How much food.....

[newchickens2009]

How much food should 24, 6 week old baby chicks be eating? 2? 3? 4lbs?

 

[Lotsapaints]

As much as they want

really though what kind of birds are they. I have 39, 8 week olds that are outside ranging around plus I feed treats and throw out a little scratch and everyday I add about 3 to 4 pounds of food but these are large dual purpose chickens that I plan on eating most of them maybe 8 are keepers and I don't feel like separating them just yet

 

[newchickens2009]

They are Dominiques, EE and some mixed. All are "dual purpose" birds.

 

[Tala]

At 6 weeks they should be eating you out of house and home (or at least that's what it seems like!!!!!!)

IT feels like I buy AND FINISH a bag every week!!! Whereas with older layers I might use a bag a month.....I'm just glad this teenage thing doesn't last too long.

LOL

The feedstore employees should know you by name, if they didn't already

 

[Lotsapaints]

I'm feeding free choice cage crumbles 16% and game/turkey grower 23% these cannot have the medicated starter so this was the closest mix I could get from my feed store. What are you feeding? Unless they are cornishx which can only have feed for 12 hrs a day I think chickens should eat 24/7 but mine run around and don't hang out at the feeder all day. They are still babies growing even if they don't really look like it and any shortage of food slows down your production later.

I bought 100 pounds and it should last for 3 weeks....the feed store already knows me and was happy to know I was getting back into chickens

 

[kqsnider]

I have one of those mason jar feeders with the quart plastic top instead of the mason jar. It's not big enough!!! I fill that thing up sometimes twice a day for five 11 day-old chicks. It's kind of crazy. I notice a lot of it on the brooder floor however, even though I've raised it up to chest height.

 

[gryeyes]

Oddly enough, they'll slow down after a few weeks. I used the same feeder PLUS one of those galvanized strip things, and filled each every day.

My chicks are now 9 or 10 wks old and the feed in both feeders will last two days now. I fill both up before they are empty, so they might even have gone a little longer, maybe a total of 3 days. I have four LF chicks and 2 bantam cochin chicks. That's why I have two feeders (and two waterers); the bigger chicks dominated the feeders, and the RIR bullied the little gals, so I had to give them another place to eat & drink.

 

[mistyfeather]

mine are 6 week i have 18 , i go thru aproxamately 1 50lb. bag in 2 weeks but i was also feeding 2 baby ducks (i think they eat as much as a dozen chicks

)

 

[MommyToThree]

I have wondering the same thing. I have 15 chickens right now but when two of my three roo's get a little bigger they will be gone. So when they are all "grown" and laying how big of a feeder should I get? Do I need a huge one or a littler one? Right now I feed them in the morning and then again at night. I too have on of the qt jar feeders and they almost always have it gone by morning. My 3 easter eggers are not in the coop yet with the others and 8 of the ones in the coop are 7 weeks (almost) old and the other 4 in the coop are 3 weeks old. Is it ok if I have say a three gallon feeder full and if they don't eat it all one day for it to be there in the feeder untill the do? Can I over feed them? They are layers. And what about pellets over crumbles? Which should I go with when they are older? As you can tell these are my first chickens. Thanks for any info!

 

[Lotsapaints]

I got free buckets from Von's bakery used a hole saw to cut holes in it (6 I think) up high by the rim. They have a hard time tossing the food on the ground and I can pick it up and move it easy they can get on the top and not poop in it and best of all FREE. Look in the feeding and watering part for plenty of great ideas. I used pellets but my chickens wasted a lot of them on the ground you just need to try different feeds and figure out what works best for you.