Food for baby chicks:always available or meal times?

[KCGirl]

one week old chicks...hatchery said to ensure there is always food, which we've done. Wondering when to switch to mealtimes? What has worked for you? No mama hen with them. Thanks in advance.

 

[Ehqhatcher]

Always available for me

 

[Insnesnakos]

Always available
When my chicks were a few weeks old all they did was eat, eat, and chirp.

 

[K0k0shka]

Always available for their entire lives. Poultry should have food on demand, no mealtimes. That's standard practice. The way birds eat is different. They have fast metabolisms and food goes through them quickly. Plus, they can hold only a small amount in their crops and gizzards at a time. So they need to eat small amounts throughout the whole day, as they are scavengers who feed on a collection of individually small things. As opposed to carnivores, which have fewer distinct meals of larger amounts (killing and eating a whole prey animal, for example, then not needing to eat again for a long time after that).

 

[Poultrynomics]

Im a fan of always available.
If you want to switch to meal times I would wait until adequate muscle has been developed, so if I had to guess (this depends on breed) but around the 6 week mark you could switch to meal times.

(edit: K0K0shka is preaching with those words, but it is up to your choice, Meal times wont be the end of the world but the birds probably wont be as large.)

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[Sally PB]

I have food and water always available from day one. It's removed at night.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Always available when light is available. If you're not using a heat lamp that means they won't eat at night, so if for some reason (i.e. rodent problem) food needs to come out that's when you'd remove it.