Rationing Feed vs Free feeding

whittleah

Chirping
Mar 3, 2022
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I’m wondering if anyone here has experience with giving layers meals rather than free feeding. My chickens free range on about two acres (we have four, but they pretty much stay on one side of the property.) It’s a mixture of woods, mown yard, and tall grass/clover. They also have access to our compost bins, which have lots of worms, grubs, and kitchen scraps. When I let them out in the morning, they run straight to the feeders rather than going out to forage. I feed a very high quality, raw grain diet with added vitamins and minerals. They love it and it disappears at an alarming rate. I’m wondering if I could withhold food in the morning and just give them access to feed for several hours in the evening as they come back to the coop. Or only feed them in the morning while they’re hanging around the coop to lay their eggs. Obviously, during the winter this may not work, but I’m wondering if I could try it while the weather is still warm and there are plenty of bugs.

Just looking for some input….
 
I’m wondering if anyone here has experience with giving layers meals rather than free feeding. My chickens free range on about two acres (we have four, but they pretty much stay on one side of the property.) It’s a mixture of woods, mown yard, and tall grass/clover. They also have access to our compost bins, which have lots of worms, grubs, and kitchen scraps. When I let them out in the morning, they run straight to the feeders rather than going out to forage. I feed a very high quality, raw grain diet with added vitamins and minerals. They love it and it disappears at an alarming rate. I’m wondering if I could withhold food in the morning and just give them access to feed for several hours in the evening as they come back to the coop. Or only feed them in the morning while they’re hanging around the coop to lay their eggs. Obviously, during the winter this may not work, but I’m wondering if I could try it while the weather is still warm and there are plenty of bugs.

Just looking for some input….
Can work. Some only feed once to twice daily.
 
I free feed but leave feeders in coop and screen room and don’t open the outdoor run area until they’ve eaten their fill of breakfast. I want to make sure they get their balanced diet in. Then later morning I go up and open the outside run door and let them forage all day. Some actually come back in and feed on their food. I also use their feed as scratch sometimes. They love it so why not.
 
I free range and feed once daily, in the evening, to get a head count, inspect for injury/odd behaviors/etc. It works for me.

I also cull roughly every other week, which allows me to get all up inside them and determine if I am over/under feeding them.

It can be done, it does require (in my rarely humble opinion) extra monitoring. I use a feed mix high relatively in Methionine and Lysine, the two amino acids hardest to find in a grain based diet, because I can never be sure what they are eating out of my acres of weeds.
 

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