Feeding and sparrow questions.

[applecheeksaz]

OK i need some help remember I'm new to this

here is the situation. I have six hens all right about three months old. They have always been able to go in out of their coop into their fenced area and they put themselves to bed at night. Which works out great for me because three days of the week I work late at night and don't get home till 12 or 1am. I live in AZ so the temps are fine. Their food and water is kept inside their coop which has been great until the sparrows discovered it

Now the sparrows are always going in their coop eating their food and there is a lot of them. I wasted 4 hrs on Thurs and put up bird netting and the sparrow fit right through it i was so mad. Any way I'm wondering can you feed chickens in the morning and then they will be fine all day or will they go hungry ? In the morning they would be feed around 9:00 am. And if you can how much should you give them. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated thanks. And if they need to be feed more then once a day how do you get rid of the sparrows eating their food.

 

[Gallusfarm]

Those sparrow must be hungry!! Wow, they fit through the bird netting? Might want to try a different netting. Home Depot sells a plastic hardware cloth that has small holes and it works well. As for taking the food away all day, they will not die or anything, but they love to graze throughout the day and having food available will keep squabbles to a minimum. They don't eat after the sun goes down, so 3 x a week you could take away the food, but maybe leave something else for then, broccoli, etc. I would worry about egg production, though. They need proper nutrition, you could try a differnt type of feed - maybe pellets or something. Just make sure they have plenty of water.

May want to try to put a little feed somewhere else in your yard for the sparrows, the little freeloaders!!!