How much do chickens eat?

[Chezpowell]

I'm trying decide how much feed will cost for our new family members. Can someone tell us about how much a dozen hens and a rooster will eat per week?

 

[panner123]

The average full size chicken will eat about 1/3 pound of food per day. Alittle more during cold weather, a little less if you free range them.

 

[MareeZoCool]

Sorry, don't mean to be rude. How does that measure, by the cup? I don't use a scale to weigh out the feed, just use a plastic scoop.

 

[briteday]

Most of us buy feed by the pound and free feed the chickens without measuring daily.

 

[gkeesling]

My full grown laying hens eat about 1/2 lb per hen per day. That's not far from 1/3 lb. so it has to be somewhere around there. We give them free choice so that the feeder always as food in it and they can get food when ever they want. I buy the 40 or 50 lb bags of layer crumbles and fill the feeder when ever it gets low. I have 20 laying hens.

 

[digitS']

Quote:
A cup of my feed (crumbles) weighs just about 1/3 pound or, 3 cups to the pound.

That isn't completely exact. And, it isn't a "scoop" or "double handful" or something.

I used a measuring cup from the kitchen

.

Steve

 

[snowflake]

I have two roosters 11 hens, a 50lb bag of flock feed will last me 2 or 3 months, how ever I also give them kitchen scraps,can of peas, oat meal, meat , yogurt, other veggies, ect. about 3or4 cups AM and some scratch and sunflower seeds in the evening they also free range but in the winter in MI that amounts to what they can find under the coup in the frozen ground and some hey I spread around for them to scratch at during the day.They either don't like the cold or they are being cautious of predators, most likely both ,as they do not wander far from the coop in the snow.

 

[cappy]

My 8 hens go through a 50 lb bag of crumbles in about 2 months. I have a 3 lb feeder that I fill up about once a week. They free range during the day and get a scoop of scratch in the evening. I have found that chickens don't care about pounds or cups, they just want the feeder full when they are hungry. Factor in the cost of eggs in the supermarket and chickens are very economical to keep.

Ken