I gave my flock too much protein

[Kris5902]

My birds do seem to rely on the pellets as their primary feed source, by moving them to new grass before I replenish it they seem to forage a bit more. We have trouble growing alfalfa here so it is mostly different grasses, and clovers... what we feed our pastured grass fed beef on. Here “grass fed” just means they are grass at some point, but ours are primarily grass fed, with very little grain supplementation (mostly due to some nutrients being very low in our area, and last year’s awful drought)

I am considering free ranging my chickens fully, but need to improve my set up. Every situation is unique and there are always variables like feed availability and predator pressures. I like to think about it the same way as I look at trying to maintain a “balanced” lifestyle! Barren chicken runs devoid of vegetation just don’t seem right to me.

 

[centrarchid]

My birds do seem to rely on the pellets as their primary feed source, by moving them to new grass before I replenish it they seem to forage a bit more. We have trouble growing alfalfa here so it is mostly different grasses, and clovers... what we feed our pastured grass fed beef on. Here “grass fed” just means they are grass at some point, but ours are primarily grass fed, with very little grain supplementation (mostly due to some nutrients being very low in our area, and last year’s awful drought)

I am considering free ranging my chickens fully, but need to improve my set up. Every situation is unique and there are always variables like feed availability and predator pressures. I like to think about it the same way as I look at trying to maintain a “balanced” lifestyle! Barren chicken runs devoid of vegetation just don’t seem right to me.

In totally free-range settings where the birds do not cover enough area, you have a forage base that provides essentially nothing other than vegetation to walk on. I have been going to great lengths to get birds to cover areas with actual good eats. That has involved a combination of incomplete rations and moving feeding stations around, plus cover patches.