How much feed do you give your free range or pastured layers?

[ahisma]

Just curious how much feed others doing pastured or free range give their layers. I have 4 leghorns and 1 blue andulsian with a moveable coop/tractor and electric netting that is rotated to a whole new spot every week or two. I've played around with different amounts and found that I must give them 3 cups a day of 16% protein layer crumbs for them to lay 5-6 days a week. If I give them less their production drops off. I'm pretty surprised at how much feed that is.

I've heard of people just giving black soldier fly larvae and veggie/fruit scraps but haven't been able to reproduce this while keeping their production up.

Maybe I need to get more electric netting or somehow give them more space to roam? Right now I just have one 170' strand. It works well but is rather cost prohibitive though.

[WstTxLady]

Mine are free range during daytime hours & get free choice food. They eat however much they want when they want. With the heat lately they tend to keep in the shade so I have moved some feed in a small holder in the shade where they like to stay.

[Ellie Mae]

that does seem like alot of feed to me, but have our first cooped up birds, so am not real familiar yet, if that's what keeps them laying the amount of eggs you need, guess you have to.

ours free range, but are only cooped up at night, so they get what they need on their own and we have too many eggs most days.

we throw them kitchen scraps and some scratch and if the weather is bad we put out layer pellets and we keep the feeders full for our welp's broilers till night.

might want to consider a worm bin, to supplement and cut the costs down.

someone with more knowledge will come along and help ya out with better info!

[HillRunner]

Could it be the breed of the chicken?

[ahisma]

Originally Posted by WstTxLady

Mine are free range during daytime hours & get free choice food. They eat however much they want when they want. With the heat lately they tend to keep in the shade so I have moved some feed in a small holder in the shade where they like to stay.

How often do you have to fill up the container and how big is it?

[WstTxLady]

I believe its a 5 gallon feeder(metal one), I fill it about once every 2-3 weeks maybe. I have 26 birds on that. My birds also get daily scraps & whatever dog food the dog forgets to eat before the girls are let out in the morning. I, thankfully, don't have many bugs & its starting to be the time for bugs.

[olivehill]

As much as they want. Like WstTxLady, ours have free choice feed.

[Our Little Farm]

Early Spring to late Fall = None.

We free range and ours have acres to roam. They eat bugs, insects and grain etc. We have put out commercial feed but it never gets touched. No oyster shell either. Guess they get what they need as our eggs are beautiful and last year we had chickens that set on about 22 eggs and had chicks running around the place. Won't be long before that happens this year.

Our chickens are healthy and happy.

[trbizwiz]

Just enough to get them in the coop in the evening. I probalby could wait until after dark and feed none, but I prefer to put them away before dusk because of predators. In the winter I feed more even though they are still free ranged just to keep them warm and a little fatter again for warmth. My egg production really doesnt drop off in winter either.

[InvalidID]

Originally Posted by Our Little Farm

Early Spring to late Fall = None.

We free range and ours have acres to roam. They eat bugs, insects and grain etc. We have put out commercial feed but it never gets touched. No oyster shell either. Guess they get what they need as our eggs are beautiful and last year we had chickens that set on about 22 eggs and had chicks running around the place. Won't be long before that happens this year.

Our chickens are healthy and happy.

Ditto that, except for commercial feed. I only give mine cracked grains as I have a super cheap source. In summer/spring/some of fall they get scrapes but are for the most part on their own.
Our egg production matches that of any one around here that uses feed and we get nice orange yolks.

In the winter I feed them of course, but that's the only way to get eggs from them then...lol

[ahisma]

So those with let their chickens roam huge areas and don't really supplement during the warm season: do they still lay one egg per day pretty much?

[InvalidID]

Originally Posted by ahisma

So those with let their chickens roam huge areas and don't really supplement during the warm season: do they still lay one egg per day pretty much?

Mine are on par with my neighbors as far as laying goes. I'll have a dry day here and there with only 2-3 eggs, but I have more eggs then we'll use all year already...

[kara_leigh]

Mine free range all day long, and I give them free access to feed. They come eat feed 2-3 (sometimes more, sometimes less) times per day. They don't go through it very fast. I also give them grapes a couple times a day and oatmeal on the ground for them to scratch at when they want. My chickens are still young (10 weeks) so those are the only treats they will eat so far. I don't put food in their brooder at night.

[Our Little Farm]

Originally Posted by ahisma

So those with let their chickens roam huge areas and don't really supplement during the warm season: do they still lay one egg per day pretty much?

Yes. Apart from the one that is sitting on a clutch of 22 eggs right now, and the same goes as Invalid said above, our egg yolks are beautiful! Very orange and the eggs are very tasty.

[Ellie Mae]

I was making a comparison of some of our chickens...we cooped them up for a week or so as we had coyotes/foxes coming out of the woods, so they were kept with feed and snacks available...

I remember at the time wondering why our egg amounts dropped, and once we let them back out to freely roam the property we had too many eggs again.

not scientific, but I did notice it at the time, thinking how much easier it would be to collect eggs when they were cooped up, and surprized at the lower numbers of eggs and high cost of feed.

[mammabooh]

I keep the feeder full, but they don't really eat much of it this time of the year.

[WstTxLady]

Originally Posted by ahisma

So those with let their chickens roam huge areas and don't really supplement during the warm season: do they still lay one egg per day pretty much?

I make sure they have it food year round when they want it. In the mornings, I keep them in the coop a little later in the morning & they tend to eat well before heading out. With the heat, they laze around more but at least they get good foods before shading up during they day.

[cnvh]

We have 3 hens in a 3'x6' chicken tractor that I move daily to new grass. Our feeder holds approximately 1 gallon of feed (by volume, not sure of weight) and in 2 weeks, they may have eaten half of it. Most of it is just picked out of the feeder and on the floor of the enclosed portion of their coop.

[cybercat]

If you want to keep up production up your protien to 18 or 20 percent. With free ranging all the plant protien which is not very high drops it down. So 16% is more like 12%. Which is why you need to feed more.

I free range only and feed ADM egg balancer which is 20% and has meat in it(one of the few that do). I feed one small bucket in the morning about 4 cups to a flock of 7 which is 6 hens one rooster. I am getting 5 out of 5 eggs one hen has chicks and is not laying. Temps are in high nintys here with no rain. They are out from 8 to 8 and mostly stay near woods with this heat. The treat they get is some blck oil sunflower seed once in late afternoon. When I fed last year a all veggi protien diet I had major egg production drop with heat like this. Not this year thank goodness.

[Our Little Farm]

With free ranging all the plant protien which is not very high drops it down. So 16% is more like 12%. Which is why you need to feed more.

Um....you have not taken into account bugs, insects etc. HIGH in protein! All my free ranging hens are laying every day apart from one that is running around with a cluster of chicks. Egg shells are perfect, eggs have a beautiful orange yolk.

They just don't touch commercial feed. I can leave a feeder out full and it will still be full the next week, and so on. Ours are out from sun up to sun down, with no coop closure. plenty of pasture, insects, bugs, seeds for them.

One thing we do have is lush pastures, plenty of rain, and cool evenings. Lots of shade areas they can go.