How much do your birds eat?

[Cryss]

You mentioned wanting to change to layer feed in spring so you don’t have to feed 2 kinds of feed? Everyone in the same run will eat anything offered so giving both grower feed and layer feed won’t help since everyone will eat both offerings. Layer feed is great if you are a production farm and never have males or pullets that are too young to lay. It has calcium in the mix (basically flock raiser blended with calcium and sold as layer) which is an absolute necessity for the laying females. Backyard flocks typically have a mix of genders and ages at different times. For this reason flock raiser feed is a perfect feed for all ages and genders. Of course laying females absolutely need calcium. In a separate container offer oyster shell 24/7/365. Layers will crave it. Non layers won’t be interested other than an initial curiosity. Males and young pullets not yet laying can have their kidneys damaged by eating layer feed. Much easier to just feed flock raiser and keep the oyster shell container full.

 

[PioneerChicks]

Currently I have one standard hen, one bantam cockerel, and seven bantam hens of varying sizes. They free-range and I feed them fermented feed and kitchen scraps. They go through about three heaping cups of FF per day, and a bit of dry cat food.

So with nine chickens I go through at the lowest 21 cups of FF. I'm not sure how many pounds, because I buy the feed dry.

However, it is mid-winter, and they forage better in summer.

 

[Cryss]

Get a galvanized garbage can with a lid. Keep feed in it. Mice can’t chew into it. I had that exact experience with dog kibble. It’s now in a covered container!

 

[Sally PB]

I just took out about 1 cup of warm mash made of the leftover powder from their pellets and some warm water. You would have thought that they hadn't eaten yet today the way those four birds devoured that stuff. Glad I have a way to use up the tiny bits that they won't eat out of their feed.

 

[polapar]

I am new to owning chickens. I have about 25 birds (LOL). I’d like to get a gauge of how much anyone else’s flock eats. Preferably if yours is the same size as mine. I go through a 50 lb bag of feed a week with mine and it just seems like WOW a lot. Or am I wrong? I notice a lot of waste on the floor and I’m trying different things to remedy that. Any tips for me? I have the food in a 15 lb hanging feeder I only keep about half full. Only 10 birds are adults. The other 15 are about 3 months old. Thanks!

Hey!

19 chicken and duck owner here! We made our own feeder using a giant rubbermaid bin with holes cut in the side (and tubes entered in from an old bucket feeder we overpaid for; basically thick PVC pipe)

This allows us to keep the (hundreds of) finches from absolutely destroying the food supply and makes sure they don't waste the food. We used to throw it on the ground and a ton got wasted.

To fully disclose, we also drop all healthy scraps outside and regularly browse the "almost expired" grocery section to get super cheap watermelon, melons, spinach, whatever to drop out there a few times a week.

With 19 fowl, we currently go through a 40lb bag every 1.5 to 2 weeks.

I suggest making your own bin that allows you to prevent food waste and supplement with reduced produce.

 

[polapar]

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.

Oooh I get so excited about mealworms! We raise our own in a three tiered bin (like the plastic ones you get for storing school work or little things) from Walmart. We used to do this complex system where adults went on top, eggs and juveniles went on second layer (with mesh in between so eggs fell to the second layer) and then young adult beetles in the third layer. Now we just throw them in the two levels. Just need to throw some oatmeal/cornmeal in the levels as bedding (and replace every 6 to 8 months), and then once or twice a week a watery vegetable (we use sliced potatoes). Deoending on how fast you want your colony to grow (we started with 20 mealworms and it took about 3 months to come up to a sustainable colony we could regularly take from; if i started over I'd start with 150 to 200 mealworms) buy live mealworms either online or even from Petco and you can get a super cheap mealworms source!!

 

[Granitestater]

You mentioned wanting to change to layer feed in spring so you don’t have to feed 2 kinds of feed? Everyone in the same run will eat anything offered so giving both grower feed and layer feed won’t help since everyone will eat both offerings. Layer feed is great if you are a production farm and never have males or pullets that are too young to lay. It has calcium in the mix (basically flock raiser blended with calcium and sold as layer) which is an absolute necessity for the laying females. Backyard flocks typically have a mix of genders and ages at different times. For this reason flock raiser feed is a perfect feed for all ages and genders. Of course laying females absolutely need calcium. In a separate container offer oyster shell 24/7/365. Layers will crave it. Non layers won’t be interested other than an initial curiosity. Males and young pullets not yet laying can have their kidneys damaged by eating layer feed. Much easier to just feed flock raiser and keep the oyster shell container full.

jeez i had no idea the boys could be given kidney damage w layer pellets! TY for the info

 

[bill3607]

Have 17 and go through a 50lb. bag every 2 weeks. That is along with some treats such as mealworms, cabbage etc.. out of garden, and table scraps from time to time.

 

[gtaus]

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 read somewhere that if you provide feed to the chickens 24/7, they will only eat as much as they need and not much more. If you only feed them a limited amount only once per day, then you train them to stuff in as much food as they can get knowing that there will not be anymore for the rest of the day. Chickens low on the pecking order may get little food in that case.

With that in mind, I have a 24/7 hanging 5 gallon bucket of feed with PVC elbows like someone else posted in a picture. There is some spillage, but not much. When you have a hanging feeder available 24/7, you don't have to worry about the chickens low on the pecking order getting their fair share. At least, I don't worry because most of the time when I open up the coop, there is maybe only 1 chicken at the feeder and there are 4 spots to eat from. So everyone has a chance to eat what they need.

I also feed my chickens whatever kitchen scraps we have. Chickens are omnivores, and I do not hesitate to give them meat product leftovers, fish entrrails, etc.... They eat what they want and the rest gets buried in the deep bedding and turns into compost. I'll clean out the coop in the spring, throw the used bedding out into the chicken run, and let the old bedding compost out there for awhile. I have a cement mixer sifter and sift chicken run compost for the garden as needed.

After the chickens ate all the grass down to dirt in the chicken run, I just covered it with wood chips, grass clippings, and leaves. It makes a nice deep compost in place and the chickens love scratching through it to find bugs and worms. My feed costs in the summer months is less than half of the winter months. But almost all my grass clippings, leaves, weeds, garden scraps, etc... get thrown into the chicken run all summer long.

I will say, however, that I think letting my birds forage for food all day out in the chicken run has reduced their egg production as compared to maybe a chicken on a well balanced commercial feed with restricted access to forage food. Even though I still have a hanging feeder available 24/7 during the summer, my chickens prefer to eat just about any forage food out in the run before eating the commercial feed. I prefer to see my chickens out scratching for food like chickens naturally do then just eating at the feeder. So, it's all good for me.

 

[333113]

Oooh I get so excited about mealworms! We raise our own in a three tiered bin (like the plastic ones you get for storing school work or little things) from Walmart. We used to do this complex system where adults went on top, eggs and juveniles went on second layer (with mesh in between so eggs fell to the second layer) and then young adult beetles in the third layer. Now we just throw them in the two levels. Just need to throw some oatmeal/cornmeal in the levels as bedding (and replace every 6 to 8 months), and then once or twice a week a watery vegetable (we use sliced potatoes). Deoending on how fast you want your colony to grow (we started with 20 mealworms and it took about 3 months to come up to a sustainable colony we could regularly take from; if i started over I'd start with 150 to 200 mealworms) buy live mealworms either online or even from Petco and you can get a super cheap mealworms source!!

I live on three acres in the country, so this may not work for suburban or urban pens.

My brother started mealworms in the barn under the brooder cages a few years ago, and some years later I started black soldier flies. They both go dormant in the cold weather, and come back as the weather warms up. The "clean-up" crew of chickens in the barn never completely gets rid of all of them.

The soldier flies have spread themselves to the outdoor cages, where they convert the waste feed on the ground to soldier flyworms. The chickens and ducks love them!

I feed the chickens in those three-gallon low black tubs you can find in most feed stores. The chickens occasionally dust in them, too, but it keeps most of the feed dry and off the ground, and it's easy for me to see how much they are eating. Every couple of days I move the tub and let the chickens clean up the grubs and worms underneath. Again, they never really completely get rid of all of them. And, in the summer when the bugs are most active, I go through about half as much feed as I do in the winter.