How much feed.

[Randy Bishop]

I've got around 30 grown chickens and about 40 young chicks ranging in age from 3 months to 2 weeks. I was wondering since they are let out daily to forge for food how much grain should I feed them to supplement their diet. I usually feed them about a gallon of grain each morning when I let them out.....

 

[JacinLarkwell]

They should have free access to a proper chicken feed, not just grain

 

[Battlepants]

I'd probably just offer pure flock-raiser style feed with a side dish of oyster shells. Just fill up the feeders to the max every day, they will take what they want. They will still go out and forage for stuff too to supplement their diets, but this will give them the healthiest balance in food.

And when you say "grain" - I'm assuming scratch, or corn, or some other kind of generic grains? I would remove this from the feed. Or at least reduce it down to a few cups a day just to get use out of it. Typically these grains are very fatty and not super useful in a chickens diet.

 

[Randy Bishop]

I should have said a mixture of crack corn and layer mesh is what I give them each morning as I let them out. This is the first year to have chickens here and they have scratched up the entire yard I guess because before I got chickens there were earth worms everywhere, everytime it rains they just come up out of the ground there's so many. I also have two 5gal buckets made with feeder elbows in them that I set out every couple of days. I've noticed when I set the feeders out the chickens just set around the buckets most of the day instead of going out and scratching for food...my feed buckets that I made from plumbing elbows.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I've got around 30 grown chickens and about 40 young chicks ranging in age from 3 months to 2 weeks. I was wondering since they are let out daily to forge for food how much grain should I feed them to supplement their diet. I usually feed them about a gallon of grain each morning when I let them out.....

Speaking as someone who has the illusion of some expertise on the topic, I'm going to say "no one can answer this for you". Where the heck are you? What's in your pasture? How much pasture have you got for them to forage?

Adult birds, per the "thumb rule", eat about 1/4# per day. Hatchlings, per their "thumb rule", will eat about 10# in 10 weeks. Roughly half your flock is of the age where their daily consumption is growing, so what's true this week won't be true in two weeks. Those "rules" are just starting points, though - breed and gender has an influence as well. Banties obviously eat less. RSL varieties tend to eat less than BSL and large heritage (its their smaller average body mass). Cx are the most feed efficient birds out there, by a far measure, but they consume huge amounts to support their (often unhealthy) rates of weight gain.

Eventually, you would expect to feed about 17.5# per day to your flock - modifed by breed and gender of course. Roosters are larger than hens, and need more feed initially, but ultimately end up consuming less per day in many cases - they don't have the same nutritional needs as a productive hen. But even that estimate won't hold stable with your management methods.
I'll illustrate - I have a productive pasture in a very forgiving climate with a brief "winter" period. My feed savings varies seasonally from about 10-15% in winter to around 35% at the height of spring and early summer. I do well late summer and fall, too, but we can get very dry around here, and I don't have much grains. As result I don't see the savings I do right now, with a number of plants in bloom (three varieties of clover and a laundry list of others) and seeds (multiple grasses, sorrels, a few others) and fruits (like my blueberries, which a chicken denuded this AM). I added some new seeds this Spring in hopes of a better Summer/Fall, if the birds and the weather together allow any of it to propagate.

My flock is in my sig, below - I currently feed 10# per day, and am considering cutting another #/day out of it, will decide after inspecting the results fo the next culling.

So when I answer your question, "IT depends", I'm trying to answer honestly.

 

[Kiki]

I cringe when people say they mix a complete balanced feed with corn.

On average, a full grown chicken, will eat about a quarter of a pound of feed per day which amounts to about 3/4 cup worth of feed.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I cringe when people say they mix a complete balanced feed with corn.

Like a human stretching out their own daily dietary intake with equal sized portions of boxed mashed potatoes.

EVERY

SINGLE

MEAL...

 

[Al Gerhart]

Answer was above, quarter pound of feed per day for adult layers, around 12.5 pounds per day with your flock is my best guess. I'd say if the birds are sticking around the feeders during the day they might be malnourished. The post didn't say what kind of pasture is available but few will have enough natural food to replace a fraction of that 12.5 pounds per day. Just feed 24/7, the birds won't overeat layer mash.

 

[3KillerBs]

As a general rule, and subject to knowledgeable adjustment by people who have done research and backed it with experience,

Chickens other than Cornish X broilers should be free-fed with a quality commercial feed -- available at all times and as much as they choose to eat.

As @U_Stormcrow has so ably explained, forage varies wildly in abundance and quality thus cannot be depended on too greatly -- especially for modern, high-production breeds (you may not think of your birds as "high production" but the Brahma in my avatar, the worst layer in my flock, laid more eggs in her first year of production than a Leghorn would have been expected to produce 100 years ago).

It's important to note that the defining characteristic of layer feed is that it was developed as the cheapest formula to keep confined commercial layers in production for the single year of their laying life, not to provide a long-term optimal diet for a dual purpose bird in good health for multiple years in a backyard setting.

Adding scratch grain to that already iffy diet dilutes the nutrition further.

Many of us here prefer to use an all flock type feed with at least 18, preferably 20% protein to better support our larger birds over their longer lifespans and then offer oystershell on the side for the laying hens' calcium needs.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

As a general rule, and subject to knowledgeable adjustment by people who have done research and backed it with experience,

Chickens other than Cornish X broilers should be free-fed with a quality commercial feed -- available at all times and as much as they choose to eat.

As @U_Stormcrow has so ably explained, forage varies wildly in abundance and quality thus cannot be depended on too greatly -- especially for modern, high-production breeds (you may not think of your birds as "high production" but the Brahma in my avatar, the worst layer in my flock, laid more eggs in her first year of production than a Leghorn would have been expected to produce 100 years ago).

It's important to note that the defining characteristic of layer feed is that it was developed as the cheapest formula to keep confined commercial layers in production for the single year of their laying life, not to provide a long-term optimal diet for a dual purpose bird in good health for multiple years in a backyard setting.

Adding scratch grain to that already iffy diet dilutes the nutrition further.

Many of us here prefer to use an all flock type feed with at least 18, preferably 20% protein to better support our larger birds over their longer lifespans and then offer oystershell on the side for the laying hens' calcium needs.