Short answer: Free-range chickens in Ghana find a good share of their own food in the rains, from termites, grasshoppers, seeds and green leaves. From about December to March that food thins out, and the birds fall short of energy and protein. Add a measured daily feed in those months, keep calcium and clean water within reach, and weigh your supplement before you decide how much to give.
Key takeaways
- In the rains, forage can cover much of a free-range bird's diet. In the dry months it covers much less.
- Weigh the daily supplement. A cupful for the whole flock is a guess, not a feeding plan.
- Keep calcium for laying hens in its own dish, free choice, and out of the rain.
- Put water in the shade and check it at noon during the dry spell.
- Call the flock in at dusk with the same sound every night, and count the birds.
Why the rains feed your flock for free
Walk a free-range run in June, a few days after rain, and you will see the birds working the ground like a plough. Termites come up out of the soil, grasshoppers jump out of the grass, earthworms surface, and every weed seed dropped last season gets picked clean. A flock left to scratch in the wet months can look well fed without a single bag being opened.
That food is real, but it is lopsided. Insects give protein and some fat. Green leaves give vitamins and water and very little energy. Seed gives energy and a little protein. A scavenging hen gets a useful mix in the rains, and that mix keeps her laying. A growing bird on the same mix still grows more slowly than one on a balanced ration, and she rarely reaches target weight on time.
The trap is judging the supplement by how the birds look in June, then wondering why the same flock looks thin in March. The rains hide the shortfall. The dry months show it.
What the dry months take away
From about December to March the ground around Kasoa goes hard and pale. Harmattan dust settles on every leaf, the insects that fed the birds in the rains have gone underground, and the grass that stood knee-high in August is a few brown stalks. Birds that used to spend the morning in the bush now walk a long way for much less.
Two things run short at once. Energy goes first. On cold harmattan mornings the birds burn more to keep warm, and seed alone cannot make that up. Protein follows, because the insects are gone. A laying hen short of protein lays smaller eggs and fewer of them. A young bird short of both stops growing evenly, and the weakest bird in the flock falls further behind every week.
The fix is not a bag of broiler starter scattered on the ground. It is a measured feed, given every day, with the amount written down.
How much to add by hand
Most farmers toss supplement from a bucket by the coop door, and the flock takes what it can grab. The strong birds take most of it, and the young ones get the leftovers. A better habit is to measure once and then stick to it.
Weigh a day's supplement for the whole flock and divide by the number of birds. For a scavenging local-type hen in the dry months, around 40 grams per bird per day is a sensible place to start, given as one fixed morning feed. Growing pullets and cockerels need more, so keep them apart for the first weeks if you can. After two weeks, adjust. If the dish is still half full by late morning, you are giving too much. If the birds crowd the door an hour after the feed is gone every day, you are giving too little, or giving it at a different time each day.
A kitchen scale does the job for a small flock. For a bigger one, use a tin of known volume, filled to the same level each time, and weigh its contents once so you know what it holds.
What to add in each season
Roughly when the seasons fall around Kasoa, and what each one asks of you:
| Season | Roughly when | What the flock finds | What you add by hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Major rains | April to July | Insects, worms, seed, green leaves | Little beyond a small morning feed for growing birds |
| Light rains | September to November | Fewer insects, fresh regrowth | A measured daily feed on the days the ground looks bare |
| Dry spell | December to March | Spilled grain and dry seed, little else | A measured daily feed of about 40 g per bird, plus calcium for layers |
Treat the table as a starting point. A bare compound with a dozen birds needs far more than a farm with bush at the edge, where the flock ranges a kilometre. Your land sets the answer, and the weights and the eggs tell you whether you have it right.
Scraps that help, and scraps that hurt
Kitchen scraps are the cheapest feed on most compounds, and the most abused. Cooked rice, boiled cassava, plantain peel, leftover porridge and kitchen greens are fine in small amounts, and they add energy the flock would otherwise miss. Fish heads and bones add calcium and protein, but only when they are cooked and fresh.
Salt is the one we warn about most. Salted fish, salted meat and the water from boiled salty stock can poison a bird quickly, and the damage can be done before you notice anything. Keep salt out of the scrap bucket altogether. Mouldy bread and anything sour from the bin goes to the compost heap, not the flock. Avocado should not be fed in quantity.
Scraps are a side dish. They are unbalanced, short of calcium, and rarely give a growing bird enough protein. For a fuller list of what scraps can and cannot replace, read kitchen scraps and forage for chickens.
Calcium and grit for laying hens
A free-range hen laying through the dry season often needs more calcium than the ground gives her. The first sign is thin or soft-shelled eggs in the nest in the morning, and by then the shell has been short for days. Put oyster shell or crushed shell in a dish of its own, next to the feed, and let her take what her eggs need.
Do not mix shell into the mash. Mixed in, it goes in at the same rate whatever the hen needs that day. On free choice she takes more when her eggs demand it and less when they do not.
Birds that swallow seed whole also need grit to grind it in the gizzard, and the dry season brings more hard seed than the rains. Grit is cheap. Give it in a separate dish, and empty and dry that dish whenever it gets wet. For the detail on both, read calcium and oyster shell for layers and grit and shell explained.
Water, when the ground is dry
In the rains a free-range bird gets water from the grass, the insects and the puddles. In the dry spell she gets it from one or two places, and they are often the wrong places. Birds walk to the far end of the compound, drink from a ditch, or go without until evening.
Set a container in the shade near the coop and another where the flock feeds. A bowl under the eaves works if you fill it morning and afternoon. Clean it every second day, because dust and droppings turn a bowl into a problem faster than most people expect. On hot afternoons a bowl empties quickly, so look at it at noon, not only at dawn.
A bird that runs short of water eats less that day and the next. We have seen flocks that were fed properly still look poor, and the only thing missing was a clean bowl within reach of the shade. For cleaning and sanitising, see water quality for poultry in Ghana. The heat side of the same problem is covered in feeding poultry in hot weather.
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Calling the flock home every evening
Free-range birds roost where they feel safe, and that is not always your coop. Train them with a routine. Shake the same bowl at the same time each evening, or whistle the same short note, and drop a small handful of grain at the coop door. Do it every evening for two weeks, even when the birds are not hungry. After that, most of the flock will come in at dusk when it hears the call.
The payoff is practical. You can count the birds, see who is missing, and shut the door on predators. A missing hen is far easier to notice on a daily head count than when you find her feathers by the fence. Count the flock while you call it in, every day, and write the number down. If you are still deciding how many birds to start with, our day-old chicks page explains what we supply and how it is boxed.
Coloured free-range birds need more feed
Sasso, Kuroiler and Noiler birds forage well and tend to be hardy on range, which is why they suit scavenging systems. They also grow faster than a local bird, and they eat more to do it. A Sasso kept on a run with only what it finds will not reach the weight it is capable of. Plan the supplement for the bird you actually have, not the one you wish you had.
Before you order, read the best chickens for free range in Ghana. The breed sets how much supplement the flock will need, and the season decides how much of that comes from the ground.
Our chicks leave the hatchery on the day they hatch, vaccinated, in ventilated boxes of 50. You can see the options on our pages for Sasso day-old chicks and Kuroiler and Noiler chicks. If you want help matching birds to your land, WhatsApp us on +233 24 915 1503, or compare the options on our breeds page first.
A dry-season checklist for free-range flocks
- Weigh the daily supplement and write the figure on the feed bin.
- Feed at the same time each morning, and clear what is left by mid-morning.
- Put calcium and grit in separate dishes, out of the rain and out of the sun.
- Fill two water containers, one in the shade and one near the feed.
- Check the water at noon, not only at dawn.
- Look at the scrap bucket for salt, mould and anything sour before you use it.
- Weigh five birds every fortnight and compare them with the last count.
Mistakes we see on free-range farms
- Scattering grain across the whole compound, so the strong birds eat and the weak ones get nothing.
- Feeding the same amount in the rains and in the dry spell, then wondering why the flock changed.
- Mixing shell into the mash, so layers get too much on some days and too little on others.
- Leaving the drinker empty from noon until evening.
- Letting the flock forage near a dump or a busy road, where it picks up what it should not.
Most of these come down to not measuring anything. A free-range flock looks like it looks after itself, which is exactly why nobody checks it.
Questions farmers ask
How much feed should free-range chickens get in Ghana?
In the rains, most scavenging birds need only a small morning feed, mainly to keep growing birds on track. In the dry months, a sensible starting point for a local-type hen is about 40 grams of grain or mash per bird per day, given at one fixed time. Adjust it after two weeks by checking what is left in the dish and how five birds weigh. Coloured birds such as Sasso or Kuroiler eat more, so plan for them separately.
Can free-range chickens live on forage alone?
Some do for a while, in good rains and on good land. Adult hens can find enough to keep laying through the wet months on a large range. Growing birds rarely reach target weight on forage alone, and laying hens in the dry season usually fall short of protein and calcium. If you want steady growth and eggs all year, supplement. Forage is a bonus on top of a measured ration, not the ration itself.
Is it safe to feed kitchen scraps to chickens?
Cooked rice, boiled cassava, plantain and leftover porridge are safe in small amounts. Keep salt out completely, and avoid anything mouldy, sour, greasy or burnt. Avocado should not be fed in quantity. Scraps work as a side dish, never as the main feed, because they are unbalanced and often short of calcium and protein.
Why are my free-range hens laying soft shells in the dry season?
Calcium is the usual cause. Forage gives little calcium, and hens in the dry spell use more of it for the shell. Put oyster shell in a separate dish, free choice, out of the rain. If the shells stay soft after a week, ask your vet to check for other causes, because some problems need treatment rather than a change of feed.
How do I stop the strong birds taking all the supplement?
Feed at the same time every day, spread the feed in two or three places, and use a raised tray where you can. Keep the young birds apart for the first weeks of supplement. If one or two birds keep the others away, move them to a separate feeder for a few days and then bring them back.
How often should I check water for free-range birds?
At least twice a day: in the morning, and again at noon during the dry spell. Check the container in the shade first, because it is the one birds find last. Clean containers every second day, and fill them before the birds go out in the morning, not after.
Should I feed free-range birds in the evening?
You do not need to. Feed in the morning, when birds are hungriest, then call the flock in at dusk with the same sound each night. A small handful of grain at the coop door in the evening helps the flock settle in and makes counting easier, but it should stay a small extra, not a second main meal.
