Do you offer pellets free will?

Do you? We do, but sometimes it seems like our chickens might be too fat. Thoughts?

Hey will, I don't feed pellets, but I have always heard and observed that chickens should have free choice on food. My chooks have a few activities, eating, dust bathing, eating, sitting in the sun, eating, standing around, eating.. You get the idea. But since my birds are ranging on plants/bugs it might take them more time to find enough of what they want to eat. I use scratch grain as a supplement, which I will refill, or throw more out to them when I see they are low.
With pellets there is more complexity given it might have too much nutrients or vitamins or whatever is put in there, but I think the general practice is still free choice.

My chickens and ducks get access to as much feed as they want but they don't always (usually don't) eat all of it. They prefer eating worms and bugs and whatever they can scratch up over that boring old commercial feed. Long before I had chickens I had pet birds and learned the critical importance of them having plenty to eat. They will regulate their food intake. I don't think I've ever seen a fat bird (especially not a well exercised bird) but I have seen starving birds and it is a sad sight.

I provide my layers with free choice layer feed, supplements (oyster shell/grit), and water.

Depending on what they scratch up, get fed for treats, or forage on their own I will see a difference per week in their layer feed consumption. Sometimes it barely is touched!

Free choice pellets and limited other treats here.  Not all our chickens are young or spry enough to jumpcthe fence and forage, so I want to make sure the homebodies always have something to eat.

Too thin is worse than too fat.

yup, free choice on pellets here, too.

I'm an outlier I guess. My chickens had free access to whatever they could find in their pen (they get moved every 1-2 days), but only had a limited amount of pellets in the morning. I found (and have seen this with other chicken flocks) that free choice pellets attracted rodents and other animals to that area. It also made the chickens forage less... but primarily it was to avoid the rat infestations that are very common when chickens have free choice food that sits around.

for what it’s worth, i do cover all my pellet-feeders at night. i suspect that’s done a lot to keep the rodents less prevalent, even 8 years along.

Matt McSpadden wrote:... I found (and have seen this with other chicken flocks) that free choice pellets attracted rodents and other animals to that area.

In our production shelters, we hang the feeders above the perches, and the nest boxes 18" off the ground (they're portable shelters) and that has really helped with the rat problems.

We can't free range our production birds as they're not careful enough of the huge aerial predator pressure we have.

I have one shelter that can't be moved, and it contains both chickens and Khaki Campbell ducks and it is almost on the property line which has wonderful rat housing on the other side of the line. Rats are an ongoing, major problem in that one shelter. I had an idea for improving it, but the weather deteriorated before I got the first 10 ft finished and the perimeter is about 60 ft.  The Khakis are ground birds, so my perch trick won't work, and they are total bait if I let them free range. The ducks seem to eat a fair bit at night, but you've got me thinking that removing the feed at night could be the best option.

Chickens love pottering around looking for food. I always say, that a happy flock is one where you see lots of raised tails 😆
That (and the cost) is the main reason I feed them lots of grains: I scatter the grains around the run and the henhouse (not under the roosts though). That way, even those lower in the pecking order get enough.

I find chickens know how much they need. Unlike people.