When to Feed Your Backyard Chickens

When to feed your chickens will be dependent on a few factors, including how much time your chickens free range or how many kitchen scraps they are given. Weather, age of your chickens, their activity level, and their overall health are also factors to consider as they play a part in how much feed your chickens require.

When to feed your chickens is ultimately your choice. Many people find it easiest to fill the feeder once a day, which allows the chickens access to food during the day. Ensure that your chickens do not run out of food if your chickens stay confined during the day and do not have access to free range.

Read on to find out more useful information on feeding your backyard chickens.

When to Feed Chickens Commercial Feed

As a general rule, I have commercial feed available to my chickens all day long. I will remove their feeder from their run at night after they have gone to roost so that rodents won’t eat their food.

Commercial feed that you buy from the store is convenient for most backyard chicken keepers. It has the supplements to provide for your chickens’ nutritional requirements; however, it’s not very fresh. As soon as the feed grains are crushed during production, the feed starts to stale. Make sure that you feed your chickens the feed within about a month of purchasing it so that it does not loose any more of the nutritional value.

My chickens will graze on their feed throughout the day. I have a feeder that can accommodate all 10 chickens, but normally they don’t all eat at the same exact time.

I’ve found that once I have a particular brand or flavor of feed, that I need to make sure that’s what I continue to feed them. Chickens will get used to something and if you change it up, they might cut back on their consumption. It’s almost like when you switch food for a cat or dog: you need to mix the old stuff with the new stuff for the pet to get used to the new flavor. The same concept applies to chickens. This is why I try to make sure to get a new bag of feed before the current one is totally empty in case I need to mix old food with new stuff.

Depending on the age of your chickens, you will either feed them chick starter or layer feed. For more details, see What to Feed Chickens by Age.

When to Feed Chickens that Free Range

I will usually let my chickens out to free range during the last hour of light in the evenings. This will give the chickens plenty of time to forage before bed. I have noticed that my chickens will go into their run after foraging and eat a bit more commercial feed before they go roost.

Chickens that free range and are given kitchen scraps are able to pick and choose which plants and bugs they would like to eat. Just like us, they have preferences and not all of your chickens will enjoy the same foods. I have some chickens that love to eat termites from the yard and others that will walk away to find something else to eat.

To maximize the nutrition of your chickens, give them as much free range time as possible and as many kitchen scraps as possible. These two things will more closely mimic what the chickens’ ancestor, the jungle fowl, ate in the wild. For more about what chickens eat in the wild, see The Natural Diet of Chickens.

Chickens that free range and are allowed to get plenty of exercise generally have a bigger appetite and will eat more; however, you may notice that less feed is being eaten since they are fulfilling their nutritional needs by eating from the yard.

On days where my chickens are in the yard, they will hardly touch their feeder since they are getting all their food from free ranging. This is a great way to keep feed expenses down and practice natural pest control in your yard! Chickens love to eat bugs like grasshoppers, termites, and worms. All these insects provide chickens with protein, which is an essential nutrient especially for laying hens.

In the case that your chickens either didn’t have enough time to free range (as the sun goes down, they start working their way back towards the coop and might not have access to the parts of the yard with the most bugs and plants) or there wasn’t enough to eat to fill their crops for the night, you might find your chickens eating at the feeder right before going to roost. This is why it’s important to allow access to the feeder even on the days when your chickens free range.

Hungry chickens are more likely to eat non-food materials, like string or trash, which can cause choking or crop impaction. Chickens should always have access to their feed during the day, unless you have a wide variety of things for the chickens to eat in your yard.

When to Feed Chickens in the Winter

Weather will also play a factor in your chickens’ appetite. In cold weather, chickens will eat more so that their bodies have more to digest which provides them warmth.

Scratch grains are a good treat to feed chickens in the late afternoon on cold days. Scratch grains usually contains whole corn kernels which require more energy to digest, thereby generating body heat that keeps chickens warm.

When feeding scratch to chickens, sprinkle it on the ground instead of offering it in a feeder. The chickens’ bodies will warm while scratching the ground to pick up the pieces.

My chickens love their scratch! We feed it to them from a red plastic cup so as soon as they see the cup they know it’s time for treaties.

During the end of the summer and beginning of the fall as the garden is done producing, we will toss the scratch grains into the garden to allow the chickens to till it up for the next crop. As they each the scratch, they will scratch the ground and leave droppings, which is super helpful in preparing our garden for the next round of plantings.

On especially cold mornings, we like to feed the chickens scratch to get them warmed up for the day. This also helps get out some pent up energy they might have after being cooped up all night. My chickens are always so energetic in the mornings when we open up the coop door that it’s extra entertaining to watch them run after the scratch and peck around the ground.

When chickens eat late in the day, the food will be stored in their crop and will be digested overnight while the chickens are roosting. This will help keep them warm in the coldest part of the day during the winter months. If you notice that the weather will be especially cold at night, feed the chickens some scratch before putting them to bed and this will help keep them warm at night.

When to Feed Chickens in the Summer

During the summer, I feed my chickens fresh feed in the mornings before it gets too hot. I hang their food from the tube feeder in their run so that they have access to feed throughout the day.

In hot weather, chickens should avoid scratch grains and other foods that require more energy to digest. A good alternative is oats or just about any kitchen or garden scrap. Chickens love to eat fruit, iceberg lettuce, and tomatoes. If the foods have been in the refrigerator or freezer, this can be a good hot weather treat for your chickens. For more ideas on keeping chickens cool, read 9 Ways to Keep Chickens Cool During the Summer.

When chickens get hot, they will reduce their activity level and will probably not eat during the hottest parts of the day. I do like to provide cool treats to my chickens in the late afternoon on hot days because it helps to cool their internal temperature. When chickens eat cool food, it will cool off their crop, thereby cooling the rest of their bodies. To learn more about how chickens naturally handle hot weather, read How Chickens Cool Themselves.

Make sure your chickens have access to food throughout the day. This prevents them from getting too hungry but also prevents boredom which causes stress to everyone. Whether you feed your birds first thing in the morning after letting them out of the coop, or later in the day, it’s ultimately your choice and what works best for you (and your chickens, of course!).