How to feed my chickens on a budget? Issues with roosters?

[Cindy in PA]

Do any of you feed organic? My feed costs are very high because I need to use organic feed and my starter/ growth feed is about $40 for 50 lbs. layer is actually cheaper because I can get it from Costco but my flock is currently mixed ages and not separated. I have 12 babies and youngsters and 14 pullets. Long to bring down my costs

Don't know where you are located, but if you have a TSC near you, you can get Nature's Best Organic Starter Feed for $28.99/40 lbs. which is the equivalent of $36.24 per 50 lbs.

 

[Bcolpetzer]

Wow that’s allot of feed. I have 18 chicken 17 pullets and one cockerel. All 18 weeks, I’m not even going thru 1/2 of what you are. Maybe a third. I’ve always fed them what the chart shows on the bag so just started the layer pellets, from crumbles. They also get a couple handfuls or scratch A day. That’s just their treat. I also just started free ranging so they are getting that now too and I noticed their feeders not emptying as fast since they are feasting on all those goodies from the yard. I don’t let mine out to free range until noon so they are forced to eat the nutritious feed and can lay (when they all do start laying) before releasing them.

Have you checked to make sure something else isn’t helping itself to the feed. Rodents, chipmunks, other birds can eat you out of house and home real fast.

 

[Bcolpetzer]

Check to see if you have a local feed mill, I started going to mine to see what they offered then Called the company of the feed they carry and talked to the nutritionist about what I had and they advised me what was needed for them. Gave me the item number and everything to take to the feedmill save $’s on everything. Turned out their was a feed I didn’t know about for my Cornish from start to finish so I didn’t have to calculate what percentage at what stage. They had one specifically for meat birds versus the general one size fits all. Worth a shot.

 

[chickachee]

Has the OP even responded? I would think a comment here or there, or an acknowledgement of some of the comments would be warranted. Just my $.02...

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Don't know where you are located, but if you have a TSC near you, you can get Nature's Best Organic Starter Feed for $28.99/40 lbs. which is the equivalent of $36.24 per 50 lbs.

Makes me crazy they can even call that "starter" with only 18% protein. Same with the Manna Pro one they sell at Wally.

Proof that organic and terms like "starter" aren't all they're cracked up to be.... Reading the label and understanding what YOU are looking for is key.

Protein cost more to produce. That's why layer feed appears cheaper than others because oyster shell which makes up about 3% more in layer feed is a cheaper ingredient.

And no, I haven't seen the OP around... hopefully they will look into and try some of our suggestions as we are all passionate about our flock and even helping others enjoy theirs'.

 

[Lilyput]

I sympathize. Although I can afford to feed my chickens, I realize it is more costly than I ever expected. That being said, I think you should be using flock raiser and offering oyster shell on the side. Using the Purina brand that will run the $120/mo for your 300 lbs/mo. That does seem like a lot of feed to me. I certainly don't use 150 lbs for 12 chickens. Are you using crumbles or pellets? I understand there is a lot less waste if you get the pellets. You could forgo the corn altogether. Perhaps they are eating more volume because they are eating so much corn, and that is not giving them the nutrients they need, so they just eat more.

Just some suggestions. Can you sell some eggs to help pay for the food?

I would add scratch maybe two cups thrown out once a day. I also use a cup of fermented feed daily, and then Table scraps. You can find articles here on fermented feed. Chickens love it. I have 15 hens and one rooster. My costs per month are approx: $100/mo which includes feed, scratch, calcium. In that number besides the flock raiser is Calf Manna, expensive but has additional vitamins and minerals. They also free range.

 

[ValerieJ]

Has the OP even responded? I would think a comment here or there, or an acknowledgement of some of the comments would be warranted. Just my $.02...

I'll add &.02 to that and make it .04.

 

[333113]

I thought about this post on and off for the past couple of days. I agree with it, in principle.

However, I and many other people who have chickens also have full-time jobs. In the short days of winter, it would take a very generous (and rare) boss to allow a worker daylight at one end or the other of the work day to get the chickens fed before dark so that the feed can be removed and secured. Not to mention the occasional call for impromptu overtime, sudden student commitments, friends or family in the hospital, etc., and, of course, night shift.

Working hours should not be an obstacle to raising chickens, as long as they can be fed and given fresh water daily.

So, I think of this post as a goal, to be attained when possible. On the days when I know it will be dark when I get home, I do leave the food out. Compensation for the dark creepy-critter hours can include more secure cages or fences, or lighting that stays on while the chickens are eating and drinking. I rely on the cages, myself.

Yes yes yes! If they are scattering feed out of the feeders it could be attracting nighttime critters which can bring in diseases and may also be predatory. Those critters are being well fed with excess feed which means healthy critter offspring!

On the same note, where are the feeders at night? All food should be removed from coop and/or run areas when chickens go to bed. Leaving them in place may be easier but it's an open invitation to an all-you-can-eat critter buffet. I leave water in the run but NO feeders. They come inside the house overnight. If you have a garage (I don't) you could put galvanized metal garbage cans in there and place your feeders inside with lids tightly in place.
You really are paying way too much to feed your chickens. I had 5 birds. In May I increased to 9. I calculate that if I go with rounding up to the highest average since the increase I spend $6/bird each month. Before the increase it was a bit less than $5. This includes feed, oyster shell, and grit available from sunrise to sunset, and for pine shavings and PDZ. So at $6/bird I'm spending $54 a month. For your 23 birds it would be about $138 a month. Do you have a Tractor supply and/or other farm supply type store nearby? Compare prices everywhere!

Synopsis:
Lose the corn, change to flock raiser, raise your feeders to the height of a chickens back, bring feeders indoors every night.
And let us know how it goes. We may be able to see other things you can do not only to reduce your costs but to also increase your chickens health!

 

[BYC910]

JMO no one can show me a chicken feed without corn not one . However minute it is there maybe hidden as grain by products. But it is there . Curious why everyone is so against it . Every feed manufacture pushes high priced feed to make money . Dried mash byproducts from a distillery is only listed as distillery by products. Most alcohol is about 75 % corn . There isn't a better tasting egg ,than from a free range chicken supplemented with a good all grain scratch which is about 70% cracked corn. The yokes are darker with a much better flavor .Been doing it that way for all my life . I just wonder how chickens have survived all these centuries without processed feed . A fat chicken is a self basting chicken . Everybody yells about GMO, well no normal chicken is going grow from chick to process in 55 days. Simple fix to chicken loss raise more chickens .Haven't met a rooster yet that didn't have a pot somewhere with it's name on it .If chickens are wasting feed your feeding to much.Everyone is entitled to their own opinion this is mine .

 

[Chickengene]

Are you not in a place that you can free range at all.
I use All Flock now that my pullets are over ten weeks. Actually I mixed what was left with my new bag of AllFlock.
All flock costs me about $17.00 a fifty pound bag. My ten girls and one rooster used to eat about five six pounds a week.
But since they convinced me to allow them to freer range that has been cut by two thirds. A fifty pound bag used to last a month and now a good 90days.
I still get an average of five or six eggs a week per layer, so they're happy and I am happy.