Pellet vs Free Range/Foraging

Aunt Angus

Crossing the Road
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Whether foraging and free ranging is bad for their diet depends on what they are finding when they forage.

For example, eating green grass and scratching up worms from a compost pile is likely to be fine.

But if they find a lot of grass seeds and not many bugs, that has about the same nutritional effect as eating a lot of extra grain and not enough protein. (Like when people offer too much scratch.)

And if they forage in a place with spilled grain (like in a barn with other livestock), or pizza (like a place where people eat lunch and think it's fun to feed leftovers to the birds), I think it's obvious what effect that would have on their diet.


If your chickens are having health problems,
and if you think those health problems might be related to their diet,
then it might be useful to limit them to only a complete commercial feed, to see if that helps.

A month or two would probably be long enough to show if it makes a difference.

As the seasons change, so do the things they can forage, so they will naturally eat more or less of the commercial feed at some seasons. So if you think about what has happened during the course of the year, you might notice if they are better or worse at what seasons, and see if that correlates with how much of what they eat.

I would probably let them keep foraging unless you have reason to think their diet is causing a problem, but limiting them to commercial food is definitely a safe thing to try, and has a chance of helping (depending on what their actual problem is.)
I may try this, though it will be virtually impossible to completely limit it to just feed. What you say about quality of forage makes sense, which is why I was planning on implementing a fodder system this weekend.

I don't know that diet is a cause, but I can't imagine that it's completely unrelated since diet is so closely linked with health in general. I wish I knew.... I lost 2 chickens to reproductive issues since April after not losing any for years (other than chicks to shipping stress). One of my ducks is now having problems (internal laying that, thankfully, hasn't turned septic).
 

Aunt Angus

Crossing the Road
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Do you allow your flock free access to the pellets while they free range? I feel like that is an ideal situation. Mine free range most of the day, but will also go back to the run to grab mouthfuls of crumble a couple times a day as well. They seem to know what they need to eat and left on their own, don't fill up on any one type of food. Berries are normally considered a treat, but while foraging, mine will eat a few strawberries or beautyberries and then move on with out stripping the plant.
Another consideration is that the exercise from free ranging allows for more leeway in their diet. If they are doing laps around a couple of acres, their needs are different than birds confined to a few hundred square feet.
They have pellets available always. I wonder if maybe the drought is causing issues by limiting what they can find to eat since so much of what they forage is dying (clover, native grasses, wild strawberry, etc - very limited this year). That's why I was planning to implement a fodder system soon.

This is giving me more to think about. I'll read and plan a but more. See if anything else jumps out at me.
 

RubelliteRose

Crowing
Apr 15, 2020
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I don't know that diet is a cause, but I can't imagine that it's completely unrelated since diet is so closely linked with health in general. I wish I knew.... I lost 2 chickens to reproductive issues since April after not losing any for years (other than chicks to shipping stress). One of my ducks is now having problems (internal laying that, thankfully, hasn't turned septic).
They have pellets available always. I wonder if maybe the drought is causing issues by limiting what they can find to eat since so much of what they forage is dying (clover, native grasses, wild strawberry, etc - very limited this year). That's why I was planning to implement a fodder system soon.

This is giving me more to think about. I'll read and plan a but more. See if anything else jumps out at me.
I was just going to ask that. If you are just having problems this year, I don't think it is so much the difference between pellets vs free range, but what has changed. It is possible that your change in environment hasn't just killed off what they normally eat, but it has allowed something bad to grow:(
Also consider if others in the area have started spraying herbicides or pesticides to combat a new pest brought on by the drought.
 

Coops Dad

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May 10, 2020
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Our chickens have free access to 6 acres of tall grass pasture plus the two acres of lawn around the house plus whatever they feel like roaming of the 10 acres of native grass up front. They have full time access to 18% all-flock and crushed oyster shells, plus kitchen scraps. Their joy is first- kitchen scraps, second- foraging, and third- pellets.

I use a disc harrow behind my tractor to improve the soil surface on some areas that I can exclude the chickens from entering, planting purple vetch, field peas, fava beans, white clover and other legumes. I spent two days and about $75 in seed on an acre+ behind the tractor shed. When it was nearly mature, I opened it up to the chickens and they had- ahem- a field day.

The seeds that fall and aren't eaten have kept that area pretty much a mix of pasture grass and cover crop, and it's loaded with bees, butterflies, birds, etc. I cut it to the ground every fall after first frost and run the disc harrow over it at the shallowest setting to renew the surface, turn in the seed and incorporate the organic matter.

Even my lone White Leghorn, a three year old ball of nervous energy (and who still lays 5/wk), gets a little chubby off of that patch.
 

Shadrach

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Jul 31, 2018
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Your post asks about health benefits.
The most important part of ranging out of a coop and run is excercise! Chickens are no different from any other creature in this respect. Fit chickens tend to be healthier than chickens that are bored with limited opportunities to carry out natural behviour. Natural behaviour includes things like running, flying, digging, bathing and investigating new things.

I took over the care of a group of Ex Battery hens and rescue chickens including a rather difficult rooster. The transformation has been quite remarkable. Sure, I've improved their feed in in both quantitly and quality, and yes they get commercial feed. What has made the most difference is they get out of their run for a few hours a day onto an allotment.
The run as one might expect has been stripped bare of anything worth eating but more important, anything of interest. Outside the run is a massive playground by comparison and the chickens are active rather than standing around waiting for their next meal.
 

Aunt Angus

Crossing the Road
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Nevada County, CA
I was just going to ask that. If you are just having problems this year, I don't think it is so much the difference between pellets vs free range, but what has changed. It is possible that your change in environment hasn't just killed off what they normally eat, but it has allowed something bad to grow:(
Also consider if others in the area have started spraying herbicides or pesticides to combat a new pest brought on by the drought.
This also makes sense. I can guarantee there are no pesticides, but maybe something has changed in the environment. I don't think they are getting into anything funky, but maybe what was good for them isn't growing anymore.

I don't free range. I wouldn't have a flock long if I did. I'm not making excuses. It's true. There are 3 hawks in the trees over the coop as I type. And I see foxes and raccoons daily and bears pretty regularly. And skunks. But the flock has a pretty large fenced and covered pasture available to them all day. I take them for very closely supervised walks at least 3x per week. I really do the best I can.

Maybe I'll put back what was lost? Idk. There are no easy fixes or answers. Only semi-educated guesses.
 

Weeg

Crossing the Road
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Jul 1, 2020
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This also makes sense. I can guarantee there are no pesticides, but maybe something has changed in the environment. I don't think they are getting into anything funky, but maybe what was good for them isn't growing anymore.

I don't free range. I wouldn't have a flock long if I did. I'm not making excuses. It's true. There are 3 hawks in the trees over the coop as I type. And I see foxes and raccoons daily and bears pretty regularly. And skunks. But the flock has a pretty large fenced and covered pasture available to them all day. I take them for very closely supervised walks at least 3x per week. I really do the best I can.

Maybe I'll put back what was lost? Idk. There are no easy fixes or answers. Only semi-educated guesses.
If your worried about the pasture having less nutritional value than before, why not seed it with healthy cover crops? Hairy vetch, field peas, oats, sorghum, and millet are all good choices. Lots of those are actually common ingredients in chicken feed. Millet, sorghum, and field peas.
 

U_Stormcrow

Crossing the Road
Jun 7, 2020
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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.
 

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