What time to feed at night?

[Ebarnes-21]

Well I'm kind of a halfway between the two main approaches here!

I don't have chipmunks here but I do have birds that eat grain in the day and rats or mice that take it at night.

So I give them a big feed in the morning, as early as possible (I get up, boil the kettle while mixing feed, and take my coffee out to the chickens!). This comprises "1 scoop" of fermented whole grain, and a cup or a bit more of chopped cooked meats, plus kitchen scraps.

They fill up on that and leave just a little wheat sitting around for another hour or two. Enough to indicate they are more than happy, not enough to attract pests. They remain well satisfied all day, regardless of whether they free range that day or not.

In the evening, half to one hour before their bedtime, I take out fermented grains again, and feed to appetite ... perhaps half a scoop, but perhaps they won't even finish a handful. I know pretty quickly ... either they act hungry or not. Usually it is 1/4 scoop. I want them to eat as much as possible (I have a theory a well fed evening chicken lays better the next morning), but not leave any.

 

[tigger19687]

Very good replies here ! Thank you all.

NO CHIPMUNK anymore. I had an Electric rat trap in the basement that I forgot about. I had got it at a sharp discount so didn't think it really worked.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06WRR9RR6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Say the damn thing on my deck eating the strawberries on the railing pots, set out the trap just as it was starting to sprinkly rain. I didn't care, put it under the chair with cord hanging out window.
WHAM !!! with in 10 min it was DEAD !
SO much easier then anything else and I won't use poison.
Left it out overnight but got nothing. May try again to make sure there are no others around but I think there was only 1 recently.

I think I will start to feed the 2nd feeding closer to bed time. Last night they were in the coop and all settled by 8pm
Thank you all

 

[PD-Riverman]

I notice how much feed is left in the feeders and adjust the amount I feed them so when they go to roost---they are full and there is very little left in the feeders----doesn't take long using a scoop to figure out that amount and adjust when needed. That way I do not have to pick up any feeders.

Let me say why it was important to adjust the feed amount---having 67 chicken pens and some times more than one feeder per pen---it would take a long time to collect feeders and replace every day so I learn each pen and what their requirements are-----even though I have cut way back right now I still got chickens in 7 pens. If I only had 1 pen----that would not be a problem---I would probably use a hanging feeder and raise it at night??

 

[lazy gardener]

I also like the idea of a hanging feeder that can be raised, but... currently, that's not an option with my set up.