My 17 hens are eating 50lbs in less than a day , is this normal ?

[Attila the Hen]

Goodness, I feel like I am underfeeding mine now. I am down to 7 chickens and I feel like a 50# bag lasts me for a couple of months-- , maybe longer. I worry about it going bad. I have food available all the time and they don't eat much of it except first thing in the morning. They free range and I do fermented feed which is said to reduce the amount fed significantly. I may give them less than a pound each day-- I think I will start weighing it. You will find information on fermenting feed on another thread. This is an interesting question. Clearly other animals are eating your feed. You might want to get a cat. I don't have many birds in my yard and no mice, gophers or flying squirrels can live nearby--poor things.

 

[Attila the Hen]

To be honest I also feed a lot of healthy snacks and leftovers when I am at home.

 

[Our Roost]

Why pellets? Find a local grainery and purchase ground corn mash. The grainery mix will have all the nutrients needed for your chickens included in the mash. Not extremely pricy either. Compare the price to pellets. I have 19 hens and 1 rooster. They eat like pigs during the winter months and need more nutrients. Much like your heat bill going up in the winter, so can your feed costs. I also go through a lot of food, but not near 50#s a day! Thats overkill and if they truly are eating that much, Its more your inexperience than theirs. Cornish hens are one breed that will eat as much as you put in front of them. My 4" PVC feeding tube and trough holds about 2 1/2 gallons or 10 quarts of feed and can be gone by the end of the day! In fact on some days it has. I honestly think they would eat more if I gave it to them! We generally buy 100#s per week and 1/2 or so at $16.00 per bag. In 2 to 3 days a 2 1/2 gallon bucket is full of chicken poop droppings. How much poop are you getting? It pretty much explains who's eating it. Good luck and remember, spring is just around the corner!

 

[juststruttin]

That is a good point. I had a bag of pellets a plastic garbage can and when I went to feed it (1 week), it almost gone. 50# snap. I later discovered a ton of pellets in the corner of the barn behind some boards. The rats had carried them away for safe keeping. It would be harder for them you were feeding crumble. I switched to crumble for other reasons, and also now use steel garbage cans.

Blue jays can also clear out a feeder pretty quick. Perhaps buy some crumble and see what happens.

 

[SamanthaBrooke]

You'd be surprised how much feed mice and rats can eat, and they don't just eat it, they tote it away and hide it everywhere I know when I had rats my 25lb feeder would be empty with 10 seramas in not even a day until I got rid of the mice and rats.

 

[ChristineR]

Wow! I'll be waiting to hear what's eating all that food. Do you have any barn cats? Sounds like they could help you with the rodent problem.

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

We dont have rats but mice are coming out of our ears. I currently have about 40+ fowl in one building and a 50# bag of feed last me up to 3 days, but I notice when the mouse population explodes, because all of a sudden the feed doesnt even last 12 hrs!!!!! Walked into my coop in the dark once switched on the light and had a couple hundred mice pour out of the hanging feeders(they are hanging at turkey/peafowl height it, amazes me they get up there). It was like a horror movie, could have scripted it any better.

I spend 3 hrs in the evening for 3 days with about a dozen snap traps placed into the empty feeders and just sit on a chair in the coop in the dark waiting for the tell-tale SNAP. I put 1 pellet on each trigger and each night I would clear out between 50 and 87(my record the first night) mice in 3 hrs!!!! Just wait in the dark, snap, go empty the trap and re-set it.
My small little bucket with my bait for the traps had to be set full os snap traps cause they figured the feeders were empty and started climbing the bucket......
If you sit nice and quiet like you can even leave the light on and watch the mice come out of their holes. Some even climbed up my boots to see what I am

, hard to read a book in peace when you feel something climbing your boots/pant leg.

End result was tho I am back to only feeding a "small" population of mice and the feed lasts 3 days again.

 

[ChristineR]

Oh my gosh. That sounds creepy. Mice don't even bother me, I think they're kinda cute, but I would be having nightmares about the Hanta virus!

 

[Quyen Le]

I feed them during the day the amount that they can consume in 10-15 minutes. This will save you lots of feed but will cost you time. I have 50+ chickens and cost me around $3 a day.

 

[Island Roo]

Well - you have everyones attention now. I had to read this thread after seeing the title.

If we all chip in $1 we could buy this person an IP camera on the condition that they set it for all of us to view the mystery critter(s) feasting on on the buffet.

JR79 - don't forget to give us an update when you solve the mystery. And welcome to BYC!