what do you feed your chickens and how long does it last

[chickenwing225]

how long does a sack of laying pellets last for how many chickens?
do you just feed laying pellets or do you mix it with something else?

 

[KMHunter]

I am on my first bag of layer food so I don't know how long it lasts, as I only have 3 chickens. I only feed them the layer crumbles, I don't mix it with anything. I do feed them veggies and stuff though. It's good for them and gives them something to do.

 

[Akane]

Gamebird feed and how much they eat varies greatly. Doesn't help my chicken numbers are always changing. I like hatching.

When I throw a new batch of chicks out there the food gets inhaled, when they start free ranging it drops a little, and when I sell the pullets and butcher the roos my feed drops back down to hardly anything until I do it again. Also feed consumption varies by what is available since I free range. It seemed to go down a lot when the berry bushes started producing to go back up a few weeks later. Went down again when they cut 3 rotten trees down. The younger ones have been hanging about the trees I would guess getting the bugs as the people cut them up.

 

[briteday]

When we had 6 Rhode Island red hens (confined to a run most of the time, only given a rare handful of scraps or greens) a 50 pound bag of layer pellets lasted 6 weeks.

Now we have 6 silkies and 18 egglayers on Purina Flockraiser. We now have a much larger run (about 1/4 acre) where they can free range all day. They get some scratch, weeds, and greens from the garden as well almost every day. And sometimes DD fills a pan with alfalfa horse cubes, re-hydrates them with lots of water, and lets them feast on that as greens for a few days. It seems to me we are going through about 100 pounds in 3-4 weeks or so. But 12 of the egglayers (and the silkies) are teenagers...and you know how they can clean out a fridge before you even noticed!

If it wasn't for the free ranging with lots of bugs and greens they would be eating a lot more feed.

 

[d1]

with 6 layers,7 juvies,4 oegb(juvies) and 5 JBTW,I feed 4 1# coffee cans a day of pellets and let the 6 layers and 4 juvies out to free range for about 3-4 hours a day.......and a 50# sack will last about 2 weeks