Cutting the feed cost of chickens

[HeidiZ]

Hello, I have 90 baby chicks and I was wondering how much I will have to feed them a week. Also how could I cut the feed cost of feeding the 90 birds. If you have any advice please let me know. Thanks!​

Hello, I have 65 chickens and I go to a local feed store and I usually buy 4 bags of scratch (with no oats) 3 bags of whole corn and 4 bags of layer pellets. That usually lasts me for a month. It usually costs me around 115.00 . If you have a local public market go buy vegetables and fruit for your chickens there .They don't care if the vegetables don't look perfect or if the fruit is bruised and the farmers practically give that stuff away. That will save you a lot of money in the growing season because you can cut back on the on the other stuff. I also feed mine leftovers anything that is not spicy (pepperoni) or full of salt. They will eat stale cereal, pizza crust, banana peels they will pretty much eat anything usually when I clean out the fridge they get whatever I want to get rid of. They also love worms. After it rains I collect all the worms from my driveway and give them to the chickens they love them (my ducks love them too) and they are a good source of protein. They really like dandelion leaves also. Good luck

 

[WoodyM]

We have no where near that many but have cut our feed costs down 80% by growing fodder. One 50lb bag of barley/wheat generates over 250lbs of food all high in protein.​

 

[pargue]

Welcome Aboard! Great advice so far, growing your own treats for your flock is fun and helps the budget as well ( meal worms, sunflowers veggies etc.)

 

[HeidiZ]

We have no where near that many but have cut our feed costs down 80% by growing fodder. One 50lb bag of barley/wheat generates over 250lbs of food all high in protein.​

Thanks, I might look into that I have 3 good size fields. We tried feed corn last year and sunflowers and the deer pretty much destroyed everything before it had a chance to grow and there was also a drought in my area so last year was a bust. I even tried fermenting food and didn't have much luck with that either.

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

We made an investment Into premier one poultry nets to move around our 3 Acres. It keeps the chickens on fresh grass. We don’t want to free range because are neighbors are friendly to us and we would like to keep it that way

 

[HeidiZ]

We made an investment Into premier one poultry nets to move around our 3 Acres. It keeps the chickens on fresh grass. We don’t want to free range because are neighbors are friendly to us and we would like to keep it that way[/QUOTE

 

[HeidiZ]

I actually have a 1/4 acre chicken yard with a 6 foot fence and several coops and the grass goes quick, My husband doesn't share my love for chickens and ducks so I have to make due with what I have. I can't free range either because of my dogs.

 

[Pasha838]

I usually save by:
1. Chickens I get in incubators more often than I buy
2. I often use vegetables from the garden (boiled potatoes)
3. In the summer, chickens have a place for walking, where they catch beetles, dig worms.
4. I feed them fresh kitchen leftovers, some bread, milk, boiled cereal.
My main food for birds is often just grain - a mixture of wheat, sunflower, corn, millet, barley and ground shells, or chalk.
I am afraid that the information on prices will be absolutely useless - I live in Russia, this is another country . But i can write my useless infromation, of course
A bag of grain (40 kg) costs 550 rubles here, this is near of 8.5 $.
I spend on grain for 10 thousand rubles a month, this is near of 147 $.

But I have not only chickens, I have 12 goats (5 adult and 7 young), who eat not only hay in winter, but also oats (i buy it), I also have somewhere from 30 to 50 geese (if you count with small goslings), 30 to 100 ducks (if you count with little ducklings), and about 50 chickens leghorns...

In the summer I spend half as much on food as in winter. This is a very average figure, because I buy a lot at once, at a wholesale price, grain and other feed, I keep a whole supply.

Some my animals are my pets, another are for my kitchen (i never buy meat, milk or eggs in any shops). But i don`t sell anything, i am not a farmer.

I do not use feeding norms, I just put buckets and pots of grain, and see that they are not empty. Therefore, I have enough fat geese and ducks.

At local prices, 10 thousand rubles a month is a small amount of money; here it’s about 4 times to go to a good restaurant, or 10 times to a simple very cheap cafe.

Therefore, given that animal husbandry brings me a lot of different foods, then keeping a bird, goats and other animals is very profitable. But I noticed an interesting trend - the more, the cheaper. It seems strange to me, but it is because when I had very few geese I could not eat them, it was dangerous, but now there are more of them and I can choose a few geese for meat without much damage to the herd.

Even in the local climate it is good to have a warmed barn, because in a cold barn in winter the animals will eat much more to keep warm.
For meat, I usually choose those animals that are worse, and those that are better - leave.

 

[Ra_]

I sold mine last year for 4 and duck eggs for 6 and they sold like hot cakes

There are some cheap deals in my area.
https://ocala.craigslist.org/grd/d/dunnellon-brown-eggs/6863920944.html

 

[Ra_]

Food scraps. This can come from a local restaurant, hotel, school, etc.

Grocery stores are great. The produce departments are constantly throwing out cabbage leaves and other useful trim. They can be sweet talked out of it.