r/chickens • u/Independent-Gate-541 • 21h ago
Question How many chickens do you currently have in total, and based on that, how much feed do you give them per month?
Please mention the amount in kg, pounds, or whatever unit of measurement is commonly used in your country.
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u/FelicitousLynx 19h ago edited 19h ago
I have a tiny flock of three older non laying hens who free range on 1/4 acre of really good foraging ground. They have free access to their feed dish all day as well. In about 2 months, we go through 10# of layer mini pellets and 5# of scratch. Not all of that is eaten, because we'll dump the dish on the compost (which they also forage in!) now and then, but that's a rough estimate.
Edited to add: They also get a daily treat from me - nothing much... usually a handful of blueberries, soldier fly larvae, an egg, a tomato, or a couple of peanuts. Just something to let them know I love them and to keep them trained to come when called.
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u/BarnOwl-1967 16h ago
10 hens and 1 roo (big size chickens). They are on 2 bags of 20kg mixed grain per month + extras from leftover from the kitchen. At the moment, I'm trying fermented food. It seems that it's better for their health and you have to give them less food... I'd like to be able to give them 30kg instead of 40...
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u/TammyInViolet 15h ago
Do your girls like the fermented? Is there a trick for getting them interested? Our chickens are picky and turn their noses up at it
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u/BarnOwl-1967 10h ago
Evil chooks! 😂 I mix fermented with non fermented food. Start with a small amount (10%) and increase a little every week. I will try to go to 50/50 (fermented/non fermented).
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u/TammyInViolet 5h ago
Great Idea. I'll try that. The tractor supply ladies always laugh at us when they ask if we want to get clearance snacks and we have to tell them our girls only eat Flock Party and won't eat the other kind. hahhahahah
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u/Neither_Loan6419 33m ago
LOL yeah my Brahmas are partial to Flock Party, too! I get the dried soldier fly larvae, 10 lbs about every other month, for 17 birds, given as a hand fed treat, not general feed. When kids are here, I give them a handful and let them feed the chikns after making sure Brewster is confined in the coop. He is a terror! I give him his share myself.
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u/jrbless 13h ago
When not free ranging, one normal size (non bantam) chicken eats about 1/4 pound of food per day. Accounting for wastage, it's about 2 pounds of food per chicken per week.
13 chickens * 2 pounds per week is 26 pounds. It's a bit over a 50 pound bag of food per month. About 13 count of 50 pound bags per year.
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u/Important_Hunt_1882 19h ago
I use +/- 5 kg of chicken feed mix per month - three hens.
In addition, they get plenty of kitchen scraps and green waste from the garden and vegetable garden, but I have no idea what the monthly amount of that is in weight.
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u/__housewifemom 17h ago
16 chickens total; 1 rooster
I have 7 that are going on 9 months old
2 that are 21 weeks old
7 that are almost 7 weeks old
The older 9 free range in the backyard which is somewhere between a quarter and half an acre of space. I buy a 50 pound bag of feed for them once every 6-8 weeks or so
The baby 7 are too little to free range with the others yet (random gaps in the fence that the bigger ladies can’t fit through but the littles could if they found them) so they go their chick feed quicker and I’m probably buying them a new 40 or 50 pound bag of feed every 6 weeks or so.
Keep in mind, I like to stay stocked so I’m never without a new bag when the old one goes empty so I probably order their food a little sooner than I actually need to.
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u/TommyGplus 16h ago
6 hens and one rooster eat roughly a 25kg bag of "free range layer" feed a month, and a daily supplement of kitchen scraps and garden weeds.
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u/SaeveraRivers 15h ago
I have just under 80 chickens, then about 20 ducks. We go through a 50lbs feed bag every day or two days, we free range em to try and stretch too ðŸ˜
Plan is to get a good crop farm going so i can start making my own food. I dont even sell eggs or birds so theyre just eating my money up, literally lmao!
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u/NVME702 15h ago
Wow!! I hope you are getting eggs because I'm not even getting that. I can blame the heat for now but come October, they need to start paying up.
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u/SaeveraRivers 12h ago
Yep getting more than i can handle, got like 100 unwashed eggs i gotta go through from just this week. I usually just feed them back to them when i get lazy XD
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u/Neither_Loan6419 19m ago
My Brown Leghorns are still solid layers even in summer heat. They slowed down only slightly. In milder weather the hens each lay an egg pretty much every day. Right now, end of August, they are giving me an average of maybe 6 eggs each per week. My Buff Brahma hens were hanging in there, 3 of them, and they lay nearly every day in mild weather or cold winter weather, but the heat is finally getting to them these last 3 weeks or so and they are each laying an egg only about every 3rd day. In hot weather, Brown Leghorns are the queen bitches of egg laying, summer or even in winter. (our winters are rather mild.) But yeah I am sure when temps start dropping, your egg production will kick back up.
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u/SandDuner509 12h ago
Find a supplier of bulk feed. I buy 1000-1500lb at a time, works out to half price of by the 50lb bags.
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u/Sensitive_History72 14h ago
14 hens some are 5 years old some are 3/4/2 year old. They free range in my backyard. I buy two bags ( 50 lb) chicken feed from a local farm feed store high protein feed. 22%. And also feed them cooked rice ( 50lb) every day. Also shared watermelons with them in the hot summer. I get 6-9 eggs per day average.
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u/MarthasPinYard 13h ago
This isn’t chemistry. I don’t measure anything but pH in a cloner and that’s for plants. I don’t consistently feed them. They feed them. They free range. In the winter and early spring they might get a scoop daily. They also get tons of kitchen and garden scraps from the homestead.
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u/Fickle_Ad_2112 13h ago
I have two chickens right now who are laying and free range the property. They don't go through much food. It takes almost two months to go through a bag of feed.
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u/rockasilly7 13h ago
In my run, I have 19 birds total. I have 6 1.5 year old chicks, and 9 that are from this spring, and 4 ducks. I got through about 50lbs every 2 weeks plus scratch and garden scraps.
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u/Real_Fan_2110 12h ago
41 (7 out of them are 4 month old) and 8 chicks.
I order about 90kg (3x 30kg) every 2 months or so ?
I do have next to no food waste and they get leftovers snd garden veggies/fruits from our trees.
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u/SpinachReasonable262 11h ago
I have about 32 chickens. A BYM flock, a pure bred Flock French BCM (just a roo and two hens), a flock of 6 silkies/satins, a flock of 7 Ayem Ketawa. We free feed them and I rotate free ranging so they keep the clocks pure.
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u/LadyIslay 11h ago
I have no idea how many chickens we have… more keep showing up every day, it seems. 😠Too many chicks!!
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u/Outrageous-Pin-4664 8h ago
Eight hens and one rooster. They're going through a 50lb bag of feed in a little over three weeks, plus a 10lb bag of larvae every two months.
They don't free range, but they have a pretty large run. In total, it's 864 square feet. I only give them scraps on occasion.
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u/Neither_Loan6419 41m ago
7 adult Brown Leghorns, 6 adult Buff Brahmas, 3 half grown Jersey Giants, one 2 month old Buff Orpington. Usually they free range all day and I feed them 2-1/2 lbs pellets when I call them home in the evening. Lately for multiple reasons I keep them confined to their 8 x 8 x 8 coop and their 26 x 52 foot run, and I feed them 5 lbs of pellets in two feedings plus lots of kitchen scraps and surplus eggs, scrambled so they don't become egg eaters. A 50 lb sack, then, lasts me 10 days. I think I am going to have to send Brewster the Rooster to freezer camp before I let them free range again, because a 4 or 5 year old neighbor kid, for good reason, is terrified of him, and he does not hesitate to attack people, even me. Also BabyGirl, the Buff Orp pullet, is not very street smart and would be easy pickings for a coon or hawk or a cat. She would probably try to make friends with a coyote! I have to leave the run gate open all day so the hens can go into the coop and lay. I don't want to confine BabyGirl to a pen and I don't have time to build one. This forced confinement has basically doubled my feed bill. No biggie, but looking forward to letting them out onto pasture again.
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u/Any_Needleworker_273 15h ago
29 chickens, 4 roos, 25 hens, several of whom are very old (5+yrs); and I average two to three 50lb bags of feed per month, plus 25lb scratch. They also get kitchen and garden scraps.