Buckeye chickens

Everett’s
free range chickens are Buckeyes, so I felt him out about the breed’s
potential as foragers.  At first, Everett
told me that the
chickens were great foragers, but it turned out he meant they were
quite predator resistant — he hasn’t lost a chicken to the elements
yet, despite allowing them to roam free next door to the woods.



Upon further
questioning, I discovered that Everett feeds his
chickens about the same amount of laying feed every day that I feed
mine, in addition to scraps from the kitchen and all the bugs they can
catch.  He said that when he cut back their laying feed, egg
production plummeted, which tells me the Buckeyes are getting the
majority of their nutrition from the storebought grains.  I was
disappointed to have to scratch another breed off my list of potential
forest pasture scavengers.