seasonal feed quantity changes

[yyz0yyz0]

currently my 7 hens are eating approx. 10lb of feed a week and laying 3-4 eggs a day.

I had assumed that with the unavailability of free range forage this time of year that I'd be seeing a slight drop off in feed quantities as the weather warms and the snow melts. But then I got to wondering if my feed use would go up as the weather warms and the days become longer and I start seeing 6-7 eggs a day up from the current 3-4/day.

So as a general question, does feed consumption go up as egg production goes up?

I try to let them out for a little while every day to free range so I think any increase will be somewhat offset by foraging. Of course come warmer weather when they will be laying more they also won't be needing to generate as much body heat so maybe it will be a wash.

 

[Den in Penn]

As general answer, yes the food consumption does increase with the increase of egg production. If you pasture is good then they will find more then enough to make up for the increase. They may be using less calories to keep warm but they will be using some of those to hunt down the food in the pasture. Lot of factors in what they need in the summer versus the winter.