How much does a chickie eat?

[silkiechicken]

Not only that, if they based their 2 lbs each in 6 weeks, (yeah right, my silkie babies eat more than that their first 6 weeks), on things like ultra "high performance" 3 lb adult egg laying machine leghorns, then maybe so. You'll just have to try it with the mix and charge accordingly.

I know 4 cornish x meat birds can eat about a 50 lb bag of starter in 8-9 weeks.
I also know that the bunch of 18 leghorn chicks ate that same 50 lbs of starter in about 7 weeks. Granted, they are on opposite ends of the spectrum, the mix and strain of bird you get will make mileage vary A LOT.

Feed in the summer lasts 2x longer for the same bunch of birds than it does in the winter too.

I say get them, calculate cost, then sell.

 

[mirjam]

Silkychicken: I just looked at my notes I made raising my first mixed flock of ten "dual purpose" breeds and I switched over to grower feed after the first 6 weeks and I had a bit left from 50 pounds of chick starter. I will neither start meat birds, nor will I raise leghorns. I probably will get "middle of the road" birds and just go by the usage I observed.
Thanks y'all!

 

[digitS']

Here's something that the University of Missouri Extension put on their website. Scroll down to Table 3 for layer chick information. The numbers are for those leghorn types you aren't planning to raise. And why they do weekly consumption and indicate age by 2 week increments - I don't know. Maybe just to confuse us

.

Table 1 has cumulative feed consumption by the week for broilers.

For "middle of the road" birds, I'd guess that your numbers will be close to about 2,000 grams at 6 weeks which is a little less than 4.5 lbs.

Hope this helps

.

Steve

 

[digitS']

Quote:
Gosh, I just came back to look at this and reread your last post, Mirjam.

About what you said . . . 4.5 lbs of feed per chick.

I gotta start usin' my glasses.

Steve

 

[mirjam]

Thanks Steve, you just corroborated my assumption. I will check out your link when I have more time (gotta go, the boss is coming…)

 

[mirjam]

ooops... double-post...

 

[tvtaber]

Absolutely, most estimates will be for meat birds or leghorns. Meat birds have huge appetites to fuel that quick growth.

I have two white leghorns and they lay an egg almost every single day (they're only a year old) but they are skinny little things! I bet they weigh half what a golden sex link weighs.

 

[tvtaber]

Absolutely, most estimates will be for meat birds or leghorns. Meat birds have huge appetites to fuel that quick growth.

I have two white leghorns and they lay an egg almost every single day (they're only a year old) but they are skinny little things! I bet they weigh half what a golden sex link weighs.

 

[Home on the Stead]

According to the book "Success with Baby Chicks" by Robert Plamondon:

100 chicks will eat:

10 lbs the first week
20 lbs the second week
30 lbs the third week
40 lbs the fourth week

or

100 lbs the first 4 weeks
360 lbs the first 8 weeks
765 lbs the first 12 weeks
1255 lbs the first 16 weeks
1825 lbs the first 20 weeks
2475 lbs the first 24 weeks

That's probably more like what you were asking, but as I said in an earlier post - with any "rule of thumb" you mileage may vary.

Hope this helps.

 

[digitS']

Plamondon must have been talking about Leghorn-types there, too.

Yep, mileage will vary and your mileage, Home on the Stead, varied. On your 1st post you noted that "26 chicks about 26lbs of food in 2 weeks." So that's 1 lb per chick at 2 weeks rather than Plamondon's 1/3 lb or 1/2 lb.

Ambient temperatures and the feed itself as well as chicken breed must have lots to do with feed use. I'm thinking that much of the info from the universities and such is from strictly controlled environments and feed formulas and show optimums.

Steve