feed costs/amounts

[schmism]

Its time to buy some more feed so ive been pouring over some records and comparing to some other sources.

Another source i recently read stated a non-laying chicken would consume 60lbs of freed a year. and a laying bird nearly 90lbs.

As all my birds arnt laying i used an avg of 80lbs/yr based on the above and did some calcs based on 50 chickens (that i have ish) so ~10-11lbs per day or 6.6 (50# bags) per month

I then went back to my own records and compared what i had actually used for how many chickens. durring the first 9 weeks of the year (winter time when feed usage is highest) i used 300lbs in 9 weeks for 24 laying birds. or 1.38 lbs per bird per day or 69lbs per week. compare that with the book numbers and its almost exactly the same as the book numbers.

today's feed price for 50/lbs of pellitized (i prefer pellittized) 16% layer feed at farm n fleet was $13.50.

that price works out to $1080 a year in feed for 50 chickens.

at $3 per doz eggs i have to collect roughly 360 doz eggs per year or roughly a doz eggs a day from 50 chickens to cover the cost of food.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

IMO one doesn't get rich selling eggs unless they have thousands, buys feed in bulk and can work out a deal with a chain store.

 

[estaswick]

Seems that the only other way to get rich in a small op would be to value add the product, I know some states have "cottage food" laws which are making it easier for someone to sell products made with their farm product.

 

[hdmax]

Its time to buy some more feed so ive been pouring over some records and comparing to some other sources.

Another source i recently read stated a non-laying chicken would consume 60lbs of freed a year. and a laying bird nearly 90lbs.

As all my birds arnt laying i used an avg of 80lbs/yr based on the above and did some calcs based on 50 chickens (that i have ish) so ~10-11lbs per day or 6.6 (50# bags) per month

I then went back to my own records and compared what i had actually used for how many chickens. durring the first 9 weeks of the year (winter time when feed usage is highest) i used 300lbs in 9 weeks for 24 laying birds. or 1.38 lbs per bird per day or 69lbs per week. compare that with the book numbers and its almost exactly the same as the book numbers.

today's feed price for 50/lbs of pellitized (i prefer pellittized) 16% layer feed at farm n fleet was $13.50.

that price works out to $1080 a year in feed for 50 chickens.

at $3 per doz eggs i have to collect roughly 360 doz eggs per year or roughly a doz eggs a day from 50 chickens to cover the cost of food.

Once all your chickens are laying, you should average between 3 and 4 dozen eggs per day, or about $3000-$4000 worth of eggs per year! (At the $3 per dozen you stated!) And when they are through being egg producers, you have 2 1/2 - 7 lb of meat from each bird. (Depending on the breed!) What is the issue you are having? I am going through about 40# per day right now, and getting no eggs. But hope to have lots of meat and eggs in the coming months.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I like seeing when someone keeps such good records they can actually do some calculations that mean something.