Free choice feeding vs. Scheduled feeding; opinions??

[Maugwa]

So I hope I'm understanding correctly: 1 cup of feed for each chicken and three meals a day? My girls forage all day on a third of an acre. 20 hens and a roo.

I figure a cup a day total, so if your feeding 3 times, about a third of a cup each per feeding. But depending how much forage you have ( a 1/3 acre is not the same in Jan and June, or in the desert) you can cut that back. I usually figure a cup apiece in the winter plus about the same in grains, but it gets really cold where I live, the grain is more for heat than feed. I'll cut them to about half a cup a day apiece when they are foraging 2 acres too, and just a little grain to move or call them. When I'm getting loads of garden culls, I may go to 1/3 or 1/4 ration, and use garden stuff to call them.

 

[imnukensc]

My 5 hens free range daily nearly all day, but they have food and water available 24/7/365. My feeder and waterer are homemade and keep enough feed and water for at least 2 weeks.

 

[chkncrazy]

So I hope I'm understanding correctly: 1 cup of feed for each chicken and three meals a day? My girls forage all day on a third of an acre. 20 hens and a roo.

Just one big plastic cup each once a day I think I'm overfeeding

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Just one big plastic cup each once a day I think I'm overfeeding

Unless it is scratch or an inappropriate treat, you can't overfeed chicken feed.
There may be issues with waste, etc. but they won't eat more than they need.
You could actually be under feeding. Is the once a day feeding in the morning when the chickens are hungriest? Is there still feed in the feeders at dusk? If the latter is negative, they don't have enough feed.
What kind of feeder are you using?
Also, you can't compare the quantity you are feeding with what other people are feeding unless you have the same breeds.
A Serama weighs less than 500 grams. A Jersey Giant or Brahma on the other hand could be between 8 and 15 pounds. Those breeds will eat drastically disparate amounts of feed.
Unless one is raising Cornish Rocks for meat, during certain growth periods some may limit feed. Otherwise, feed needs to be available all waking hours.

Chickens are not dogs. When chickens' crops are empty, they are hungry and will eat something. Do you want that to be a nutritionally complete food or bedding/feces?
One big plastic cup doesn't tell us how many grams/ounces of feed you are feeding nor how many birds are being fed and what breeds - LF or bantams.
It is an apples to apples thing.

 

[chkncrazy]

Unless it is scratch or an inappropriate treat, you can't overfeed chicken feed.
There may be issues with waste, etc. but they won't eat more than they need.
You could actually be under feeding. Is the once a day feeding in the morning when the chickens are hungriest? Is there still feed in the feeders at dusk? If the latter is negative, they don't have enough feed.
What kind of feeder are you using?
Also, you can't compare the quantity you are feeding with what other people are feeding unless you have the same breeds.
A Serama weighs less than 500 grams. A Jersey Giant or Brahma on the other hand could be between 8 and 15 pounds. Those breeds will eat drastically disparate amounts of feed.
Unless one is raising Cornish Rocks for meat, during certain growth periods some may limit feed. Otherwise, feed needs to be available all waking hours.

Chickens are not dogs. When chickens' crops are empty, they are hungry and will eat something. Do you want that to be a nutritionally complete food or bedding/feces?
One big plastic cup doesn't tell us how many grams/ounces of feed you are feeding nor how many birds are being fed.
It is an apples to apples thing.

I was using a normal feeder, then I have this old frying pan with 3-inch lip I said screw it I'll use this I have for leghorns and I feed it in the morning when I let him out four big cops I guess they're beer sized ones but not the red one..... And most days there's still feed in the pan..... If there isn't there's a feeder in their coop that I'll let down to their level and they can have that at night and morning before I make it down there.... I guess it's all trial and error

 

[centrarchid]

I was using a normal feeder, then I have this old frying pan with 3-inch lip I said screw it I'll use this I have for leghorns and I feed it in the morning when I let him out four big cops I guess they're beer sized ones but not the red one..... And most days there's still feed in the pan..... If there isn't there's a feeder in their coop that I'll let down to their level and they can have that at night and morning before I make it down there.... I guess it's all trial and error

You are loosing me too. Break it down so we can talk actual units of feed in terms of volume.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

A big cup is in the eye of the beholder. Is it an 8 oz. cup or 12 or 16 or 32?
Are they LF leghorns or bantams? How many and what age?
They won't eat at night, only when it is light because they can't see in the dark.

 

[chkncrazy]

Sorry for the confusion ... They are 12 oz cups and 15 month old white leghorns... I have 4 chickens so 4 cups around 930 a.m 95 percent of time there's left over at night they have a 10x15 run as I used to have upwards around 20 hens.... I don't use a conventional feeder anymore I just throw it in an old frying pan and they go to town.... It's so few birds I feel to fill up such a huge feeder lol... I hope this cleared up any confusion.

 

[chkncrazy]

You are loosing me too. Break it down so we can talk actual units of feed in terms of volume.

Hope I cleared up the confusion in my above post

 

[centrarchid]

Hope I cleared up the confusion in my above post

Getting there.