Debate on food, free range and egg quality...

Badchickenpun

Chirping
May 9, 2022
61
162
93
Central Indiana
We eat a lot of eggs. We are new to chickens.
We have a small flock of seven chickens that are soon to be egg layers.
Their run is 12x18, floor is currently grass, will add dye free mulch this fall when grass is gone.
My wife wants the healthiest eggs (and chickens)... She reads and watches info from the web about buying eggs from the store and what each term means and which is the "best."
Pasture raised chickens give great quality eggs is her starting point based on her research. Not going to debate that statement for this discussion.
She thinks that if they were free range we wouldn't need to feed them hardly any food and the eggs would be great quality... she thinks that is the implication from people talking about eggs from free range chickens. I tell her that they will still need access to feed.
I would rather build a larger (less secure) day time run instead of worrying about them destroying my garden, getting eaten by predators or going places they don't belong.
How large of a run would a dozen chickens need to be considered "pastured" for this discussion?
 

nuthatched

Fishin' for Chickens
Nov 9, 2019
7,803
15,719
596
God's Country, Az
You will need to feed them, modern chickens are more meaty and productive, therfore require more feed than yesteryear. The best eggs come from good feed. Chickens don't really eat grass, so pasture raising really make no difference. That term doesnt even have a standard to the usda. Where are you doing your research? Everything ypuve said has a "egg plant/ chicken blog hype" feel to it.
 
Last edited:

3KillerBs

Enabler
Premium Feather Member
13 Years
Jul 10, 2009
16,962
48,117
1,216
North Carolina Sandhills
My Coop
My Coop
There are many threads here about range feeding chickens.

IMO, the bottom line is that if your area doesn't already support year-round flocks of feral chickens they environment is not conducive to supporting chickens without use of chicken feed -- though you may see a savings in feed during favorable times of the year.

The quality of your land matters.

Geese graze on grass. Chickens eat seeds, bugs, and greens from broadleaf plants with grass being very low on their priority list. :)

Consider getting electric poultry netting so you can move the chickens to different areas as they eat down their preferred species. I'm very happy with the netting I got from Premeir 1.
 

BrooksHatlen

Crossing the Road
Premium Feather Member
Jun 2, 2020
6,269
21,229
826
Near Devil's Millhopper
She thinks that if they were free range we wouldn't need to feed them hardly any food and the eggs would be great quality
She is wrong. I have one pullet (hen next month) that escapes the run near daily. She is underweight and likely malnourished. This is in a much more favorable environment than yours. She still lays good eggs tho.

Feed a complete feed, free choice. Make the run as big as you can. Minimum 10 sf per bird.
 

Thatscluckinggreat

In the Brooder
Apr 22, 2022
14
23
34
Huntingdon, PA
I'm one of the "complete feed" people. I'm ALSO one of the "free range" people. And I will say again, anything other than a commercially complete feed has the *potential* to imbalance your chicken's diet.

@NatJ has the right of it, if "free ranging" means turning birds loose in a perfectly manicured residential backyard of zoysia or bermuda grass, or St. Augustine or whatever, surrounded by equaly well manicured lawns and residential pest control, there is a lot of potential for imbalance. Same if their range is acres of sunflower seed, or a corn field, or even a sea of clover. Its magical thinking to believe a balanced meal comes out of a single (or substantially a single) ingredient.

Monocultures are bad, because the chickens have no choice. If they are hungry, they will eat. Monocultures of particularly high energy/fatty feeds (sunflowers, corn, etc) are like sticking sodas, chips, and candy bars in front of teenagers - ruins their dinner.

Feeding something less than a commercially complete feed and then setting your birds loose to free range in hopes it will fix a deficient diet is likewise magical thinking. Unless you have deliberately planted fields to compensate for known feed deficiencies. Which, honestly, is a level of foresight, planning, and execution well beyond the typical poultry owner.

If you are going to free range, and if you plan on their foraging being a substantial portion of their diet, the first thing you have to do is stop pretending. There are *NO* gurantees. There is, however, intelligent risk management. Keeping their complete feed available at all times is a form of risk management - if the nutrition they need isn't currently in their forage (out of season, buried under snow, simply not present), they have complete feed available. Deliberately planting a polyculture - and I don't mean three varieties of grass - but rather a diverse mix of grasses, grains, near grains, legumes, pulses, and all the rest - at least gives the birds a choice - in hopes that they will select during their foraging a mix of plant life (this also attracts a mix of insect life - yum!), and any imbalance will be kept to a minimum, while the period in which the plot is productively "in season" is extended.

Is it nutritiously optimum? No, probably not. Is it Perfect? Nothing is. Is it a reasonable response to address the known deficiencies of monocultural plantings? (to say nothing of the way those degrade the soil over time) Yes, I think so.

"Better than the Alternatives" is good enough for me.

and if circumstances or resources make sprouting trays, rather than forage plots, the most practical solution? then I encourage you to follow the same thinking - don't offer the same ingredients, day after day, month after month. Variety helps avoid imbalance.
I am attaching this from another thread. Stormcrow has been doing a lot of homework on nutrition.
 

TooCheep

Crowing
Feb 23, 2019
969
6,171
344
Indiana
We eat a lot of eggs. We are new to chickens.
We have a small flock of seven chickens that are soon to be egg layers.
Their run is 12x18, floor is currently grass, will add dye free mulch this fall when grass is gone.
My wife wants the healthiest eggs (and chickens)... She reads and watches info from the web about buying eggs from the store and what each term means and which is the "best."
Pasture raised chickens give great quality eggs is her starting point based on her research. Not going to debate that statement for this discussion.
She thinks that if they were free range we wouldn't need to feed them hardly any food and the eggs would be great quality... she thinks that is the implication from people talking about eggs from free range chickens. I tell her that they will still need access to feed.
I would rather build a larger (less secure) day time run instead of worrying about them destroying my garden, getting eaten by predators or going places they don't belong.
How large of a run would a dozen chickens need to be considered "pastured" for this discussion?
That sized run will become dirt soon enough. Chickens scratch and will kill the plants in enclosed runs of any reasonable size. Generally, pastured chickens supplement their feed with plants/bugs/etc. It definitely does help the quality of the eggs.

The feed is a good base as it is generally good about providing balanced nutrition to make up for any imbalances in the pasture food. Also, I can tell you from personal experience that you are in a location where the feed will be 90% of their food in the winter.

FYI- Consider using dead leaves instead of wood mulch. Just collect them in the fall and store in bags. They are much easier on chicken feet and they love digging around in it and it gets broken down (along with chicken poo) into an excellent compost you can use in the spring.
 

Badchickenpun

Chirping
May 9, 2022
61
162
93
Central Indiana
You will need to feed them, modern chickens are more meaty and productive, therfore require more feed than yesteryear. The best eggs come from good feed. Chickens don't really eat grass, so pasture raising really make no difference. That term doesnt even have a standard to the usda. Where are you doing your research? Everything ypuve said has a "egg plant/ chicken blog hype" feel to it.
Yeah. Not sure all the sources, but mostly doctor/health/holistic type sources I would say. The focus of the date was not from the farming perspective, but from the shopping perspective. I am trying to translate what the people said about which eggs from the store are the healthiest to doing something similar for our own...
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Top Bottom