Feeding Chickens

1. Do I have to feed free-range chickens, or can they find their own feed?

Nutritional deficiencies increase with the number of chickens. I've heard estimates that you can support 1-2 hens per acre with no supplemental feeding, though probably not during the winter. As you add chickens to the farm, they first exhaust the supply of high-calorie feeds such as seeds, then the supply of high-protein feeds such as bugs, worms, and high-protein forage. Finally, they use up the supply of high-vitamin feeds such as grass. Modern poultrykeeping revolves around supplying the nutrients the chickens can't find for themselves.

In the good old days, when people didn't feed their hens at all, much of the hen's diet was provided by sheer sloppiness. People threw their garbage out into the street or the barnyard. The cows and horses spilled grain. Manure was everywhere and was full of yummy maggots. Even with all the natural bounty provided by Stone Age sanitation, the number of hens that could be supported without supplemental feeding was very limited. Flocks of over fifty hens were unusual before chicken feed was invented.

In practice, though, it always pays to provide a complete diet, compared to feeding nothing at all or supplying nothing but grain. The increased production always pays for the increased feed bill.

There are a few circumstances where the diet can be adjusted to reflect reliable forage ingredients, such as old-fashioned "range rations" which left out the vitamins that were provided in abundance by green feed. But enough dry days in a row browns off the grass and makes it unpalatable to the chickens, so this method has its risks. Also, many of the things hens eat are so tiny that we can't see them -- tiny seeds, tiny bugs, tiny worms. If we can't see them, we can't estimate how much the hens are finding, and we can't know how much supplemental feed they need on a day-by-day basis.

Fortunately for the frugal farmer, hens prefer fresh, natural feeds to dry, processed chicken feed, and will eat natural feeds in preference to store-bought feed whenever they have the chance.

2. What Should I Feed My Chickens?

You can also set out whole grains in a separate feeder if you like. I do. This can save you a lot of money if you have a source of cheap grain, especially if you use a high-protein chicken feed. For example, a high-protein layer ration with 20% protein will be formulated for use with supplemental grain, with the assumption that the hens will eat about 50% layer ration and 50% grain. Chicks need lots of  protein and will pretty much ignore supplemental grain until they're older and aren't growing as fast. There's really little point in offering them grain until they're 6-8 weeks old.

3. Won't Commercial Chicken Feed Poison My Chickens?

I have never had any trouble with commercial feed. In general, you should ask around and see which feed store is considered to be the most reputable by your neighbors, and buy from them. Local reputation is rarely wrong.

Read the feed tag to see what's in the chicken feed. I also taste chicken feed sometimes to see if it has any off flavors. It shouldn't have any kind of burned or rancid taste, which would indicate the use of bad ingredients. But every time I've tested, it's just been incredibly bland, not distateful at all.

4. Isn't Chicken Feed Full of Medications?

I recommend that beginners start with medicated chick starter, because an outbreak of coccidiosis is very discouraging. When you're more experienced and you feel your management is pretty good, try the non-medicated starter.

5. Aren't Chicken Feeds Full of Hormones?

6. What do You Feed Your Chickens?

The reason I do this is that chickens have a definite calcium appetite (oystershells), energy appetite (grain), and protein appetite (high-protein poultry ration). A hen who lays an egg a day will eat far more calcium than one who lays an egg a week. If the only source of calcium is the chicken feed, she will eat feed just for its calcium, and get fat. With calcium offered on the side in the form of oystershell, she can eat the calcium she wants without unwanted calories. Similarly, a hen who is not laying at the moment wants little calcium or protein, and will eat mostly grain, which is cheaper than the other ingredients.

Furthermore, forage is high in protein. When the pasture plants are bright green and succulent, or when there are lots of slow-moving bugs and worms around, the hens get a lot of protein by foraging, turn up their noses at the pellets, and eat mostly forage and whole grain. When the pasture plants turn brown and the insects move too fast, they fall back on the pellets.

Research is inconclusive about the value of this method when all the ingredients are bought at commodity prices. However, people who buy no more than a ton or two of feed at a time often get a much better deal on grain than on chicken feed, and the possibility of a slight reduction in performance is offset by a large reduction in feed cost.

For pullet chicks, I feed chick starter for several weeks, then offer grain in a separate feeder. Once the chicks go onto pasture, they get the same ration as the hens.

Broiler chicks start with a 22% broiler starter, graduate to a 20% broiler grower ration, which is later supplemented with whole grains.

Turkeys are similar to broilers: start with a 28% turkey starter, graduate to a 20% broiler grower, which is later supplemented with whole grains.

All my poultry also have access to range.

I don't use poultry feeds that contain animal poultry byproducts such as beef scrap. I don't have anything against beef scrap in general, but my goats sometimes get into the chicken feed, and one of the cornerstones of BSE prevention is to prevent ruminants from eating meat byproducts of other ruminants, so I avoid feeds with beef scrap for that reason.

7. Should I Mix My Own Feed?

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