My 22 hens are eating tooooooo much.

[Omran]

I have 22 hens, that they are eating about 50 lb a week. is that normal? they also get to free range and to eat our left overs food.

thanks for any input.

Omran

 

[bloomnbeauty]

I have an average of 200 chickens and they eat 300 pounds a week. This works out to about 1.5 pounds per bird per week. They also get culled produce from the market where I work.

 

[IN-farmgirl]

I'm glad I just have my 3 chickens! It takes several weeks to go through a bag of feed!! Perfect for me to handle and afford.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I have over 100 free-rangers, plus 15 guineas, 18 ducks, and 2 geese. They eat about 150 pounds a week, and most all of the chickens are bantams.

 

[briteday]

Quote:
That's over 2 pounds per bird per week...sounds like a bit much. Rodent issues?

I have 21 pullets / hens /roos right now and 50 pounds lasts at least 2-4 weeks depending on what other treats they get from the garden or produce dept castoffs.

 

[sonew123]

have 40 chickens and go through 100 lbs every 2 weeks-they free range 10 hours a day. That helps alot!!! Plus I get alot of people who saves me there veggie scraps and food scraps

 

[Chicken Fruit]

HOLY CRAP! All you people's birds eat a TON! My chickens free range in the yard, get scraps once in a while every couple days, and barely manage to eat through 50 pounds of feed inside 6-8 weeks. I have 8 chickens. Maybe the math evens out some where with bird to feed pound ratios, but that just seems like a ton of feed. I think that comes out to like 6 pounds of feed we go through in a week. And I free feed them too. Just toss it in the feeder. And we're on a village lot, not a lot of space. And theyre full size birds, and theyre active layers.

Whats wrong with MY birds? lol. Forget your pudgy biddies, mine must be starving.. LOL!

They ate through A LOT more feed when I was giving them crumbles- I switched to pellets and they stopped wasting and gorging on so much. Thought I should add that, maybe thats the difference between us all...

 

[digitS']

Confined, a leghorn-type hen will eat right at 1/4 pound of feed each day. That's close to 2 pounds of feed per week for a 4 pound bird.

Omran, your hens are eating about 2 1/4 pounds of feed. Are they larger than 4 pound Leghorns?

My hens are eating a LOT of lawn grass and garden goodies these days - sweet corn and cherry tomatoes are favorites. It has also been quite warm - unseasonably so here in the interior West. Their protein consumption is probably too low but they have naturally slowed their egg production with the decreasing daylight and they are probably molting.

Things will turn around soon enough when bad weather confines them to a lighted coop through the cold months of the year.

If your feed has adequate protein, you may want to cut costs a little with 10% to 20% of their diets as scratch grains. Cooler weather and increased need for calories makes scratch a reasonable choice . . . along with its low price. Cutting protein risks cutting egg production, however. The experts suggest a 14.5% protein diet as a minimum and scratch with 8% protein or so, dilutes protein levels fast.

Steve

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
A big part of my problem is mice, though I don't think they really get the chickens feed that much. I feed the chickens in the morning, and it's mostly gone by bedtime. I have one hen that is being treated for a bad case of worms (which can cause them to eat a lot too) and she is in a cage right now. Her feed pan was completely empty this morning, when it was half full last night. I noticed this evening that she was laying on top of her feed pan, I guess she doesn't like to share

 

[Omran]

Well thank you all for the good input, here are some facts:

1- Rodents Issues: we don't have them, because thier run and thier coops are fort knox against any thing basicly.

2- most food consubtion is during the day while we see the birds.

3- most of our chickens are havey breeds, Black Australoups, Buff orp, Barred rocks, easter eggers, and 4 brown leghorns.

4- they free range about 3 hours every night.

so may be we just over feeding them.

they are getting layna mich 16% protin from Purina. and hen scratch.