Correct Way to Feed Chickens

[TinyT]

Is it better to feed the chickens fresh feed from a storage bucket every day or is it okay to use a feeder? I have read many different opinions on this matter. I want to do what is best for the chickens.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I don’t think there is one “correct” way to do anything with chickens. Lots of times you will end up doing what works for you. When it comes to food it depends on how much your birds eat, your climate, your coop and run setup.

When I lived in Utah it was a dry climate. I topped off the feeder every morning and brought it in with whatever leftovers were in it at night to keep rats and cockroaches out of it. I fed dry crumble or pellets.

Now I live in the south so I don’t do any of these things. I feed my chickens dry crumble in a trough attached to their run and every few days they might get some fermented feed. I free range all day so they don’t have leftovers and I leave the troughs out and refill them in the morning.

With any feeder you will need to clean it and the problem I had in Utah if I didn’t have the feeder under a roof of some kind when it rained the feed would get wet and I would have to disassemble it to clean it. The troughs are much easier to clean.