24 hour food vs. food in am & pm--Does it make a difference?

[7L Farm]

Quote:
Wow!! My birds would die. How do they make it through the winter?

 

[Sjisty]

My birds also free range over about 3 acres, but I give them food 24/7. I have good egg production with my chickens, which are mostly Brahmas, and they seem to be healthy and happy.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I feed am and pm. It takes them until about noon to finish their 6 am feeding. The pm feeding they finish up within an hour. This program prevents feed sitting out all night, encouraging rodents to feed while the birds are sleeping.

Our program is very effective. Production is beyond outstanding.

When we have to be gone for a few days, I fill self-feeders. The Production Reds tend to consume much more feed and the result is often getting home to eggs too large, even for Jumbo egg cartons. The over eating also produces a few double yolk "goose eggs". I wince a little bit. I'd rather not get those from these lighter weight birds.

Some breeds, such as our ISA Browns, Black Sex Links, Barred Rocks, RIR etc do not have this penchant and seem to be much better at self regulation.

 

[krcote]

Quote:
From my personal experience this is false. I have a batch of 50 Freedom Rangers at this very moment who have been free-fed since day one and they regulate themselves just fine. I do think that if they were rationed from the start and then offered free-feed they may have overeating issues. I free-feed my layers as well.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

My flock free ranges from dawn to dusk daily and has free access to feed 24/7. My husband and I built large wooden gravity bin type feeders, two of which that hold 50 lbs and one that holds well over 100 pounds of feed (stays dry and free of pest thus far). I have three coops and each has its own feeder. I will fill it and then watch the tray...if the feed looks thin, I will push the food toward the middle on the inside and if it starts getting low I top it off. Typically, in one month my birds (70 total counting the guineas and chickens) will consume between 250 to 300 pounds of feed, which breaks down to a little less than 1/7th cup on the high side to 1/9th cup on the low side per bird per day. Going by the 1/4 cup/bird/day figure that is the standard measure for an average chicken....I should be feeding a total of 525 lbs of feed a month. So, I would say that they only eat when they are still hungary and no more.

Oh and as another poster noted about lower ranking hens.....I have a couple small, low ranking hens that I am sure would starve if I restricted the food to morning and night feedings. They run to the feeder every morning when I let everyone else go outside to range. Then, in the afternoon when most everybody comes in for a siesta, the lower ladies scoot outside to forage. Considering the recommendation is for 4 inches of lineal feeding space per bird...I would need a feeder that was a bit over 23 feet long to ensure everyone had room to eat with restrictive feedings. Yikes...that would be quite a feeder.