How often should I feed my chickens ?

[gritsar]

Quote:
Yep. We had a very dry summer here. For the first time ever these little black bugs, we never could figure out what they were, descended on my coops. Attracted not to the food, but the water.
My chickens learned to anticipate my lifting their waterers off the blocks, so they could get to all the yummy black bugs under them. Chicken caviar.

 

[Tala]

Quote:
Ants have never bothered my chicken food, but I guess it depends on the ants. Here we have trouble with grease eating ants, they like dog/cat food because it's oily.
Bees sometimes do get on the feed from time to time especially if your feed is high in molasses (most feed has it, to cut down on "dust" but some formulations have more than others) but they don't seem to bother the chickens.
Ducks snap bees out of the air, but I've not seen my chickens do that. Some chickens eat ants, mine don't care for them.

 

[kentucky jay]

wow ..... i havent had this posted for 30 minutes and i already got a ton of replies ....so far my friend was right ,, this site is quite awesome !!!

 

[BayouPoules]

Yep,.. we keep their feeders full,. for all the same reasons,. especially this time of year,. there's little to forage on,..

 

[Judy]

We have plenty of ants on this property, fire ants, I have even seen them in the coop, but I have never seen any in the feed. You're more likely to see mice in it -- but only if the chickens don't see them first, as they will eat mice, snakes, lizards, snails.....

You don't need either heat or light. Some people choose to add a few hours of daylight to increase egg production in winter, but it's not necessary. People in Alaska don't necessarily heat their coop; I promise you that chickens in Kentucky do not need heat. They grow their own very warm winter coat.

What they need is good ventilation and to be protected from drafts. That means you need a place at or near the top of your coop for the warm humid air that they exhale to escape. The air will exchange both ways at this vent so you don't need to leave any windows or doors open in winter. They will suffer more from summer heat than cold, so you want a good breeze going through there in summer.

 

[oldchickenlady]

I keep my feed in the run during warm weather and put it in the coop during the real cold, wet weather. The only thing I have seen getting in my feed was an occasional squirrel. They would go into the run and get a snack. Initially, I let the chickens out of the run first thing in the morning to free range, but I started getting thin shelled eggs because the hens would not go back to the run to eat their layer pellets. So now I don't let them out until mid morning or later, that way they will eat the pellets when they wake up hungry in the morning and get their greens/bugs smorgasbord the rest of the day.

 

[mulewagon]

I keep all the food and water out in the pen, to keep rodents and bugs out of the coop. Also the chickens pull a lot of food out and eat it off the ground - I'd rather have minimal poop in the mixture! Since we're in Alabama, deep snow is extremely rare, and there's no problem with them going out to eat.

 

[vmdanielsen]

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I LOVE the mule avatar!! Is he yours?

 

[woodmort]

24/7--same with water. Hang feeders inside the coop in the middle of the room so if mice try to get to them the chicken have another food source. Birds will eat from first light until they go to roost. At this time of year it is a good thing for them to go to roost with full crops. Don't try to ration them.

 

[Domestic_goddess]

I keep water in the coop 24/7, but only feed once in the morning. I have fill the feeder full and then when they are done they are done. I also free range, so they pick up plenty of food around the yard. I do this for cost reasons, if I kept it full 24/7 we would go through the feed way to fast and also for a keeping down the rodents. My chickens are fat, happy and give me plenty of beautiful eggs!