How much should they really be eating?

Free Feather

Songster
5 Years
Aug 1, 2014
1,768
130
168
Southwestern Pennsylvania
I have twelve ducks and twenty-five chickens. Both male and female, varied ages, some molting. They free-range, but with winter and all they are likely not getting much. They are on some kind of grower with supplemental, free-choice calcium. Can someone tell me how much food I should be going through a day? A month? How much each? I do not think I am feeding enough. I would like some numbers, be it pounds or cups or whatever.
I would also like to know how many feeders and waterers I should have out. Ducks are hogs, of the food and water. I currently have two plain old tractor supply red and white feeders, two waterers of the same style, three pans, and a trough. I have more troughs and such for food if need be. I have four to five black rubber water bowls, a bucket, and two swimming tubs for water as well. Let me know if more information is needed. I would really like to know.
 
I would suggest you use your home scale and weigh some out - either a small kitchen scale to weigh one cup - or use your larger bathroom scale and scoop until you hit a registering weight and count the number of cups as you add them. Different feeds will have different weights per volume depending on the formulations. You'll only have to do it once for any feed you use.
 
For a flock your size I wouldn't muck around with measurements like cups, etc - I'd be using a nice multi-quart feed scoop.
How are you feeding your flock? Are you using feeders or scattering (mash and most feeds other than scratch grains are ill suited for scattering due to the amount of waste involved with that approach)?
 
I have the feeder types I use listed above. I scatter scratch in the evenings in the run in the deep litter. They have not been eating many treats lately.
If you had as many birds as me, what kind of feed scoop would you use?
 

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