Feed!

[chickenwisper16]

Hello friends,
What do you feed your girls/guys, I purchase at TSC 50lb bag of chicken feed which in price has gone up tremendously. Looking for ideas on how to save some money !


Thank you!!

 

[NatJ]

I purchase at TSC 50lb bag of chicken feed which in price has gone up tremendously. Looking for ideas on how to save some money !

Some obvious ways to save money on chicken feed:
--make sure they do not waste it
--make sure there are no mice or rats eating it during the night
--if you are buying organic chicken food or any other special kind that costs extra money, consider switching to a cheaper one.
--consider whether you could be happy with fewer chickens

Offering the chickens other things to eat can help too: table scraps, vegetable/fruit trimmings, garden weeds, etc. If you offer very much of this kind of stuff, the chickens will not eat it all. But they will pick and choose the parts they like best, and will generally avoid parts that can be harmful. I would not buy other things to feed to chickens, just give them the parts I don't want and would otherwise discard.

If you are buying expensive chicken treats like mealworms, of course you can save money by skipping those.

 

[samanthaoverton]

Went and bought food today and the price was up $2. I buy Doumer 16% layer. Here that is the best cheapest option.

Whoah dumor isn't the cheapest feed in normal circumstances. I drive an hour to get my feed. I've been buying bulk lately..and I have turkeys. Meat bird crumbles is 20...my wallet cries when I go to grab cash...we play tug of war. It asks me why I'm so mean..

 

[samanthaoverton]

I have a family feed store that sells to me cheaper than the local mill the feed comes from.

Prices ARE up. I paid $12.55/50# for layer, and $16.10/50# for a 24% protein game bird mix on 05/30/22. When I started keeping birds 26 months ago, the layer was around $9.70, and the game bird somewhere in the $11.85 range.

Shop around. If your flock is big enough that it won't go bad, see if theres a 500# discount or a cash discount.

I envy those prices

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I have unfortunately seen those chicken house's. I feel sorry for the chickens. The farmers are also constantly forced to update their barns (which costs thousands) Chickens die every day. I've seen footage. Farmers taking armfuls of dead chickens out. Only three bucks a dozen for farm fresh? I have mixed prices here. 3, 4,5 bucks. However the closest grocery store around here sells there crappy eggs for around 4. I do not grocery shop there..their meat looks iffy and the prices are through the roof. I drive an hour to shop. Do you sell your eggs or do you just do chickens for you?

I sell my eggs, eat my extra roos and old hens, and am culling my way towards a project chicken. I'm licensed to sell chicks and hatching eggs too, including NPIP so they can cross state lines, but I don't yet have a bird I'm proud enough of to put my approval on it by selling it.

 

[SilverBirds]

Whoah dumor isn't the cheapest feed in normal circumstances. I drive an hour to get my feed. I've been buying bulk lately..and I have turkeys. Meat bird crumbles is 20...my wallet cries when I go to grab cash...we play tug of war. It asks me why I'm so mean..

Most of the feed here is priced between $25-$29, sometimes over $30. Dumor was $14 a bag and now is $19... plus tax....

 

[Sally PB]

I buy 50 lb bags of Kalmbach 20% Flock Raiser for about $23. Yes, it has gone up; I think it was about $19 last winter. It's a small, family owned business, and I'm happy to shop there. I can make it "on my way" so I'm not making a special trip. With gas prices what they are, I don't go anywhere for just one thing unless it's an emergency.

I "supplement" my chickens' food with buckets of weeds from the garden and kitchen scraps. They enjoy scratching through the weeds, so it's as much for their entertainment as for the food value. In another month, I'll be feeding them all the Japanese Beetles I can catch. There's some free protein!

 

[Happy Novogens]

Its why I started adding 64 degree well water to my bird's feed when heat hits the 90s...

Oh... if only! We are on well water and the water is quite hot now. It simply does not cool down until Fall.

 

[Sally PB]

Oh my, how much does it cost to drive an hour? Let’s say you’re saving a coupla’ bucks on a bag of feed and your truck gets 20 mpg, your trip cost is $30 plus wear and tear and the value of your time. So you’d have to be buying 15 bags of feed to break even.

Since I'm "way out there," everything is at least a half hour drive away. I combine trips whenever possible. If we're out of something, it has to wait until the next trip, unless it's an emergency. So I have to pay attention to how much feed we have on hand.

It's one of the costs for living remotely, but the trade off is the peace and quiet. I have a lot of that, for free, out my front door.

 

[Kiki]

Hello friends,
What do you feed your girls/guys, I purchase at TSC 50lb bag of chicken feed which in price has gone up tremendously. Looking for ideas on how to save some money !


Thank you!!

The same feed I've been feeding for years. The price hasn't gone up enough for me to worry about it. Now the grocery store prices are worrying me.

How many chickens do you have and what do you keep chickens for?