how quickly should 11 chickens be going through a bag of scratch feed?

[Linn Bee]

I had twelve - now have eleven chickens. They were 7 months old yesterday. I am still on my first 40 lb. bag of scratch. My chickens free-range most of the day.

 

[Fred's Hens]

The bigger question here might be the total feed. 100 pounds of regular feed, plus 50 pounds of scratch in 30+ days for 11 chickens?

That, my friend, is far more the issue, not so much the percentage of scratch to feed. If your friend went through 150 pounds of feed in 30-35 days for 11 chickens, that is almost 3 pounds of feed, per chicken, per day. You've got major, major loss to wild birds, rodents, etc and/or you have tremendous waste, or both!!!


No way 11 chickens can justifiably consume 3 pounds of feed per day. Not two pounds per day. Not even a pound per day, not hens. Sorry. Sounds like you and your friend need to keep good records, review your feeding practices and come to common agreement. Even in cold weather, when I feed the most, and have zero ranging because of winter, does my feeding approach 1/2 pound of feed, per day, per hen. Time for some calm, number crunching with your friend and a coming to the meeting of the minds.

 

[schmamy]

Fred's Hens :

The bigger question here might be the total feed. 100 pounds of regular feed, plus 50 pounds of scratch in 30+ days for 11 chickens?

That, my friend, is far more the issue, not so much the percentage of scratch to feed. If your friend went through 150 pounds of feed in 30-35 days for 11 chickens, that is almost 3 pounds of feed, per chicken, per day. You've got major, major loss to wild birds, rodents, etc and/or you have tremendous waste, or both!!!


No way 11 chickens can justifiably consume 3 pounds of feed per day. Not two pounds per day. Not even a pound per day, not hens. Sorry. Sounds like you and your friend need to keep good records, review your feeding practices and come to common agreement. Even in cold weather, when I feed the most, and have zero ranging because of winter, does my feeding approach 1/2 pound of feed, per day, per hen. Time for some calm, number crunching with your friend and a coming to the meeting of the minds.

Thank you! That is exactly the kind of information I need - thanks for weighing in.​

 

[schmamy]

Um. Except that the math is way off.

3 pounds of feed per chicken per day would be 33lbs/day - at that rate it would take less than a week to get through three bags of feed. But 150# of feed in 35 days comes out to about 4 lbs/day - less than 1/2 lb per day per chicken.

? what am I missing? That sounds like the rate you are describing.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Read my post again. The maximum I feed a hen is 1/2 pound per chicken per day. In reality, a hen's intake is around 6 ounces per day.

I can easily screw up math, especially on a post, so if I did, forgive me.

Let's start again. I would feed 11 hens 3 pounds per day. I DO feed 11 hens 3 pounds per day. That would be 90 pounds a month. Does that help?

You said, did you not, that your friend fed 100 pounds of feed, plus emptied a 50 pound scratch in a little over 30 days?

 

[schmamy]

I gave my friend the benefit of the doubt and calculated 35 days. 40 might actually be more appropriate - we bought feed on 11/8 and again on 12/14, but I don't know exactly when they ran out and refilled.

150 pounds of feed / 40 days = 3.75 lbs/day. Not *per chicken* - that's TOTAL. More than you feed, but divided by 11 chickens, that's only 0.34 lbs/day - NOT 3 lbs/day as you originally calculated.

I mean, we very well might still have rodent loss or waste or something (in fact I *know* there was waste b/c my DH mistakenly bought crumble feed instead of pellets, which they said the chickens were wasting) but it's nowhere near as dramatic as it sounded based on your first post, when you were calculating that we were going through 3 lbs PER CHICKEN per day. That's a misplaced decimal point I think.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
OK, I understand better. Then, frankly, the feed amount, in total, sounds about right. Agreed. 150 pounds for almost 40 days is fine. So, that just leaves the question as to whether scratch should constitute 1/3 of their diet. Frankly, in winter, it isn't an awful ratio.

Glad you worked out the math better than I did.

Good for you. That will hold you in good stead in discussing the matter with your friend. You'll already have done the math correctly.

 

[kizanne]

Fred's Hens :

The bigger question here might be the total feed. 100 pounds of regular feed, plus 50 pounds of scratch in 30+ days for 11 chickens?

That, my friend, is far more the issue, not so much the percentage of scratch to feed. If your friend went through 150 pounds of feed in 30-35 days for 11 chickens, that is almost 3 pounds of feed, per chicken, per day. You've got major, major loss to wild birds, rodents, etc and/or you have tremendous waste, or both!!!


No way 11 chickens can justifiably consume 3 pounds of feed per day. Not two pounds per day. Not even a pound per day, not hens. Sorry. Sounds like you and your friend need to keep good records, review your feeding practices and come to common agreement. Even in cold weather, when I feed the most, and have zero ranging because of winter, does my feeding approach 1/2 pound of feed, per day, per hen. Time for some calm, number crunching with your friend and a coming to the meeting of the minds.

Well actually 4 oz. per day is often quoted on BYC and 4 oz./day for 11 chickens is 44 oz / day which is 2 3/4 lbs per day.

Mine free range and get a small amount of scratch per day and I happen to have 11 laying hens. I go through a 50 pound bag every 3 to 4 weeks and a bag of scratch last for months. But they do go out an hour a day free ranging and they get treats like kitchen scraps and mealworms fairly regular. So my chickens eat about 2.2 oz / day of feed and maybe 1/2 lb of scratch.​

 

[cottagechick]

Quote:
Well actually 4 oz. per day is often quoted on BYC and 4 oz./day for 11 chickens is 44 oz / day which is 2 3/4 lbs per day.

Mine free range and get a small amount of scratch per day and I happen to have 11 laying hens. I go through a 50 pound bag every 3 to 4 weeks and a bag of scratch last for months. But they do go out an hour a day free ranging and they get treats like kitchen scraps and mealworms fairly regular. So my chickens eat about 2.2 oz / day of feed and maybe 1/2 lb of scratch.

Thanks for bringing this up again. I was really worried about this before I got my chickens...but sort of got waylaid while they were little. Now that they are almost full grown... I am wondering. When you talk about a chicken is an average size chicken about 6 lbs...? Can we get that precise? Like for every pound of chicken that is laying they should eat .66 oz. So if I have a bantam that is two pounds I should give it about 1 1/2 oz? And is this in addition to free ranging and scraps or including?

 

[rancher hicks]

Quote:
Amen, I suspect when folks complain of a molt taking to long or laying dropping off that they are over doing scratch and treats in an effort to avoid the high cost of feed. To much corn can lead to fat hens and fat hens don't lay well.

What's more a poor nutritional diet can lead to slow recovery from molts and other health problems.

The cost difference between a bag of scratch and pellets is a mere two or three dollars around here. Not worth my birds health.

I wish everyone well,

Rancher