Feeding my chickens

[dldavis34]

I just got chickens got long ago and I just wanted to make sure of something. If it best to go out and feed the chickens at set times of the day or is it best to have a feeder with feed in it at all times? I have a feeder with feed in it for the chickens at all times. They seem to go through it pretty fast. I was just wondering if someone could tell me which is best to do?

 

[Davaroo]

For most people, it is more convenient for them to feed free choice, ie, feed in the feeder all the time.
It isn't neccesarily the "best" thing for the chickens, but it makes your life easier and satisfies their need. That's a win - win.

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P.S. What most people dont know is this practice of "free choice" feeding, i.e., "keeping the feeder full 24/7," appears to have arisen from the commercial business almost exclusively.
It is rarely, if ever, mentioned in texts pre-dating World War II.

After The Second World War, nearly all research at the time was devoted towards kicking confinement rearing methods into high gear. We had to feed a new and rapidly growing urban population and post-WWII, skyrocketing economy. The old ways weren't going to cut it, now that so many people had left the farm for the city centers. By the 1960's, the concern for good, small flock practices had practically disappeared in this country and few were advocating them, let alone writing about them.

It wasn't until the 1970's and yet another revival of "self-sufficient/back-to-the-land" concepts ** that small scale poultry rearing began to be re-considered in broad scope. However, by then, the "experts" of the day had been steeped in - you guessed it - commercially oriented practice and lore. It would surprise many of we backyarders to learn just how many of our hallmark notions arose from the dreaded and despised commercial business.

** You didnt think the hippies, and todays "Neo Back to the Landers," were a wholly recent phenomenon, did you? I've counted at least SEVEN such movements in this nations' history!

 

[TheBuff]

Keeping the feeder full. One chicken can eat a quarter pound of food a day.So it takes alot of food. Feeding them out right every day and missing the same time every time can cause stress which could hurt egg production.

 

[Davaroo]

The Buff is right, they do eat that much and maybe more given certain conditions.