chickens eating a lot

[the-bird-man]

so on saturday i got 10 17 week old pullets. since then they have gone through about 20 lbs of 20% lay crumbles and i would guess 10 lbs of scratch

they have not had to many table scraps and do not come out of the coop yet but wow i had no idea they would eat so much! i have 4 black stars, 4 leghorns and 2 ee, all are full size chickens. the leghorns are kinda small but have been growing a lot bigger since i got them. i think my chickens may be part pig

i know things will get better but well i just had to talk to you guys because i know you all understand

i love them lots though

 

[HEChicken]

Sounds like you are offering a little too much scratch. That should really just be a treat. I toss my 9 hens a handful of scratch about once week. It is like candy to chickens and just like candy does not offer what they need nutritionally. Otherwise, the amount of food does not seem too out of line for this time of year, and for chickens right at the age where they will start laying in the next few weeks. It takes a LOT of energy to produce eggs - they need a lot of sustenance. Plus, with the cold, they need extra to have reserves to keep themselves warm. You may notice a little reduction in food consumption when the weather gets warm, especially if they are able to free-range for part of the day.

 

[the-bird-man]

okay i will cut down on the scratch. its hard because when they see me they all just give me this look like well where is our treat. i was thinking it would help keep them warm a little more too.

 

[Martin Grove Farm]

They need less scratch and more pellets. Plain and simple, there is not enough protein in scratch. This should be used as treats and offered up as an addition to the feed.

 

[Fred's Hens]

50 lb bags. Those 20 pounders will drive you to the poor house.!

 

[Rathbone]

I feel for you. When we ran out of grass for ours to free range on - I suddenly saw how much they eat - the feed disappeared before our eyes. We jokingly refer to them as the velociraptors.

 

[KingJamesIV]

I thought my chickens were really pigging out too! I found that my chickens were just spreading the feed everywhere. They would get there feet in it and scratch it everywhere. So I raised it up so they had to lift there heads up a little to get to it. Then they started to wipe there beaks in the food! I then built a different system. There was a pile of feed that had fallen between the floor boards on the ground. There was about 60lbs down there!! Here is what I built. It holds about 3 gallons of feed at a time. The one on the right is for oyster shells.

>
>
I only give scratch every couple days. Remember scratch is a "hot" food. So on warm days you shouldn't give scratch it can raise there body temp.

 

[the-bird-man]

i am paying $17 for each 50# bag of feed. i found a feed mill about 1/2 hour away that i can buy feed in bulk so i will be looking into them because it will be much cheaper that way

i know the feed is not falling to the ground, it up high so they cant scratch it out. my feeder is a 5 gal bucket feeder i made. i cant wait till the warm weather because i will have stuff from the garden to feed them. thank you all for all the reply's