Today’s pick for discussion: feeding your happy, cage-free ladies!
I know it can be difficult to figure out how to feed the girls, especially when they’re eating so much of mother nature’s nutritious bounties…
It can also be frustrating to see an entire dish of feed go to waste, especially when you know how important that feed is during winter.
Hens can be a little harder to read, but you’ll be in tune with your flock in no time after this post; no one flock is the same, and the feed requirements for a homestead flock are as different as our fingerprints.
How Much to Feed Free Range Laying Hens?
When you allow your chickens to forage, they spend most of their days searching for food high and low.
They’ll be busy picking grasshoppers from blades of Johnson grass, chasing crickets through the garden, and selecting the biggest, brightest blackberries amidst the thorny briars.
However, how do you KNOW that your laying hens are getting everything that they need while free ranging? Especially when dealing with thin, lightweight, production laying breeds?
There are many different factors that will affect your feeding requirements for your birds… so let’s jump in, shall we?
How Much Is a Chicken Supposed to Eat Per Day?
When it comes to commercial feed, a chicken is expected to eat roughly .25/lb per day. This is for average sized, mature chickens. Bantams and chicks will eat even less. If you see your chickens actively catching insects and eating seeds or fruits frequently, they are likely eating quite well. If you become concerned with the quality of forage on your homestead, you can always free feed a supplemental layer formula. Bare forest floors, a poor looking yard, and a sparse population of insects all point to the chickens’ equivalent of over grazing. This can be caused by overstocking, drought, or extreme weather conditions.
Are There Supplements That Hens Require?
For hens that are mostly supported by the food that your land offers, you may not need to offer any supplements or feed to your hens. However, many people still offer a few as a precaution. Some offer a bit of layer feed, ensuring that the hens always receive the trace minerals that they require.
Others may only offer a bit of grit and oyster shell. Grit truly isn’t necessary for free ranging hens, but it never hurts to offer it. Oyster shell provides valuable calcium, and is also simple to offer. Many homesteaders enjoy utilizing preventative measures, especially when it comes to food production; the calcium supplement is going to keep the hens from encountering calcium deficiency, which could result in a significant loss of egg quality or total egg harvest counts. I’ll share a quick video below:
How Many Chickens Is Too Many for My Land?
If you are free ranging your chickens, you should figure out how many chickens your land can reliably support during the growing season, and how many it can support during the cold winter months. For a temperate region receiving upwards of 20 inches of rain per year, with plentiful vegetation and insects, you could expect the land to feed up to 50 birds during the growing season. Please remember that this number will fall drastically during the winter, and that your hens will need supplemental feed more often than not. Many enjoy throwing some corn cobs to their flocks when the snow settles in for the winter, just to offer a bit of warmth during the cold blasts. Always watch the condition of your hens, and ensure that they are well fed and thriving.
Symptoms and Signs of Malnutrition
If your hens are not eating enough food, there are a few different ways to find out. Always keep a 50 lb bag of emergency layer feed on hand at all times, just in case your hens aren’t receiving the nutrition that they need. Remember, “fed is best.”
- Underweight Birds: Even lightweight, slim hens should have “meat” on their bones. If the legs and wings of your hens feel bony, you likely have hens that are not getting enough food. Always check your birds’ body condition to ensure that they are not underweight. The breast bone is NOT an accurate measure of a bird’s body condition, as most birds never fill out in this area. You might expect them to due to the rounded appearance of Cornish X birds in the grocery store (the very rounded whole chickens with hefty amounts of breast meat that most people expect), but those birds are the result of genetic mutation; they are the exception, not the rule. A happy, healthy hen with prime body condition is what you are looking for when free ranging.
- Poor Condition: If your birds seem to be lethargic, listless, or inactive with ruffled, dull or missing feathers, offer them a few nice rations of feed and inspect them for parasites. Both parasites and malnutrition can cause poor body condition, and both should be addressed quickly and appropriately.
- Reduced Egg Production: When egg production drops, it can be due to age, molting, body condition, and extreme hot or cold weather. If a hen’s body is in poor condition, it can no longer dedicate energy or nutrients for egg production. If egg production increases with supplemental feed, the bird was either in poor condition, or deficient in a particular mineral, nutrient, or vitamin.
- Faulty Eggs: This is related to the above point; with faulty eggs, eggs are still being produced but are of poor quality. Egg shells may be thin and brittle or missing completely. There could also be deformities within the shell, white, or yolk. For shell related issues, a calcium supplement such as oyster shell can help.
- Gorging On Feed: If you place feed in front of your hens, only to see it scarfed down as if the hens were starving, your land may be depleted of valuable foraging. If your flock is close to (or exceeds) 50 birds per acre, the land cannot handle the amount of chickens that are free ranging. Of course, this number of birds applies to areas that receive plentiful rainfall with thriving insect populations; in extreme climates (such as desserts or other arid locations), this number would be much lower.
