A full sized adult laying hen generally eats four ounces a day. I can see a heavy meat broiler eating six ounces a day in the last week or so but I would figure the four ounces a day is plenty for say weeks four and five. You can get a rough idea of the total feed needed by searching for the meat to feed conversion ratio to that breed, assuming they are kept in a fairly confined coop so they don't burn off calories, and deciding at what weight you want to butcher them.
A guesstimate for a five pound bird would be around 9 pounds of feed needed per bird assuming factory farm type conditions. That works out to 4 ounces per day for 36 days or five weeks. You ought to be butchering them at 6 weeks at least so obviously they will eat a lot less than 4 ounces per day at much of their life and more than 4 ounces per day at the end. If you are feeding more than that you are probably feeding wild birds or rats or the family pets. Get a good treadle feeder with a spring loaded door, an inner feed lip, and a counterweight if you want to stop wasting feed.
A guesstimate for a five pound bird would be around 9 pounds of feed needed per bird assuming factory farm type conditions. That works out to 4 ounces per day for 36 days or five weeks. You ought to be butchering them at 6 weeks at least so obviously they will eat a lot less than 4 ounces per day at much of their life and more than 4 ounces per day at the end. If you are feeding more than that you are probably feeding wild birds or rats or the family pets. Get a good treadle feeder with a spring loaded door, an inner feed lip, and a counterweight if you want to stop wasting feed.
