Is it normal for 8 chicks to eat this much, or am I losing feed somehow?

[Poulterrific]

I have 6 Golden sex-links, and 2 Barred Rocks. The Goldens are about 3-4 weeks old, and the rocks are 4-5 weeks old. They are pretty close in size but the rocks are (naturally) bigger. Anyhow, it seems they will empty a quart jar of feed in a day's time. Is this normal?

When I bought them, the guy at the store said the little bag of "starter crumbles" should last long enough to get them big enough to start on adult chicken feed. But it seems like I will have only gotten about a week out of the bag.

 

[greenfeathers]

I have 25 heavy layer chicks that are almost 6 weeks. I'm about to finish my second 50lb bag of feed. They eat out of the tray feeders. They're my fist chicks.

 

[azygous]

If they aren't eating it, you should find it loose on the bottom of the brooder shavings or whatever you use for bedding.

But yes, they do eat that much. They have been doubling in size each week since hatching, so they have voracious appetites.

 

[cafarmgirl]

They do have huge appetites at this age, they are also extremely busy and curious so a lot of food likely does go into the bedding. With my last bunch I set the feeder on a large square piece of board, that way they at least ate a lot more of all that feed they scratched and billed out of the feeder.

 

[mortie]

Sounds about right. I have 5 chicks that are 6 weeks old and they polish off a quart jar in about 12 hours or so.

 

[harmesonfarm]

i have 8 chicks around the same age as well, finish a quart of starter crumble in a day and night, i refill every morning for them.
They tend to scratch half of it out onto the floor as well as eat half out of the container so i find they like to "search" for the missing crumbs.

a 3kg bag of the starter crumble lasts me about a week as well...luckily at 6 weeks they should be switching to another feed (i forget which one...they explained it to me at the feed store so when i go in next time i'm just going to ask them about it again, their so helpful!)

as far as i know, it's a good thing their eating that much, making their feathers grow nicely and giving them strength.
I heard though that they should be drinking 50% more water than they are eating of dry crumble...not sure if mine are doing that but they seem happy and healthy. I change the water several times in a day (they get it so dirty!) so it's harder to tell how much their drinking

 

[LaRock]

I have 6 golden comets and they eat nonstop! They were spilling a lot of it into the bedding, so I put their feed jar inside of a frisbee and that seems to have helped the waste. But they go through about half a quart of feed a day.

 

[harmesonfarm]

I have 6 golden comets and they eat nonstop! They were spilling a lot of it into the bedding, so I put their feed jar inside of a frisbee and that seems to have helped the waste. But they go through about half a quart of feed a day.

a frisbee! how clever...