickens to receive the protein that they require, which can be supplied by a warm, thriving compost pile that has a healthy population of bugs.