Door too small for Jersey Giant?

[Tom and Babs]

Hello all,

New to chicken keeping and therefore the site. Had the girls for 3 weeks now and are loving them. When they go to bed the food is outside in the run so I'm a bit worried about them getting hungry overnight, especially in the winter when they will go to bed earlier but I certainly won't be getting up any earlier!!

 

Is this a problem?

 

Thanks

T&B

[Nicola H]

No they will be fine over night so don't worry about them, mine tend to fill up on mixed corn or left over rice in the late afternoon before bed, corn takes longer to digest so keeps them going through the night and when they are resting they won't need food.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Yes, you don't need to worry . They fill up all day (if you feel their crops at night, they'll feel nice and full) and use the night-time to digest it all. Their crops should be totally empty in the morning. They'll be ready for their breakfast when you let them out!

[Gallina]

They don't get hungry when it's dark: they are in a semi-comatose state.

 

I dare say that they do start feeling hungry by about 5am now that we have just had the longest day, but that's just tough: as long as you let them out reasonably early, they will spend more time eating and soon catch up.

 

There is no problem at all in winter: they don't want to eat before 8am at the earliest, and are in bed by 4pm when we reach the shortest day.

[Charlottechicken]

I also feed my girls a small bowl of mixed corn about 2 hours before bedtime to give them something to digest overnight

[frenchlayer]

I always use a bowl of kitchen s"Ooops, word censored!"s for my girlies last thing before I shut them, but I do have room in their copp for it, and water. Not sure whether there is room in an eglu though, being one that doesn't have one.

 

They seem happy in the morning, and ravenous, like normal.

 

Just a question CharlotteChicken if you read this, trying to buy nothing new in 2008. How is that going, does it count for charity shops or car boots? ie is it nothing new new?