Help. 75lbs of feed a WEEK!

[aliciaford]

I have 70 chicks, 12 are 11 weeks old and 58 are 9 weeks old and they are eating 75 lbs of starter/grower per week

. I have been mixing my feed 2 to 1 with chick scratch, and feeding them table scraps such as salad greens, left over veggies and such. They are going outside eating bugs and grass, too.

Does this seem odd? Sounds like a lot to me, but I am a first timer. My father in law tells me to start mixing in more scratch until they are eventually on all scratch instead of grower. Anyone have any advise???

Thanks. Alicia

 

[Katy]

They're at a point that they're really growing. Once they get to be adults their feed comsumption seems to slow down. I wouldn't add anymore scratch....that's like giving your growing kid more candy than fruits and veggies to eat.

 

[Cuban Longtails]

I don't know if you have a lot of waste or not, but if you can find the grower/finisher in pellet form it helps to alleviate the waste. I do a gradual switch from starter/grower to grower/finisher anywhere from 6 - 8 weeks of age.

 

[FutureChickenMan]

Scratch is mostly corn.. if you have to split the feed, try going to grains; oats, wheat, barley.. etc.

 

[digitS']

Alicia, you haven't told us what kind of chickens these are. There would be a difference between 9 to 11 week-olds depending on the breed.

They may be getting very little food in their foraging. Grass and such may amount to as little as a 10% savings on feed costs. And, that's a lot of half-grown birds for a family's table scraps to take very far.

Are you feeding them 75 pounds of starter/grower PLUS another 35+ pounds of scratch per week?? You said you are mixing 2 to 1 scratch. I'm guessing that the 75 pounds is the total mix of feeds.

Laying breeds eat about 1 pound of feed per week at that age. If there's any wasting of feed at all or if these 70 birds are dual-purpose or larger breeds - 75 pounds looks very reasonable to me.

Steve