They have devoured 50#'s of feed in 5 days!!!

[gumpsgirl]

Sheesh! Am I raising pigs or chickens?

During the winter months we were going through 50#'s a week. The didn't even make it through a week this time. I am off to town shortly to get another bag for the little pigs.

 

[bigstack]

How many pigs...errr... i mean chickens do you have? LOL I have 51 now. I would like to know what to expect. I have never had no where close to this many! LOL

God Bless!

 

[shelleyb1969]

Sure you don't have some varmits helping out with the feed?

Actually, that happened to me one time. And I had even sold several birds, so the feed bill should've went down! I finally determined that the feed bags I got didn't really have 50# of feed in them.

ETA: I buy from a local farmer who's very close to my home...so these aren't commercially packaged feed bags I'm talking about.

 

[speckledhen]

I go through 2 50# bags of layer pellets every single week as a rule. Two bags of scratch (actually 13% protein game bird grains) every four to six weeks. And don't even ask me about shavings for all the coops. I currently have 37 adults.

 

[Chickenmaven]

You need to let us know how many chickens you have. I would say that unless you have 100 birds, 50# in 5 days is an awful lot. Ten pounds a day? Do you feed scratch or scraps as well?
I have 28 birds of which 10 are Silkies. I go through 125 lbs. of pellets and 75lbs. of scratch per month. (That's 6.6 pounds of food per day). I also feed alot of table scraps.

It will be interesting to read about others' feed ratios in this thread...

 

[darkmatter]

Yeah, winter is hard on the old budget for chicken feed------I learned why my grand-folks would raise chicks in the spring and butcher most of them in the fall. I go through a bin every two weeks, my bin holds 150# of feed (40 chickens, 20 guineas). I manage to cut back on feed by using an old-timers trick----They would plant mulberry trees in the chicken yard----I improved on that, since the average mulberry tree only drops mulberries for two weeks---I planted the variety known as "Illinois Everybearing Mulberry" trees, They drop mulberries for 12 weeks. I also planted apples and persimmons last year in the new enlarged chicken run so as to extend the "free food" dropping season. When I fenced off the new chicken run, I also fenced off my garden with a shared fence for the run. I put a chicken door in the fence and in the fall when I'm done with the garden, I let the chickens in to clean and till up the garden-----boy, do they do a good job of cleanup and till. I should of done that years ago.
For winter feed, I mix the chicken scratch with some layer pellets and the cheapest dry catfood I can find (At Aldi's where I live), of course any kitchen scraps and leftovers get added too. I usually have a "chicken bucket" in the kitchen with a scoop of scratch in the bottom which will soak up any grease and/or cooking liquids I put in during the day. I toss in out in the morning when I let the chickens out and start another "chicken bucket" for that day. Its best to have two buckets and let the chickens clean out the one all day long of any stuck on grease/food. Check out my BYC page for pics of my coop/run setup.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Quote:
Having some of your grandchicks - I vote PIGS! Seems like the Orps are always, always eating - makes it hard to get a picture cause their butts are up and heads down.

 

[pamperedpoultry]

I feel your pain I buy 2 50lb bags and it barely makes it over a week if that

 

[gumpsgirl]

Quote:
Now that's pretty funny and oh so true!

Thank you all for your comments.

I am feeding 29 Orps. and 3 bantams. That's a whole lot of feed and I suppose that these are big girls, but good grief! It's started to get quite a bit warmer here, so I guess I am just shocked that they are eating more.

As far as feeding scratch goes, I do feed some but it's a very small amount. They are also getting a few hand fulls of black oiled sunflower seeds every other day.

Maybe all of this egg laying is making them work up an appetite. Who knows!

 

[En Plein Air Farms]

I have 9 black sex-links, about 10-11 months old. We go through two 50# bags over three months time.
Unless it is really wet and windy they free range the orchard and garden space for 4-6 hours a day.
I inherited them from my father-in-law, and he never let them out until 3 PM and back in the coop at 4 PM. He was going through bagged food at the rate of 2 50# bags every 5-6 weeks.

All 9 chickens lay daily with the exception of once or twice a month I might get 8 eggs. They laid straight through winter too. Amazing girls.

Anyway, if you can free range them at all it will help. Unless you are selling a lot of eggs, that is working up to a pretty expensive hobby

which we all understand but common sense needs to prevail

I also go by the Franz day-old bread store and pick up 3 or 4 loaves of 'brown seedy bread'...the clerks know me and just go get it. 10 cents a loaf and they get 3 or 4 slices when they go in for the evening. The 10 cent bread is in the back, and intended for animal food only. Just another thought.