Teenagers eat more than full grown chickens?

[BrynnRDH]

My chicks are 8 and 10 weeks old now, there are four LFs and one bantam cochin. I've heard that a fully grown hen will eat a pound of feed a week. Well my five chickens are eating about a pound a day! Is this normal? I have caught my dog chowing down on their feed a few times, is it likely that he is the culprit?

 

[mtnpull]

I am no expert, but I would suspect the dog. If you have caught him a couple times, surely he has gone un-noticed a couple times.

 

[teach1rusl]

Yeah...something besides 5 chicks is eating your feed if you're going through a pound a day. Maybe it's a teenager???

 

[NanaLantana]

Well, I'm not sure what the others will say, but I noticed that now that my chickens are (mostly) full grown, they don't eat as much feed as they used to. But now they have taken to kitchen scraps, so maybe that is why - But I did notice that when they were teenage size, they ate a lot, and always seemed hungry. Same as human kids, maybe!

 

[BrynnRDH]

Thanks for the replies! I'm having trouble with the darn dog. I like to let the chickens out into the yard to free range during the day. If I leave the door to their coop open the dog goes in and has a chicken poop and apparently chicken feed buffet. I don't want to lock them out of the coop in case they want food and water, but I don't want to keep the dogs inside all day either!

 

[teach1rusl]

Yeah...my dogs like the chicken feed too - not sure why. Maybe try a barrier across the run door that's only big enough for the chickens to get through??? Of course that wouldn't work if your have a small dog...

 

[Cindy in PA]

A full grown chicken eats 1.75 to 2.4 lbs per week, depending on breed. Leghorns and small breeds 1/4 lb/day & larger birds eat about 1/3 of a lb/day. If your teenagers eat 1 lb/day and are duel purpose birds, that is 3 times more than a grown chicken. Don't know if that's a lot or not, but at that stage they are growing fast and need lots of food. Doesn't seem unreasonable especially if they are scattering some.