I'm Going Broke on Chicken Feed!

[Cindy in PA]

25 chickens should eat between 6 & 8 lbs a day depending if they are light or heavy breeds (1/4/bird for leghorns, 1/3/bird for heavies). That would be 187-250 lbs. per month for 25 birds. You are feeding 150 pounds of feed & 50 pounds of scratch, so to me this is just right. I usually have 12 LF birds and they go through 100 lbs. a month give or take, plus some scratch. Chickens eat especially in the winter.

 

[RockwaterFarm]

I have 24 chickens, have a 12 pound feeder that i fill everyday, its about a 1/4 full when i fill it though. i use 4 bags of feed a month. i found though that by mixing cracked corn into the feed it lowered the feed consumption. if you find any new ways tell me. PLEASE!!

 

[macfarms]

I have about 160 birds of all kinds. Pheasants, peacocks, chickens, ducks, geese, quails, guineas, turkeys and who knows what else. I buy 20 bags of feed ( 50 pound bags ) which is 1,000 pounds of feed, and it will last me a little over 3 weeks. That's going broke.

 

[naked_heels]

Chicken always hungry, don't over feed them or else you'll go broke.

 

[ziggywiggy]

If you want to leave chicken feed out 24 seven, then that is a personal preferance. I don't do it because it attracts rodents and I don't want to feed the wild bird population. I've read to feed what the chickens can eat in 15 minutes twice a day. Then let them have a small amount of treats such as scratch grains. Don't include the scratch in their main feed.

 

[rapunzil]

Hello everyone - Thanks for all the responses!

I'm going to to my best to answer all the questions, here goes!

- I've not wormed my chickens but certainly will very soon! Where can I get wormer?

- I too feel that they should have feed and water in front of them at all times. And I do let the feeder run out for short periods so they pick up what has spilled.

- I got my chickens in October and they are still not laying yet.

- I feed Layena crumbles and a scratch mix. I'll give the pellets a try, but can someone tell me why the pellets will make a difference?

- Since I live alone, I don't cook much so therefore not many kitchen scraps going out to the coop. However I will be starting my garden and will have plenty of weeds come summer.... I also rememberd that my local grocery has a bin of produce 2nds that can be purchased for much cheaper, so I'll start doing that and feed to my girls. I can't wait to see the lettuce rugby!

- I'm pretty sure no other critters are getting in my coop. My girls have been big eaters since I got them as chicks.

- I have Silver Laced Wyandottes and Aruacanas.

- I'll shovel an open area outside the coop this weekend, and will also scatter the soiled bedding from my horse's stalls. This way they can pick the bits and pieces of grain out of the manure and have plenty of straw, hay and shavings to scratch at.

- I have a friend that also has chickens, but on a much larger scale than me. She says that it costs her more to feed them than she makes on the eggs, but she keeps them because it helps in the long run with their property taxes.

And as a fellow horse owner, I agree that they should have free choice hay and grain be fed only according to how much activity the horse is being used for.

Cindy

 

[pringle]

What I do with my ducks in the summer is free range them during the day and feed them right before they sleep.This way they learn that they have to search for most of there food during the day and so therefor I dont have to pay as much.

 

[tdgill]

I seem to be going thru more chicken feed and less dog food....

 

[Kittymomma]

The pellets don't get ground down to nothing or billed out of the feeder as easily as the crumble so there's not as much waste--fyi, If you switch them keep an eye on things to make sure everybody is eating. I've read of a few cases where a hen wouldn't eat the pellets after being raised on crumbles and was starving with food in front of her. I'd have thought (like with my kids) if they get hungry enough they'll eat, but that doesn't seem to always be the case.

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

Quote:
if you introduce pellets you need to do it slowly, mix it slowly with the crumbles. I get feed from the local feed mill, the Purina feed is the most expensive, ask around and see if you can get a mix made by a feed mill, the least expensive feed is a mix made for you, but most of the time you have to buy a min. amount