How many times do you feed your chickens each day?

[swimmer]

Quote:
Me too.

 

[Shanda]

I now feed twice a day, with additional kitchen scraps when they come because of pests. When I first changed to this, the egg laying dropped dramatically and I was worried. Then most of them molted, the egg production increased and everything is fine now. I have learned to make the last feeding around 4:00 to decrease the amount of poop I have to clean up in the morning

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[panner123]

They should have feed available to them all day. You can pick up the feeders when you lock them in at night and put it out in the morning, if you are worried about rodents. If you have ever watched a free range chickens, they are busy catching bugs all day. If they are not ranged on a grassy area, scatter some cracked corn around for them. This will let them feed in a natural way. A little waste and some birds, but your chickens will love it.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Rodent control is essential and constantly having feed available gives mice/rats a free banquet. If you have rodent issues, and it is quite likely it is almost inevitable, using a more portion control system is valuable tool.

 

[terrilhb]

from Georgia. Agree they just always have food. Check once a day. Except for the babies them I check all during the day. Good luck

 

[saladin]

Adult birds need around 4 oz. of a good ration once a day.

If they are free-range then you can give them less.

Once a day is all they need to be fed. Keeping feed before them all day long is a bad idea.

 

[longbranch321]

Hi! I am VERY new to chickens and stuff. If anyone can tell me how many times you feed your chickens that would be really helpful!

I disagree with the advice to “free feed”. Not only does that create opportunity to invite a rodent problem, but it is a huge waste of money. Not efficient at all. It is actually much easier to free feed, but if you are feeding high quality organic or non-gmo feed like me, it becomes too expensive. It is after all, quite wasteful. Here’s why. Chickens WILL in fact overeat. And the result of that is less productivity. When a hen overeats she actually lays fewer eggs. This makes each egg you get more expensive! Here’s how you fine-tune your feeding to optimize efficiency. Start with a rate of 1/3 lb of feed per chicken. Record your numbers of eggs collected each day and calculate your average at the end of the week. Each week decrease the amount of feed by 10%. As soon as you see a reduction in numbers of eggs, go back up the previous 10% increment. So for example, if you start out feeding 10lbs, then the next week you’ll feed 9lbs, then the next week 8. If he next week you drop to 7 and at the end of that week you see you had a reduction in egg numbers for that week, then you would go back up to 8 pounds and stick with that as your daily ration. Now keep in mind this only applies to layers because once a hen starts laying eggs, she has finished growing. You may want to free feed until your pullets become layers.

 

[imnukensc]

My chickens have feed available 24/7/365.

 

[centrarchid]

Method differs with season and how the birds are kept. Currently, the penned birds in lay have free-choice access. Penned birds not on lay fed twice daily with most in the morning. They are fed again just before roosting to ensure they are getting enough intake. The free-range birds are fed once daily just enough to make so they get a good crop fill in the morning plus some. With them there should be no feed in feeder by dark to limit rodent issues.