Is it possible to over feed your chickens?

[bustedchicks]

Maybe a bit "what works best for you" but
When would feeding them be better, morning or night?

 

[Beekissed]

In the good forage months I feed in the evening so that they will fill up on pasture and foraged proteins before coming to the feeder. In that way I have to feed very little grain based feeds to top them off and they are filling up mostly on the foods that are best for them. I seed White Dutch Clover and tall fescue here for them and both are high in protein and digestibility. In feeding in the evenings I only have to feed enough for a meal before roosting for those birds who didn't glean enough out on range. Usually all that feed is consumed before nightfall and that's a good thing. Feed brings mice and mice brings snakes.

When forage drops off in the late fall and into winter, I feed in the mornings so the feed is all gone by nightfall and rodents are not attracted to the coop. This is when you lose the most feed from rodents as they struggle to find enough food for winter. Rodents are disease vectors, so leaving continuous feed in the coop and run is just like ringing a dinner bell and telling them to bring all the lovely diseases they can carry along with them to dine where your chickens live. Yay for rodents.

So, the answer is...it depends on the season and your setup.

 

[fiddlebanshee]

Should a person err on the side of caution and feed in meals only? Yes, I believe they should. The birds will live longer and healthier lives and be more productive for a longer time.

Let's just agree to disagree.

 

[ChickenMack]

Here's what I am thinking....they are 20 weeks old, they are now eating to thicken their bones, put on feathers and are getting ready to start producing eggs. If you can feel their keel bones (breast bone that feels like the keel of a sailboat) they are doing okay. You may be going through a lot of feed, but for adolescent hens, they are eating what they need for for all of this biology. Have you ever paid attention to what a human teenager eats? It's a lot and your hens are at about the same stage of life. It should drop off as you come into summer but probably after their first moults you'll see their consumption go down. My first birds were RIR's, from the hatchery so they were production birds, I had seven, and in those first months, I went through a lot of feed. It was around 50 pounds every three weeks.

But to get back to your question, production birds and heritage birds are very different and I feel that hatchery birds can overeat because they are bred to mature and grow very quickly, so if you feel they are overeating and you are concerned, like I said, feel that keel bone, at this young age, it should be pronounced and easy to feel, if it feels like there is a lot of meat around it, you have an obese bird and you need to ration it's feed.

 

[Cindy in PA]

I have free fed for 21 years. While this does not make it the best way & I have no doubt some chickens may get fat, I have never seen it affect my hens health or production so I am sticking with it. Just another example of why if this board had been available 21 years ago, I would not still be keeping chickens. It is wonderful that so many take such good care of their chickens, but I would go crazy if I had to worry about all the minute details of chicken keeping I read on this board.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

I have free fed for 21 years. While this does not make it the best way & I have no doubt some chickens may get fat, I have never seen it affect my hens health or production so I am sticking with it. Just another example of why if this board had been available 21 years ago, I would not still be keeping chickens. It is wonderful that so many take such good care of their chickens, but I would go crazy if I had to worry about all the minute details of chicken keeping I read on this board.

I agree, sometimes people make keeping chickens seem so darn HARD!

OP, are your chickens fat? Don't think they might be based on what you're reading here, go and check! Feel their keelbones. Are they sticking out and prominent (skinny chicken) or does the breast mound up on either side with the keel bone in a valley (fat chickens). Or, does the keelbone stick out a bit but not too far (just right)? You simply CAN'T make a determination on whether or not YOUR chickens are eating too much by reading a thread on the internet.

If your birds are skinny and you're still going through lots of feed, something else is eating the feed. Period. For us, it's wild birds. Even though our coop is predator proof for the most part, the wild birds come in through the chicken pop-door for a meal. We lose quite a bit of feed per month to wild birds. I know it seems like wild birds can't eat THAT much, but my dad was a dairy farmer (so yes, his feed bunks were on a huge scale compared to a backyard chicken feeder) and he calculated he was losing $20,000 worth of feed per year to wild birds. I know I lose more than 10lbs of feed per month to wild birds.

If your birds are too fat, then you can try using a mash (rather than a crumble). You need to add water to a mash, otherwise it's too dusty. But if you add water, the birds will get fewer calories per bit. You don't have to ferment it, though you can. The research I read found that using a wet mash was almost as good as using fermented feed. Do realize, however, that most of the FF research has been for meat chickens and increasing weight gain, so your mileage may vary. You can also put them on a feeding schedule and feed 1/3 lb of feed per day per chicken, then watch their weight closely. I would NOT use only 1/4 lb of feed per day unless you have cage-bound white Leghorns or Leghorn hybrids, like Amberlinks or Tetra Tints. Pretty much any other chicken needs more food than 1/4 lb per day.

If you go from free-choice feed to feeding once/twice per day, you can expect them to stop laying for a bit. It's common for laying hens to quit laying for a day or more if they run out of feed, and if you go from free-choice to once/twice per day it will seem like "running out of feed" to them for a week or so until they get used to it.

All that being said, I feed free choice and always have. I never have fat chickens; in fact, my biggest problem is skinny chickens and I'm always trying to come up with ways to get them to eat more! I increase bunk space, take pans of feed out to the pasture so they don't have to go back to the hen house, etc. Again, I know my birds can get too skinny because I CHECK. Once you go check, you'll have a much better idea of what questions to ask/actions to take.