new chicken owner, trying to gage food costs

[melalthia]

Hi everyone!

I have 10, ten week old chicks. At 8 weeks we switched their food to crumbles. We are already out of our 50 pound bag that we started them two weeks ago. Does this seem right?
(50 pound bag, for 10 chickens last only 2 weeks??) Seems like a huge amount of food to me but as I'm new, I really have no idea.

Thanks in advance!
-m

 

[clayhill]

Probably, I have 14 BRs and use 50-lbs. every other week. I do treat in the mornings with a quart or so scratch. Now that they have no grass to forage on, I try to give them something green in the afternoons. Right now it's turnips and greens - they love 'em. Throw about 8-10 plants ( turnip and all) over the fence and they gobble it up.

 

[greathorse]

That does not sound right. I beleive adults eat around 4 oz. per day. that would be 2.5 lbs daily or about 35 lbs for adult layers. It does not seem out of the question however depending on how well they are growing.
Bad idea to figure the cost of this habit LOL.

You may have some thing helping itslef to the food as well.
good appetite usually equates to good health in you stock.

 

[greathorse]

Quote:
Forgot to mention it would depend a lot on the breed. Some large fowl youngsters can put it away.

 

[melalthia]

Quote:
It's a brand new coop and really well made. Can't believe anything is eating the food besides little chicks.

Actually they arn't so little. They are pretty big now so maybe they are just fatties. I have:

4 brown leghorns
4 New hampshire reds
2 easter eggers