I have not done chickens, but assuming they work like everything else, then
- they don't need food. Food may heal them if injured (I think it does, but usually if something gets hit its dead so I don't recall). Food lets them breed (here, I guess, lay eggs?)
- you can throw in a stack, they will use it slowly.
- the lox and boar I had ate as much or more often than my character does, so every 10 min or so they would take food. I don't know that they needed this much (again, its required to breed but not to exist).
there may not be any exact timers etc for this. That is the best I can offer.

They won't die without food, they just won't lay eggs. They'll eat when they're hungry, so you can just leave food down, but at a certain population/eggs on ground size they'll stop laying. They need space to lay, which means managing their numbers or making sure the eggs fall far enough to not be counted in their area.

The time between feeding and hungry - I've no idea specifically. A couple dozen can remove a stack of seeds in just a day or two. But unless you're cheesing the farming you need to clear out eggs regularly anyway so you'll be checking anyway. If you do want to cheese it there's info out there.

Thanks guys, it's good to know they won't die if I miss any feedings. That's the main thing I was worried about. I'm not doing a no-portal run, but I also don't build them all over the place so can be 'away' for several game days at a time.

Appreciate the responses.

Edit: Just got my first batch of newly laid eggs. I shouldn't be this excited about raising chickens...

I haven't tested but given how other farming works the only progress that should be made while you're away is that warm eggs will hatch. They'll probably also become hungry again. Probably best to feed them when you come back for some time, and not bother before you leave since that'll just be a waste of food.

Last time I checked chickens will eat any seeds, making barley an expensive way to go - carrots, turnips, and onions all produce 3 seeds per plant. They'll even eat tree seeds, so if you have them saved up rather than planting a forest or throwing them away then you have stacks of ready chicken feed.

I have an entire reinforced chest full of flour right now and something like 16 stacks of extra barley, that's why I was feeding them the barley. I may have gotten carried away with my barley farm and windmills...
(Also flax....I have way too much flax).

I haven't tried my hand at chickens yet but if they work the same as every thing else they will eat once every 10 real time minutes with the first one for that day being right after sun rise they have a 33% chance to reproduce once per day (checked every 30 seconds after being fed) if a player is within 64 meters and there is room in the enclosure. Animals will not path to food that is farther than 10 meters away from them so if you have an extra large barn you may have to drop food on both ends.

If no player is within 64 meters when they eat they will not reproduce. Its best to drop just enough food to feed each animal so that you don't waste any resources.

They seem to lay eggs more frequently. I started with the 4 chickens and have already gotten 8 chicken eggs (still the same game day).

They may have altered things for chickens or it may be a bug. Game designers do like to reuse code where they can to save on programming time.

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

They may have altered things for chickens or it may be a bug. Game designers do like to reuse code where they can to save on programming time.

Maybe with chickens it's just 'lay an egg' every 10 minutes, instead of just a 'chance'. Unlike other animals, you still have to also wait several days total, for them to hatch and then mature, before you get another chicken out of out.

Just feed when they're hugry most likely once a day should suffice for constant egg makery

They eat dandelions - useful if you've built up a load of them, and other seeds too.