how long does 50lb food last?

[Kim_NC]

I allow .25 lb per bird per day. For 15 hens that's .25 x 15 = 3.75 lbs/day. So a 50 lb bag should last 13-14 days. They eat less feed if they can free range or get scraps, etc. The lighter breeds like leghorns eat about .20 lb/day.

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

This is a really useful thread. Do any of you think it would be useful to post how much chicks eat? I very studiously recorded how much feed we went through the first 2 1/2 months, and have charts where I broke it down to feed per chick and cost per chick each day (broken up in week increments). I wanted to know what we were putting into them, but when they gor big and started free ranging I lost track. I only know how much we went through this winter because I only got out to feed them on saterdays (I missed them so much!)
Do you think anyone would care?
I even had it down to material cost /lb of meat from surplus roosters (which if you are curious was about $6/lb)

 

[kathyinmo]

All I know is ...... I use a 50 pound bag every day!

 

[laughaha]

Quote:
Ouch

I go through a 50 lb bag of layer feed a week for my 15 or so adults in the big pen - it also feeds the two guardian geese in there and the 3 buffs in the breeder pen and all the bantams in their pens. I supplement with LOTS OF STUFF and won't fill the feeders back up until they clean up what they wasted on the floor. So 30 adults (size varies considerably).
I can get a 50lb bag of chick starter to last a week if I supplement the older ones with grass/corn/sunflower, etc. (I have somewhere around 70 chicks of various ages).

 

[Duramaxgirl]

Quote:
I would like to know! Post it up... My husband is always asking how much the chickens cost us... Good info to have if you plan on raising pullets to sell or whatever. Please post your findings... Or PM me.

 

[laughaha]

please post so we can all see!

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

I am a slacker and still haven't pulled out and posted my notes, but check out this thread!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=318364
Lots of folks tracking food usage... some even with the weight of chickens included!
I will TRY to put my notes up too.

 

[JimWWhite]

Quote:
That's a lot of food for the number of chickens you have. Maybe something is stealing it? With our 19 Gold Comets we go through a 50 lb bag of layer pellets in about 2 weeks, maybe a day or so less. I swear they waste most of it. But we supplement our Pigs with Feathers with greens and other acceptable kitchen scraps we may have. 'Acceptable' to them means just about anything they can get down their craws... Pigs with Feathers is not fair to pigs. Pigs at least have manners. They're really more like Piranhas with Feathers.

 

[ourflockof4]

Quote:
FYI, that is a meat bird thread. Meat bird consumption an layer consumption are quite different.

 

[georgialee]

Well heck, I go throug 50 lbs a week with 19 chooks - 7 bantams and 12 standard. That seems like a lot more than some of you are feeding. I'm going to start feeding more scraps I think and try to let them out more to range. At $11 a bad for feed that's a lot of $$ for 6 or so dozen eggs a week. Should I not be free feeding?