I've never had chickens before...

[Magic Birdie]

... and I have a question. It probably sounds sort of stupid, but what's the feeding pattern? Do you keep food in their feeders 24/7, give them food at the time they naturally eat, or what? The articles and books I've read only talks about the kinds of feed and blah blah blah, but they've never said anything about how

 

[AccentOnHakes]

24/7

 

[seamsewnice]

Some take the food in for the night, so mice and rodents aren't tempted. It's lots easier just to leave it out there 24/7 if you don't mind paying to feed the other furry friends that might come.

 

[southerndesert]

Hanging feeder always full in the run, rodents can't get it that way.... They can have feed when they want it and we use pellets..

 

[Magic Birdie]

Oh, ok, because some of the books say different stuff

 

[Lothiriel]

I keep my hanging feeder in the coop and it's filled 24/7 -- usually enough so that in about 2 or 3 days they'll have eaten it all, and then I refill it. I don't want it getting stale from sitting too long.

 

[slurrywidow]

Quote:
x2.
But we put ours in the coop instead of the run because we get LOTS of rain. Also I was amazed at how much less food I went through when I switched from crumbles to pellets.

 

[ccrow]

I'm going to switch to pellets, next bag of feed I buy; I am interested to see the difference.

 

[BusyBlonde]

We leave feed 24/7 for our chickens. Also, X2 on the pellets - much less waste than the crumbles!

 

[Impress]

The only difference you might have is with meaties or broilers, they have to have their food taken away for 12 hours and then given back for 12 hours, every day, or they can have heart attacks or FLIP.