Figured Out How Many Cups of Feed Equals One Pound!!

[Berkley]

This has REALLY helped me. I started offering free choice in both my coops a while back, and my feed cost has trippled. I discovered that even with the crumble I'm feeding that they seem to be picking out the little pieces of corn and other little pieces of what they like, and they are knocking the rest out onto the ground. When I fed them closer to what I thought they should have every day, I didn't seem to have all of the waste. I found it odd that my egg production dropped with them getting more feed, and I think it may be that they aren't getting a balanced diet this way.

 

[CrazyTalk]

CynazarGoldens,


The thing you have to keep in mind is that if you are one brand and I am feeding another those two brands might weigh out differently when measured in cups. Also chickens eat to fill there energy needs, so if your birds are on a Low energy feed they are going to eat more than birds on a High energy. [different feeds have different feeding requirements]
Weight of feed should always be use and if you don't want to weigh the the free feed.


Chris

All true.

It's also true that the density is going to change with humidity.


Berkley - you need better feeders. Most of the issues people have with food waste are feeder issues, not food issues.

 

[Berkley]

I have four different types of feeders, including the ones most people on here seem to use. I went by these measurements, and threw in a little extra. The first two days they ate it quickly and still just picked out what they want. Now they are eating even the smallest pieces, and there is actually food left in the feeders every night.

 

[VThens]

Thanks so much for your post! I was having just that problem when I came across this information. Super helpful!

 

[swainton]

Great post. Exactly the information I was looking for.

 

[swainton]

You do know that this is a 2 year old thread, right?

I just read this for the first time today in 2015. Please don't waste others' time with your worthless comments.

 

[Zenzele]

Making fermented feed with the DuMor for the first time and my (borrowed) scale quit on me. This is exactly the info I needed to allow me to continue. Thanks!

 

[mj16]

Thank you! This helps. I would love to just set out copious amounts of food and let them manage it, but I would just be encouraging the numerous critters in my area. Working out a better system, but since they keep figuring out how to tip everything over and spread it around, I would much rather give them a healthy amount than leave it laying around for other critters. Again, thank you!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

A pint's a pound the world around.... BTW, there are 2 cups in a pint.

so 8 pounds of chicken feed is one gallon (more or less)

The standard chicken ration is 4 ounces a day, (bigger birds eat a little more) so 50 pounds of chicken feed should feed 200 standard size chickens for one day or one standard size chicken for 200 days.

For the purpose of this post a standard size chicken is a White Leghorn size bird.

 

[TalkALittle]

A pint's a pound the world around....  BTW, there are 2 cups in a pint.

so 8 pounds of chicken feed is one gallon (more or less)

The standard chicken ration is 4 ounces a day, (bigger birds eat a little more) so 50 pounds of chicken feed should feed 200 standard size chickens for one day or one standard size chicken for 200 days. 

For the purpose of this post a standard size chicken is a White Leghorn size bird.   

The "pint is a pound" saying only works if your talking about water (or other liquids of approximately the same density).

A pint is a measure of volume and a pound is a measure of weight (mass). In order to convert between the two you need to know the density of the material. And that all goes out the window of you are talking about something like chicken pellets that have spaces of air between them.

Think about it this way. I could fill a pint container with cotton balls and it would not weigh a pound. I could full it with lead balls and it would weigh much more. A pint container filled of solid lead would weigh still more because there would be no air spaces.

Do you remember the trick question "what weighs more, a pound of feathers of a pound of rocks?" Well, of course they both weigh a pound, but the pile of feathers will occupy more space. It illustrates the difference between mass and volume and how they are dependent on density of the substance.