Are my chickens overeating?

[axelsangel]

I have 10 chickens, 6 of them are laying. They have to stay in a coop and run due to the city ordinance and Im worried they are overeating with their feed. We have a 3 gallon bucket that my husband made into a auto feeder. I went out to fill it up this morning at about 10:30am, I just went out at 3:30pm to take them a flock block that I attempted earlier today and noticed the feeder is almost empty already. To me that seems like a lot of feed for 10 chickens to eat in that little bit of time. Are they overeating or is that normal?

 

[1muttsfan]

That sounds like an awful lot of feed - are they throwing it out on the ground?

 

[axelsangel]

not that I can see they're not.

 

[donrae]

Ten birds should be eating around 4 cups of feed a day (someone check my math, I have chemo-brain lol). Even confined birds aren't going to over eat that much, chickens are actually pretty good about self regulating. They're either tossing it on the ground or your have a thief.

 

[bellschick]

Should you just let chickens eat as much food as they want from an auto feeder? Keep food in front of them 24/7?

 

[TXchickmum]

That is a lot of feed to be consumed by 10 chickens in that length of time. I would definitely think it is going elsewhere (scratched onto the ground/thief). We place a container of feed out daily for our 10 (7 standard/3 bantam) hens. They consume what they need. I've never noticed them eating too much. We initially lost quite a bit of feed due to them beaking and scratching feed out onto the ground from their hangng feeder. -hubby built a tray to place underneath it, and this eliminated wasted feed. If, however, you aren't noticing feed on the ground then I would keep an eye out for it disappearing elsewhere.

 

[donrae]

Should you just let chickens eat as much food as they want from an auto feeder? Keep food in front of them 24/7?

That's what I've always done. I top off the feeder every few days and just let them self regulate. I've never had a bird overeat or be overweight.

But, you should have an idea how much food is average for your birds to eat to be alert for a huge amount of waste as the OP is describing. I personally can't afford to feed all the rodents or wild birds or squirrels or whatever in the area! I also hang my feeder high, so the birds have to stretch a little to reach it, this keeps them from tossing the crumbles on the ground so much. And if/when I do notice an excess of feed spilled on the ground, I just don't put more in the feeder until they clean up what's on the ground.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote: That's the best way to do it.
They won't "overeat"

I suspect wild birds or squirrels are getting into the OP's feeder