What the heck, my chickens are mowing through the food....

[Naser]

Put a couple snap traps out there and catch those mice. Chickens love mice - as a food treat. Once they figure the first one out, they will chase each other and try to steal them.

Before you do that, be sure your neighbors aren't using rat poison, you can kill your hens by feeding them poisoned mice

 

[junebuggena]

They just started laying about a week ago. So about 5 months old. And I live in So Cal, so winters are mild.....I'm thinking it may be rodents (a small mouse is the only thing that may get under the coop edge). Im going to bring on some rock.....that should keep them out.

It might be rodents. But it could also be the that they are beginning to mature. Pullets do eat quite a lot more, just prior to onset of laying. Once they are fully developed, the feed consumption drops back down.

 

[robinwhiskers]

Our chickens have a very secure run, no predators or animals that could be eating their feed but they would still go through a 40 pound bag of crumbles in a few weeks. I recommend getting pellets if you're able, it's the same price as crumbles but it lasts so much longer!

 

[CluckberryHound]

Recently relocated to an existing farm and found the chickens' food consumption was gradually doubling. And their egg production gradually dropping. I also noticed that when they would just look at me for a while, a lot of their heads would tic pretty much like a human with Tourette's spasms for no apparent reason. Looked it up and found they'd caught a batch of mites, most likely from the local wildbirds. We're treating it now with DE and within a few weeks their appetite is returning to normal levels and their egg production is picking back up.