I grow chickens in my rosebed. Well, sort of. I mean, every morning when I go outside, there are always a bunch of them there, so they must be growing there, right? Oh okay then, how about they're growing fatter because they're eating bugs and stuff in the rosebed?
Of course, the minute they see me come outside, they run out of the rosebed and head for the feedroom, because they know I'll be throwing out some cracked corn and they love it.
But the rest of the day, they're out on their own, looking for a bug buffet anywhere they can find one.
The Farmer made the comment the other day that he bets most people don't realize how much chickens graze. Since technically graze is defined as:
Graze (grāz) to feed on growing grasses and herbage
. . . maybe forage would be the better word.
for·age (fôr′ij, fär′-) a search for food or provisions
They ARE grazing to the extent they eat seeds and bits of grasses and stuff, but they are also looking for bugs, so they might best be said to forage.
Got to get our terminology straight, ha, ha!
Seriously, I think a lot of people believe chickens just eat some corn or other feed thrown out to them. Well, if that's all they have available, then yes, that's true. But if you let them out to FORAGE, they will eat lots of bugs, because that's just what they naturally eat.
It's a wierd world when we give cattle feed with animal protein in it, and they are truly
her·bivo·rous (hər biv′ər əs) feeding chiefly on grass or other plants
but we want to feed chickens nothing but grains when they are actually
om·niv·o·rous (om-n
v
r-
Seems like it would make more sense to feed animals the type of diet they were naturally intended to eat.
But hey, that's just me.
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Chickens are great forager’s. The do a great job on the homestead. I’m going to turn mine out next spring. I’ve raised them up and they’re just about ready to lay and next spring I’ll let them eat all the ticks, grasshoppers and whatever else they’ll eat. I think there’s nothing prettier than a flock of colorful chickens foraging in a bright green field.
As far as I can tell, there is only one major drawback to letting them forage – sometimes they pick new places to lay eggs and it takes a while to find them!
They do look pretty out there in the field, mixing in with the sheep.
fantastic