Feeding 2x/day — will it affect laying

[ChickenMamaC]

I’ve switched from free feeding to feeding twice a day, due to a mouse problem. They seem to be adapting just fine, but I read that now allowing them to free feed can affect egg production. They’re just starting to lay again after winter hiatus. Has anyone noticed this or should they lay as normal assuming they’re getting enough to eat.

 

[CluckerFamily]

Chickens eat all day long.
Would it help to remove the feed at night instead and then put it back out in the morning? When are the mice coming around?

 

[Acre4Me]

Water access. If they don’t drink enough then egg laying suffers very quickly.

feed: if they eat their fill2x per day, crops are full, that is good.

mice suck. I hopeyou are not only taking feed away, you are using metal trash cans to store all feed (for any animals) and sweeping up any food. You must bevery vigilant and clean. You can use poison bait stations at night when chickens are locked in coop. Or 24/7 around feed storage if not accessible. Bait stations keep the mice from removing the poison and keep other critters from sampling the poison.

 

[JaeG]

Do they free range? Ours are fed twice a day, though the evening feed stays in the coop overnight, and they free range all day. It's summer where I am and we have to go out quite late with the evening feed to convince them to go back in their coop as they are finding so much in the pasture.

I second bait stations if there are a lot of mice. We moved to the country just over a year ago and in autumn we were seriously overrun with mice. It took months of putting bait out and blocking up or meshing over any and all holes in our sheds and coop but we haven't seen a mouse since. We've still had bait stations out but they haven't been touched since last autumn, almost a year ago. If the infestation is bad then you really do need to put bait out as trapping will only remove the tip of the iceberg.

 

[rjohns39]

Most of the pro's who raise their birds on grass feed twice daily. Morning and afternoon.