How much do your chickens eat?

[Cowgrl4life]

I'm just curious since I havent had chickens for years, I'm getting back into them and starting out with a pretty large flock (about 80)

what can I say, I'm addicted! I'm just wondering how much food I'm going to be buying for these guys... I know it will be a lot! Also, my local feed store only sells layer crumbles but can special order pellets that are a couple dollars more expensive. Does anyone have a preference... Like which one is less easily wasted by the chickens and seems to have a better consumption rate? I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of money on feed so I'd like to use the most efficient feed I can

 

[chickenlady08]

I have 37 chickens of different sizes, breeds appetites. etc.... I started my 25 babies all on crumbles back in March 2009. I had adult RSL in 2008 that were ready to start laying when we got them in October 2008. I chose to use the crumbles for them as well. I am not sure why though. I think that the pellets were larger and didn't want to have them choke on the big pieces.

Oh and where I have only 2 roosters and 35 laying hens I get so many eggs so I put them back on the grower/finisher instead of the layer food. I don't want to force them to lay so much. I have more than enough eggs for my entire family, my garbage man gets a couple dozen a week and i trade my pet store owner eggs for crickets for my son's gecko and bird food for my daughter's 2 parkeets. Sometimes I still have lots left. I usually scramble about 6 dozen eggs for my chickens each Saturday of Sunday.

I buy 3 50 pound bags of the food every other week and I only have 37 chickens. You are probably gonna need at double that possibly triple. Oh and I also purchase a 50 pound of grit each week also.

Good Luck. I would have as many as you do if I had my way. LOL

 

[TurkeyMountainChickens]

It really depends on how much food they can find. Thsi time of year, when we have plenty of grass, plants, and bugs, they don't eat much of thier feed at all. For 11 birds, we go through maybe one 50 lb bag in four or five weeks.

In the winter, though, they can finish a bag in two weeks.

I should note that my birds also get some table scraps (all those veggies the kids won't eat), which probably also cuts down on their food intake.

 

[digitS']

Quote:
chickenlady08: 3 50 pound bags of the food every other week (37 chickens) = 300 pounds each month / 37 / 30 days = .27 lb/day/chicken

TurkeyMountainChickens: 50 lb bag in two weeks of winter (11 chickens) = 100 pounds each month / 11 / 30 days = .30 lb/day/chicken

Cowgrl4life, you have quite an assortment of sizes. If you go by the average requirement of these 2 chicken-keepers that is .285 pounds of feed daily for each chicken. Your 80 chickens will need 22.8 pounds of feed each day. That's 684 pounds each month.

I used to weigh my feed each day when I filled the feeder. That way I knew how much the birds were eating each day - they have it free-choice. It has gotten so that I can easily know just by looking at the feeder.

What I try to do is be sure that they are eating about 1/4 pound of their commercial feed each day. The other food that they require can be kitchen scraps, vegetables from the garden and scratch. Doing this has worked fairly well for me. But . . . after keeping chickens off and on over about 35 years, I have never had more than a dozen birds, unless most were destined for the freezer.

Steve