How much do your birds eat?

[Kirkwooder]

I have 40 or so hens, a mix of leghorn and heavy brown egg layers, and three roosters. I go through about 200 pounds of feed every month, this time of year. Mind you we had 4*F and about 6" of snow here this morning, so feed consumption is about at it's peak. I feed a mix of locally sourced grain, that I ferment when weather/temps. permit, and free choice commercial pellet. My birds free range any time the garden is not producing and are confined to very large pasture, when the garden needs protecting from them. When the snow covers everything green I go through way more pellet and when forage is plentiful in spring and early summer, I go through very little feed of any kind. That is also peak egg production time, so +++. My flock has access to more acres of forage than they could ever use when free ranging, and they make very good use of it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is feed rates will vary greatly depending on your circumstances.

By the way, my flock is very health. I haven't needed to treat for any illness/infestation in 15+ years. I keep my coupe dry and well ventilated, allow my hens to find their own nutrition, give them a good dry dust bath location and cull ruthlessly. I would rather kill and dispose of one sickly looking hen than loose my whole flock. I separate them out as soon as they look ill, and if they aren't showing major improvement in a day or two, I cull. I only remember culling two of my hens in the last several years other than those that were culled for age.

Get them out on good green grass and you can drastically cut your feed bill, have great egg production, less bugs, and a healthy flock.

Just my way of doing things, but I've learned it over the last 20+ years and it works for me.

 

[MistyandLuna]

For our chickens, we have about 50 pounds worth of food and it takes probably a good month and a half for them to get through it and we have four chickens. But I can see how they could get through 50 pounds in a week, that seems normal. But once spring and summer come, I think that you can ease off on giving them that much food if they have access to grass and weeds and such.

 

[Acre4Me]

You don’t say where you are located, but chickens eat more in cold weather. You feed use seems about right with some waste.

we have a few more birds than you, and we go through about that much.

hang the feeders at back level to help with reducing waste. The gravity feeder likely has fins around the feed tray, and this keeps them from swiping the feed out - if they swipe the feed out then switch feeders. Feed pellets, less waste than crumble. Wet down the feed so they don’t waste it (mine like it batter consistency). Remove feeders (or cap them/close them off) to prevent rodents or other animals eating the feed. Store the feed in metal cans to also prevent rodents, and rodents can eat a lot!

In the summer, they will eat a bit less and maybe they can forage some -depending on the space you have, etc.

 

[Chandlerharris]

I have 40 or so hens, a mix of leghorn and heavy brown egg layers, and three roosters. I go through about 200 pounds of feed every month, this time of year. Mind you we had 4*F and about 6" of snow here this morning, so feed consumption is about at it's peak. I feed a mix of locally sourced grain, that I ferment when weather/temps. permit, and free choice commercial pellet. My birds free range any time the garden is not producing and are confined to very large pasture, when the garden needs protecting from them. When the snow covers everything green I go through way more pellet and when forage is plentiful in spring and early summer, I go through very little feed of any kind. That is also peak egg production time, so +++. My flock has access to more acres of forage than they could ever use when free ranging, and they make very good use of it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is feed rates will vary greatly depending on your circumstances.

By the way, my flock is very health. I haven't needed to treat for any illness/infestation in 15+ years. I keep my coupe dry and well ventilated, allow my hens to find their own nutrition, give them a good dry dust bath location and cull ruthlessly. I would rather kill and dispose of one sickly looking hen than loose my whole flock. I separate them out as soon as they look ill, and if they aren't showing major improvement in a day or two, I cull. I only remember culling two of my hens in the last several years other than those that were culled for age.

Get them out on good green grass and you can drastically cut your feed bill, have great egg production, less bugs, and a healthy flock.

Just my way of doing things, but I've learned it over the last 20+ years and it works for me.

I am in Alabama so no snow and pretty mild winters. It just gets really wet and soggy and the grass wanes. I am in a more rural area but a neighborhood still so mine are in a large run. We are extending it in the spring so they have some more room to dig around and hopefully that’ll cut down on all the feed.

I am nervous to cull. We are harvesting some males in the next week or two. It’ll be my first time processing so wish me luck!

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Chandlerharris]

You don’t say where you are located, but chickens eat more in cold weather. You feed use seems about right with some waste.

we have a few more birds than you, and we go through about that much.

hang the feeders at back level to help with reducing waste. The gravity feeder likely has fins around the feed tray, and this keeps them from swiping the feed out - if they swipe the feed out then switch feeders. Feed pellets, less waste than crumble. Wet down the feed so they don’t waste it (mine like it batter consistency). Remove feeders (or cap them/close them off) to prevent rodents or other animals eating the feed. Store the feed in metal cans to also prevent rodents, and rodents can eat a lot!

In the summer, they will eat a bit less and maybe they can forage some -depending on the space you have, etc.

I am in Alabama so pretty mild winters. Everything just stays soggy.

I do see them swiping so I did raise it up some to see if that would help and put a piece of plywood underneath it. We have birds of all different ages and sizes so I didn’t want to raise it too much and the smaller birds miss out but I guess they can eat what’s fallen... that’s the other thing about the feed. I’m currently doing chick crumble for all birds because only 10 are adults and only 5 of those laying. 15 are 3 months old. Doing different feed seems complicated right now but I’m going to switch everyone over to layer in the spring. Do you recommend I wet down the crumble and see how that does? I get worried about setting a set amount of food out like that during the day because of someone on the bottom of the pecking order not being able to get in and get any. I’ve seen the older bigger birds chase them off. Maybe a degree of this is normal and I need to just let it play out but I don’t want anyone hungry!

I also plan on doing live meal worms eventually! The things that excite me these days! Lol.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

We have 22 Isa browns and they go through, about a bag a week also.

 

[WVBirdsAndBees]

You're in the right area. Some birds eat more than others. Our orpingtons can eat a lot more than our leghorns. We had a lot of waste when we'd give enough food for a couple days at a time. Going to regular daily feedings cut down on how much they just threw on the floor. We also let ours range if they want and give some scratch every other day, which helps the feed bill some.

For sake of comparison, we have 46 birds and go through a 40lb of all flock feed every 4 days or so. Similar consumption overall.

 

[Cryss]

I never leave my feeders in overnight. I bring them into my house when they go to bed so that night critters aren’t attracted and so those that might possibly get into my Fort Knox run don’t have a smorgasbord and cost me feed money. It can happen. Tiny mice are the ones that seem to find a way. Boy can they eat. And they call all their relatives.
I hang their food as high as a hens back. I think this helps reduce the amount of feed being scattered by the chickens. I see a bit but not a significant amount on the ground.

 

[Chandlerharris]

I never leave my feeders in overnight. I bring them into my house when they go to bed so that night critters aren’t attracted and so those that might possibly get into my Fort Knox run don’t have a smorgasbord and cost me feed money. It can happen. Tiny mice are the ones that seem to find a way. Boy can they eat. And they call all their relatives.
I hang their food as high as a hens back. I think this helps reduce the amount of feed being scattered by the chickens. I see a bit but not a significant amount on the ground.

Now I’m scared next time I stick my hand in the feed bag!! I will scream

 

[Acre4Me]

So, they will still eat a bit more in the cold weather, but you don’t have much of a “winter” like others in the north.

Try “All-flock” feed. It is often around 20% protein, is formulated for mixed flocks. It does NOT have enough calcium for layers, however, just put out a pan of oyster shell for free choice. We have a hanging feeder and have a couple of pavers below it. On top of the pavers is a large tin pan with a mix of oyster shell and grit. I figure that it catches any wayward pellets. Yes, I guess this could potentially attract rodents if there was a lot of spillage, but we don’t see much waste with the feeder hung at back height. The feed tray is at back height. We also place another feeder on the other side of the coop/run in a weather protected spot. It is good in a mixed flock to have at least two food locations so older or bully birds can’t fully prevent a lower pecking order bird from eating. Same for water sources-have more than one. All feed is taken in at night.

if you are expanding the run, you can add grass, but use a frame of wire above the grass. The frame elevates the wire above the grass, and the wire allows the chickens to stand on the wire snd eat grass, but they cannot scratch up the grass. You could plant chicken friendly plants around the outside of the run snd use smaller wire to keep them from destroying the plants all the time. For example, plant marigolds around the fence. The petals will help color their yolks a nice rich golden orange color, but you dont want them to have daily access to all the marigolds, so put up a barrier next to fence and move the barrier around every so often so only some of the marigolds get munched at any given time. Some people put their compost pile in the run, and chickens scratch through it and eat what they want (although some things are bad for chickens like avocado and citrus). Make sure they have lots of shade! We grew gourds along the fence last year. It provided good shade. However, our fence is chain link, so they could get their head through and ate a few green gourds during the growing season, so next time, we will put a barrier up (maybe smaller fencing on top of the chain link in the area they can reach through) if we want a bigger harvest!