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Basic feeding question

Discussion in 'Feeding & Watering Your Flock' started by Charlie Frown, Sep 29, 2012.

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  1. Sep 29, 2012 #1
    Charlie Frown

    Charlie Frown Hatching

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    Apr 19, 2012
    Should I keep food in front of my layers all the time or just feed them portions?

    I have been feeding them 4-6 oz per hen once a day. Am I starving them? They seem to be thriving but they are shredding the ground under the tractor so much that I need to move them twice a day.

    Thanks!
     

  4. Sep 29, 2012 #2
    JeffOeuf

    JeffOeuf Songster

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    Springfield Missouri
    The scratching won't stop, but the conventional wisdom is that food should be free choice...that is available all the time.

    Particularly if they are in the tractor all the time, I would get a bulk feeder and keep it full all the time.
     
    1 person likes this.
  6. Sep 29, 2012 #3
    mickey328

    mickey328 Songster

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    May 4, 2012
    Northern Colorado
    What Jeff said :) We keep food out for ours all the time and they eat when they feel the need. Scratching is just natural chicken behavior so you'll see it constantly...it's how they hunt for food. Ours are in a portable coop/run and we find we have to move it about every 3 days. Do you have a place for them to dust bathe? Ours were digging holes in the sod until we got a Rubbermaid container and filled it about halfway with a mix of soil and peat moss. As soon as we put that in, they quit digging holes...they still scratch, of course, but they don't really wreck the ground and so don't need to be moved quite as often as before.
     
  8. Oct 2, 2012 #4
    chfite

    chfite Songster

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    Taylors, SC
    I provide food all the time.

    Chris
     

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