New Coop...How much to feed and water?

[larsocam]

Hi everyone, I am new to BYC and in the process of building a coop for 3-4 hens. The floor plan of the actual coop will be 4'x3' with the nest boxes on the outside so I have plenty of room on the inside for their feed and water. I am probably going to make my own feeder/waterer since that is more fun than buying, and just was wondering how much food/water would 3-4 hens consume in a day? I tried looking around on here and seems like most people have large flocks and I didn't see a great answer. Thanks for any help.

The short version: how long will it take 3-4 laying hens to...?
Eat a 50 lb bag of feed?
Drink a gallon of water?

 

[Den in Penn]

Welcome to BYC
One hen eats 1/4-1/3 lbs a day. .25lbs x 4 hens = 1 lbs a day A 50lbs bag is then 50 days. feed. .33 lbs x 4 hens = 1.3 lbs a day. A 50 lbs bag is then 38.46 days. Water use depends on what the weather is so I can't tell you how long 1 gallon will last. There actually many people with small flocks under a dozen birds on here.