How much feed do YOU go through in a month?

[gtaus]

I’m curious what others are going through in feed in a month. If you don’t buy feed and mix your own, what is it and how much does it cost for a month of feed?

I estimate that each chicken will eat about 1/4 pound of feed per day. For my 10 chickens, that would mean that a 50# bag of feed should last me about 20 days. A 50# bag of layer crumbles costs me $12.49, but sometimes it goes on sale for $1 or $2 per bag and I will stock up 4-5 months worth at that time.

In reality, I get about 4-5 weeks out of every 50# bag of commercial feed because I supplement their main feed with barley fodder, grass clippings, weeds from garden, chicken scratch and kitchen scraps. I don't know if my girls would be healthier if only fed the balanced commercial chicken feed, but I do know that they prefer to eat just about anything before their feed. Now that spring is here and the chickens are spending most of the day outside, they are scratching and pecking all day long in the deep litter I have for them in the chicken run. If I could free range my birds, I would, but we have too many hawks and eagles where I live.

I don't even consider buying "organic" feed for my chickens as those prices are almost 3X the price. Locally, you can buy eggs for less than $1.00 per dozen (well, pre-pandemic), and there is not much market for "organic" eggs here. I get $2.00 per dozen for our extra "farm fresh" eggs and that covers my feed costs. If I fed organic feed, at 3X the cost, then I would have to ask more for our eggs and that would be a non-starter for our customers. But I realize that where you live makes a big difference in how much eggs cost and how much you can sell them for to local customers.

 

[GRacer3648]

I have 9 laying hens, 2 adult roos, 30 adult ducks, 4 geese, 6 baby ducks, 7 adult guineas, 10 turkey poults, and around 40 pullets. Most of the adults are free range. I go through about 100lbs of feed every week.

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

I estimate that each chicken will eat about 1/4 pound of feed per day. For my 10 chickens, that would mean that a 50# bag of feed should last me about 20 days. A 50# bag of layer crumbles costs me $12.49, but sometimes it goes on sale for $1 or $2 per bag and I will stock up 4-5 months worth at that time.

In reality, I get about 4-5 weeks out of every 50# bag of commercial feed because I supplement their main feed with barley fodder, grass clippings, weeds from garden, chicken scratch and kitchen scraps. I don't know if my girls would be healthier if only fed the balanced commercial chicken feed, but I do know that they prefer to eat just about anything before their feed. Now that spring is here and the chickens are spending most of the day outside, they are scratching and pecking all day long in the deep litter I have for them in the chicken run. If I could free range my birds, I would, but we have too many hawks and eagles where I live.

I don't even consider buying "organic" feed for my chickens as those prices are almost 3X the price. Locally, you can buy eggs for less than $1.00 per dozen (well, pre-pandemic), and there is not much market for "organic" eggs here. I get $2.00 per dozen for our extra "farm fresh" eggs and that covers my feed costs. If I fed organic feed, at 3X the cost, then I would have to ask more for our eggs and that would be a non-starter for our customers. But I realize that where you live makes a big difference in how much eggs cost and how much you can sell them for to local customers.

If I can persuade him to do non organic, like you’re saying for price, we could be under $100 per month. That’s if I keep up this hatching addiction and growing out birds constantly. Less if the flock settled and no more were added.

Organic eggs go for $5 to $7 per dozen here. They’re in high demand because the stores and their labels are full of crap. People have caught on finally. Free range my butt! More like free caged. Same goes for the meat. I grow out my roosters and sell them for $20 a piece. All nice and healthy and can say they’re organic from hatch. Have three families waiting on my roosters to grow out.

 

[NatJ]

I know scratch is just for treats and shouldn’t be provided constantly, but what other alternatives are there? I’d hate to buy layer pellets to throw out for them every now and then, since a little less than half of them aren’t layers.

Is there a reason you have to throw anything? Either free range or deep litter will have lots of things for chickens to eat.

You can also give them table scraps, vegetable trimmings, bread crusts, and so on. (If you eat organic food, then logically the scraps of that food are also organic.) You wouldn't want food scraps to be a large part of their diet, but with that many chickens, I doubt that you have enough food scraps to upset their diet much. And it would give them other interesting things to eat (or play with, or scratch around.)

Corn is often cheaper than scratch grains. If you only want a small amount for a treat, then it won't make much difference nutritionally. You could use cracked or whole corn, depending on the size of the chickens, or even some of each and see what the chickens prefer.

I think grower feed or all-flock feed can sometimes be bought in pellets, if you really want chunks of something to throw to the chickens.

The simplest way to reduce feed costs is to reduce the number of chickens. Have you considered eating some of those cockerels?

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

Is there a reason you have to throw anything? Either free range or deep litter will have lots of things for chickens to eat.

You can also give them table scraps, vegetable trimmings, bread crusts, and so on. (If you eat organic food, then logically the scraps of that food are also organic.) You wouldn't want food scraps to be a large part of their diet, but with that many chickens, I doubt that you have enough food scraps to upset their diet much. And it would give them other interesting things to eat (or play with, or scratch around.)

Corn is often cheaper than scratch grains. If you only want a small amount for a treat, then it won't make much difference nutritionally. You could use cracked or whole corn, depending on the size of the chickens, or even some of each and see what the chickens prefer.

I think grower feed or all-flock feed can sometimes be bought in pellets, if you really want chunks of something to throw to the chickens.

The simplest way to reduce feed costs is to reduce the number of chickens. Have you considered eating some of those cockerels?

Thank you! The ideas to cut down on costs are helping quite a bit already. Since the original post, I’ve sold a bunch of cockerels. Some will stay for breeding purposes. Have plans for some dual purpose birds. I also grow out a couple cockerels after hatch so I can pick the best for breeding and their attitude.

2 of the pig Pekin drakes are going to a farm with 12 females and no drakes. Two less large mouths to feed. The khakis don’t eat much. They play free ranging and eating dirt all day.

Going to check the fridge for some leftover scraps for them now.

 

[birdsrfun]

Holy crap I remembered! I don’t remember squat, ever. But here you go. This isn’t exactly what I buy, but 40# bag of 16% layer feed. I normally stick with 18%. The turkey grower was actually a little more. $34 but was a 40# bag as well.
View attachment 2149591

I really like the Natures Best organic grower 18% though. $33 a bag and everyone does very well on it. Chicks, adults, guineas, ducklings and emus sneak some from time to time. Maybe I should just be ok with spending $300+ a month on feed.

Ultimate goal was 30 laying hens, 2 dozen a dayish. We go through 1 dozen a day ourselves, sell the other to coworkers. Make up to purchase a bag of feed per week.

Wow. If I could get Scratch and Peck for that little, I would feed that. It looks good enough for me to eat! I see Modesto Milling next to it. It’s organic and non-GMO, but the crumbles are quite dusty. I could try switching to Purina’s organic feed, but I’m not sure. Anyone feed this?

 

[Ebony Rose]

5 quail, 2 chicken hens. I buy quail food only as it is much higher in protein and several dollars less a bag. I reduce the high protein with treats for my chicken hens in the form of fruit, veggies, rice and the occasional sardine or three.
Each quail eat an ounce a day, and the chickens each eat four ounces daily. My feed store only sells it in 40kg (88pound) bags so I freeze it to retain nutritional value and kill off any bugs and their eggs. Bag costs $22 (making the feed $0.25 USD per pound) and lasts me just over three months.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Quarter pound of feed per day per adult bird so you ought to be feeding around 10 to 12 pounds of feed per day. More than that, you are feeding mice, rats, or wild birds.

Bringing the feed in at night doesn't stop rodents, they will happily eat during the day.

Get a treadle feeder for the adult birds. The babies won't be babies forever, not much to do to stop the rodents with birds under a couple of pounds.