Feeding 4 chicks into henhood - how much feed (a report)

[vermontgal]

Here's how my feed worked out for 4 chicks (RIR, EE, 2 BR). Two of my chicks are about 6 days older than the other two, due to the way they arrived at the feedstore in a split order.

25# bag medicated chick starter - lasted until the chicks were 8/9 weeks old.

50# bag grower crumbles - I still have about 8-10 lbs left, and the chicks are now 20/21 weeks old. So, the 4 chickens should be good with this feed until they start laying.

I am feeding organic feed, which my local feed store says typically delays laying - so I am not expecting them to lay until at least 24 weeks or longer.

The feed bags worked out just about perfectly - supplemented by free ranging, sunflower seeds from my garden, pumpkin seeds, various food scraps, and a little bit of oatmeal.

 

[Chicken Salad]

This is really helpful. Thanks for posting!

 

[Sequin]

My chickens eat a lot. They are fat, glossy, fabulous hens. They free range and adore special treats. A 50# bag lasts me around... oh, 3 weeks I suspect. I haven't really timed it lately. Ok, maybe just shy of a month. And I am feeding 5 hens around 7 months of age. Guess that means I will go through 4 bags of feed a month for 20 or so hens. That is less money in feed for 20 hens than it is for 4 large dogs. One bag of food for my dogs is about $45. Yikes!!!!

 

[vermontgal]

Actually, - I'm editing the above to say that I just found perhaps about 8-10 lbs of the grower crumbles left in the bag. I forgot I had stashed it with the 50 lb layer I bought at the same time.

So it looks like the 50# grower bag will last until they start to lay.