Question about how much feed?

[Wynette]

I stopped keeping track. It was driving me crazy, and they should have food available 24/7 anyway, so I just quit paying attention.

 

[rizq]

Well, if it was not for having to go to the feed store for 3 bags of feed (plus an extra here and there) every week, I probably would not know either, lol.

 

[katrinag]

I also have a herd of chickens, I have switched from crumbles to pellets and found that I am not wasting so much. Also in the winter they will eat a ton more to keep up there body fat to keep warm. In the spring and summer feed lasts forever b/c they are out eating bugs and everything else in sight.

 

[tmb3fan]

I think the amount of feed varies depending on where you live.

Mine get 3-4 cups of feed at least once a day thrown on the ground and it is gone in 2-3 minutes. If they forge all day, then they get fed once in the late afternoon to get them back in the correct pens at the time I want to put them up. If they don't get let out that day, then they get fed the 3-4 cups twice a day. I 50# bag of laying pellets lasts about 4-5 weeks. About once a week I throw a handful of cracked corn in the pen with the pellets and about twice a week I throw a handful of sunflower seed in. Those 2 bags last a really long time (don't even remember when I bought them last). Out of my 8 hens (also have 3 roosters), I got 3-4 eggs a day in January and now that the days are getting longer and it has been really warm, I am getting 5-6 eggs a day.

We don't have much of a winter here, so they get plenty to eat foraging. I also have not needed to use any oyster shells and they have really hard egg shells.

I suspect this summer, I can get by with a little less feed.

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Your chicken must be eating you out of your house.
Mine 9 mutts and a rooster eat about 40 lb of layer crumble, 15 lb of combined wild bird seed and scratch a month + kitchen scraps, (if available), giving me 4 to 7 eggs per day now in winter time.

About 5 pennies a day per chicken.

 

[HidingInTheHenHouse]

You should really consider someone else's suggestion that wild birds or squirrels could be eating your food. We had hundreds of sparrows eating the chicken food, so we switched to the pellets. The sparrows can't eat those as easily, but then the starlings moved in. We were going through 50# every 2 days, and I only have 21 chickens and 5 guineas. We have since gotten an owl that moves to scare away the stalings, and taken up target practice with pellet guns. We've gone through less than 25# in the past week since instituting those measures. I think I'm going to buy a sparrow trap now, since they are not as scared off by the owl.

 

[feldon]

Have you considered that RATS,,arrg could be getting into your coop and eating the food? That's what we're dealing with right now. They can clean out a feeder lickety slick.

 

[cmom]

I don't know how much feed my birds go through in a day. I keep the feeders full. For 20 birds I probably go through 50#'s a month. My birds also get scratch, seeds, grain, alfalfa, and vegie scraps. Also they free range.