How Many Pounds of Feed per Week do YOUR Freeranging Chickens Eat?

[laughaha]

I am down to about 80ish Chickens with most being young adults and bantams and little chicks. I am going through a bit more than 100 lbs of feed per week. They also go through 25 lbs of BOSS, 10 lbs of dry catfood (treats/bribes), and about 10 cups of scraps per week. Does this sound about right? Mine are freeranging from sunup to sundown. I am worried that they may not be getting enough to eat.

edited to add: My 5 LGG's (Livestock Guardian Geese) eat some of the feed/treats daily too but their main diet is the grass.

 

[WhetzelMomma]

Well I don't have near the numbers that you do, and I haven't marked down exact purchase/use dates, so I'm REALLY guessing here. I go through one large bag of crumble about one and a half times a month, and a bag of corn scratch a month. I have 13 chickens. I throw out about 4 scoops of crumble and 2 of the treats every day/every other day (if it's still on the ground, I don't put out more) and then they free range for the rest of the day. I get daily eggs from my layers.

 

[VikingMom]

Be careful with cat food. The ingredients in cat food that are good for kitties are considered highly toxic to chickens. There is an explanation on BYC Treats list in the Learning Center. It is still up to you, but I have chosen not to use cat food as a source of protein.
I have using the Treats list as a guide for feed for the chickens.

My neighbor shared this recipe to me. It makes about 30lbs of feed. Except for the quinoa and kelp we found all this in the bulk bins at the local health food store.
2 parts wheat berries
2 parts flax seeds
1/2 part food grade Diatomatceious Earth (DE)
2 part hulled barley (we substituted whole grain rice-cooked)
2 part steal cut oats
2 parts couscous (we didn't use it but used fresh corn instead)
2 parts unsalted sunflower seeds
2 parts seasame seeds
2 parts hulled millet
2 parts split peas
2 parts lentel
2 part quinoa (can be expensive.... we found a 1lb on sale.)
1/2 part dried kelp (instead of using dried beach kelp we found the kelp used in sushi rolls and just crumbled it up)
We also added raisins too.


We go through about 50lb of feed a month for 12 chickens.

Enjoy!

 

[chicksbestfriend]

I have 61 in my free ranging flock and I go through 200 lbs of feed a month.

 

[laughaha]

Definitely going to check out the treat list- didn't notice it before. I throw out a scoop of catfood (guesstimating a couple cups) whenever I want to leave the house cuz I always get worried that I am going to run them over. I could easily change the treat to 3 or 4 slices of whole grain bread. Thanks all for responding, looks like I'm right about where you all are in pounds of feed per bird per month. Somewhere between 6-8 lbs of feed per bird (more for full size/less for bantams).

 

[joedie]

I wouldn't worry about running over them when you leave. Mine free range from early morning until dusk and are aloways underneath the car/truck/tractor for shade. They move out of the way pretty fast and I've never run over one! I don't even look for them anymore. They MOVE it!

 

[tomcatbubba]

I'd be really careful about throwing cat food out. Any uneaten food will attract predators such as foxes, raccoons, skunks and/or possums.

 

[laughaha]

10 lbs of dry catfood (per week) = 160 ounces of dry catfood (per week) divided by 80 chickens = 2 ounces of dry catfood per chicken per week then divided by 7 days = .28 (rounded up) ounces of dry catfood per bird per day divided into two separate treats = .14 ounces od dry catfood per treat. So they were not getting alot at all and there was never any left over.

Thanks for the link to the treats page- I'm gonna start using the BOSS as the bribe treat instead of the catfood.

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
That Learning center sticky is so wrong in so many thing....

Chris