Chickens eating less on layer feed???

[zekintha]

My girls are are about 8-6 months old. All are laying and all free range during the day. I just switched them (on Monday) from
Grower/starter feed (wanted to use what I had before bought more) to layer feed. When they were on the grower I would fill their food bowl every day, sometimes twice, since Monday I've only had to fill it twice. Seems
Like they are eating less now then they were on the other. Does layer feed full them
Up faster and last longer??? I'm even giving them less treats then before and now with the cold, there's not much grass, plants or bugs around.

 

[Chris09]

My girls are are about 8-6 months old. All are laying and all free range during the day. I just switched them (on Monday) from
Grower/starter feed (wanted to use what I had before bought more) to layer feed. When they were on the grower I would fill their food bowl every day, sometimes twice, since Monday I've only had to fill it twice. Seems
Like they are eating less now then they were on the other. Does layer feed full them
Up faster and last longer??? I'm even giving them less treats then before and now with the cold, there's not much grass, plants or bugs around.

There are few things that are in play here, but first you should know and keep in mind that chickens don't eat when there hungry and stop when there full. Chickens eat to fill a caloric need (about 1250 to 1350 Kcal/LB of Metabolized Energy) when that need is met they stop eating. This is one of the reasons why chickens will never over eat and get fat when there on a proper diet.

If your Starter/ Grower is a lower energy feed than your Layer your birds would eat less Layer than the Starter/ Grower because there caloric need is being met sooner on the Layer than on the Starter/ Grower, also you have cut back on treats and there eating less grass which can deplete the amount of energy in a feed and in turn make them eat more.