How many times/day do you feed your chickens?

[chapulina]

Sorry for such a basic question, but am wondering if chickens should be fed 2X/day? We have been feeding them every morning, and occasionally in the afternoon if we have kitchen scraps. Now I am wondering if we are under-feeding them. We have four healthy-looking hens that are nearly 8 months old. They started laying in mid-December and are producing 3-4 eggs/day. Thanks for your feedback.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

everyone has different methods of feeding if your hens are healthy with good meat feel on the breast then your doing something right. i personally keep feed down for mine but my food bill is terrible. lol

 

[cafarmgirl]

You have to consider the nature of the beast. Birds in general want to forage and nibble all day long, slowly filling their crops over the course of the day rather then trying to gobble what they need in one or two feedings. If your birds are free range with access to forage then putting out feed once or twice a day may be ok. If they are confined then I'd leave the feed out free choice for them. With laying hens especially you need to make sure they are getting as much nutrition as they need so that laying does not deplete their bodies over time. When raising meat birds you often need to restrict intake to control growth but that is a different situation.

 

[Scott H]

Yes...mine always have access to feed ...I supplement greens and protien such as spinach or cooked brocoli for greens and left over meat for protien. I throw out a couple of hand fulls of 3 grain scratch around the yard and maybe some BOSS to keep them busy.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

Yes...mine always have access to feed ...I supplement greens and protien such as spinach or cooked brocoli for greens and left over meat for protien. I throw out a couple of hand fulls of 3 grain scratch around the yard and maybe some BOSS to keep them busy.

hi, i just bought some frozen spinach in a box for mine, can i just toss it in like that? i bought them a can the other day and i ate it.

 

[Shalom Farm]

I let my free range and I have feed down. They rather graze than eat feed until night, when they do their last eating. I prefer to have the feed down so that they can eat at will. None of my birds are fat or too thin. All glossy and never had a health issue with the adults birds. A lot of people do daily feedings though, especially with free rangers.

So long as their body condition is good and they are healthy, what works for your flock works! What works for one flock, may not always work for the neighbors.

 

[Scott H]

Yes...mine always have access to feed ...I supplement greens and protien such as spinach or cooked brocoli for greens and left over meat for protien. I throw out a couple of hand fulls of 3 grain scratch around the yard and maybe some BOSS to keep them busy.

hi, i just bought some frozen spinach in a box for mine, can i just toss it in like that? i bought them a can the other day and i ate it.

Sure! The frozen will have more nutrients than the canned. I'd thaw it out first..;-)

 

[Scott H]

I should have said this is the winter routine....in the summer, when they've got greens all around, they look at me like I'm crazy if I offer greens!

 

[cstronks]

Do you allow your birds to free-range? My birds always have access to feed, and I recently decided to feed pellets over crumbles because they are much more efficient. The girls would throw the crumbles around and some would go to waste. I have not noticed this with pellets. Your birds do sound healthy, so you probably are feeding them enough, but you may want to break up the feeding times to one in the morning and then one in the afternoon plus scraps, so they don't go to bed hungry.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

This may vary depending on the weather, when I get up, or how early in the afternoon/evening I go to the American Legion for beer & dancing.
Winter time: In the mornings when I turn my 40+ chickens loose I give them about 3 lbs of wet crumbles. It's winter and free range is slim pickings so I throw them a couple of pounds of corn at noon. In the evening before they roost I give them about 3 lbs of wet crumbles again.
Summer time: About 3 or 4 lbs of dry crumbles in the evening. They eat about half of it that night and the rest the next morning before I let them loose. My feed bill goes waaay down in the summer.