How much feed for chickens

Consult your feed supplier or veterinarian to find out whether you must remove the coccidiostat at the end of the flock. Coccidiostats are not allowed in laying hen rations. If you feed unmedicated diets for more than a week, you are relying on the chickens developing resistance to coccidiosis prior to removing the coccidiostat.

Some coccidiostats for chickens can kill other animals such as turkeys and horses. Consult your feed supplier or veterinarian.

Page Content. Basic Feeding Programs for Small Chicken Flocks Chicks will double their weight four to five times in the first six weeks of life.

Some suggested feeding programs for small chicken flocks include: Broilers 1. Use a coccidiostat in the starter and grower. Follow your feed supplier's or veterinarian's recommendation for coccidiostat in the finisher. A broiler chicken will eat about 1 kg of starter, 1. Roasters 4 to 4. Provide approximately 1 kg of starter per bird in the first three weeks. Chicken treats and greens Chickens will eat most things that you give them within reason.

They will enjoy pasta, green veggies, cereals, raisins, banana…. There are a few different type of feeders on the market, but the most important aspect of a feeder is that it keeps the chickens food dry. Omlet have a range of different feeders to choose from, just click here to browse them. The Eglu Grub food container will, when full, contain enough food for two chickens for up to four days. Even though most feeders will keep the food dry from rain, it is still wise to place the feeder somewhere sheltered so your chickens can still access food whilst sheltering from bad weather.

Your chickens need to have access to fresh water at all times. You should refresh their water supply daily and ensure that their water drinker is kept clean. In hot weather you should keep the water in the shade and check it more often as chickens will drink more in the hot weather. In very cold weather you will also need to check their water more often as it will freeze over.

The Eglu Glug is great at keeping your chickens' water clean. As with the food it can be a good idea to have two sources of water; one in their coop run area, and one outside if they are free ranging.

Awesome article! Very VERY informative! However our feed store did not carry any of the brands I was interested in trying. Knowing how much feed a chicken needs based on what we previously fed, I started feeding the flock the new food. The food was gradually introduced so as to not upset their digestive systems.

Once we had transitioned to the organic whole grain feed, I noticed that there was quite a bit left at the end of the day. I started to reduce the amount we fed, keeping a close eye out that they had feed available until time to roost.

Of course I did not want to waste any premium feed! Over time, our food bill for the chickens was reduced by a third. The bowls were fairly cleaned out by roost time. Even more important, the flock looked fluffy and healthy! There feathers glistened, and their was very little poopy butt. Conclusion: It appears that as with humans, chickens are as healthy as the feed they eat. One other note, our older hens that live a retirement life of leisure, are living longer! They are healthy and active and occasionally grace us with an egg.

My method of free choice feeding involves four feed bowls for 25 chickens. I give them feed in the morning, along with leftover veggie scraps. The run is large so they have room to forage for insects. In addition, supplements are offered free choice and also given as treats. We do free range, but only when we can keep watch. We are in the woods and the risk of predators is great. Before we had the fence around the poultry area, the chickens rarely had a time to free range outside of their run.

It worked because the run is large and we provide grass and leaves and weeds for them to peck through. Since we installed the fencing, the chickens can be out foraging more often. The amount of feed we use each week has dropped by half. But, even using free ranging part time has had a big effect on our feed bill. A great idea for supplementing your chickens feed is to grow fodder.

This is actually sprouted grains and packs a big nutrition punch. Murano Chicken Farm uses fodder to help keep the feed cost down. In my book 50 Do it Yourself Projects for Chickens , I show the process in photos with a description. Adjust the amount of feed based on what you see left in the bowls at the end of the day. I want the chickens to have enough to eat both first thing out of the coop and also, to have feed available right before dark.

These are the times I witness the most intense eating. In between, food should be available, as chickens will continue to graze all day long. We do not leave food in the coop while the chickens are sleeping. The feed left in the coop will attract vermin. You do not want to attract these pests, so I highly recommend taking the leftover feed back to the storage area at night. Sprouting or fermenting the chicken feed is another method of cutting cost by increasing nutrition.

The sprouted grain or fermented feed offers an easier to digest form of nutrients. Fermenting increases the nutrients available to be absorbed from the feed. The question, how much food does a chicken need, has many variables in the answer. It is possible to be frugal with the chicken feed and yet make sure that your flock gets plenty of nutrition that they need without limiting food intake.

Grab my new chicken care book! But, before that, first make sure your food is still fresh and theres nothing rotten about it.

Am Godwin U. I really wish to start a layer business, just with 25 numbers of layers about to lay or just starting layering. Please, what will be your advice or what do I need to know before starting. Thanks Godwin. Yes, read this article for tips on getting your chickens to start producing.

I got a chick from a friend not knowing what all I was getting into. I have educated myself and like having my chicken. She is sweet and sits in our laps often.

I have two questions. One, should I get another one? I read now that chickens are social and get lonely. Will she be alright with me and my kids or does she need a chicken friend? Two, I read an article about salmonella and am now paranoid about it. Is this really an issue? Chickens are flock type, I would provide her at least one companion.

Salmonella is a lingering fear many people have, proper hygiene and proper coop care and you will be just fine. My 4 black stars eat a whole bunch of kale every day and also love carrot tops and lettuce. Laying pellets and kitchen scraps daily. Free range during the day with their best friends Poppy the dog and two cats who sometimes sneak a nap in the nest boxes. All three are friendly, and they lay pretty well too. I have 8 chickens and half of them are having their feathers picked.

I have been told they are not getting enough protein. I have been feeding them Scratch and Peck and also ferment for some of their feeding. I have been supplementing their feed with boiled eggs 2 for the eight of them and other days a can of sardines mixed with feed. Any suggestions on what else to do or feed them? They have more than the required amount of room in their coop and run. I have read that someone lost all their chickens because they fed them raw oatmeal and it expanded in their stomachs and killed them.

We love our girls and they love us. Thanks for the article. The hens 5 have been very happy since arrival providing a regular supply of 5 eggs a day. We stopped giving them layers pellets and instead make food in the mixer — this consists mainly of carrot and beetroot peelings, cabbage leaves, dandelion leaves, left over fruit pear, apple without pips , etc. They also have about 2 hours everyday roaming in the garden looking for grubs, eating grass etc. Eggs production has dropped and we may get 2 eggs a day.

My chicks 9 love blueberries and watermelon. Thanks for all the great info!! This is our first time having chickens, and they are more fun and work than I expected! Who knew that chickens were shop interesting! A friend of mine incubated some of her eggs and they hatched yesterday. I was just looking to see if there was some kind of treat i could bring to them next week. I have lots of slimy slugs in my garden though.

Thanks for an informative site! I am having a hard time getting them to eat healthy. They want the scratch. But they hardly eat that too. They are free range. They eat dog poop. If they want to scratch there are still healthy options to spread on the ground you can buy.

Advice very much needed. I built my own coup much to the excitement of my two children. On closer inspection they are in very poor condition and are huge and seem to have trouble walking.

I do not have the heart to send them back. Will my girls ever walk or produce eggs. They are not able to climb the ladder into their nesting boxes, so will have to make a weather proof box on the floor.

My hens put small pebbles in their feeder. Do you have any idea why they would do this? They also put dirt in their water. Otherwise they are beautiful, healthy and laying well. Chickens naturally consume grit to help them digest. It is possible a few pieces of rock made it in there while they were consuming the pebbles they found. Depends on your purpose for raising them.

I love your helpful tips. I have 9 hens and 1 BR rooster. I think my girls are ISA browns but not positive since they were variety ordered but look to be mostly the same breed but not any I that I was promised when ordered.

Anyway they are 19 weeks old and been laying eggs for about 5 weeks so they started super early and doing great but this week I have gotten a rubber egg 3 times and 2 days of a super thin shell. They are on layer feed, get a tray full of veggies, some fruit, oats, etc for dinner snack, access to oyster shell, and scratch spread in the morning before they free range.

The last couple of weeks they have all been laying almost every day so its not even taking them 24 hours to lay. I love my girls and my Rooster Dandy. Yup they are all named after flowers, lol. Question: We often have very rainy winters — will the chicken pellets hold up in a light to moderate rain for a few hours, or will it turn to mush immediately?

Yes it will probably get soggy but not always a bad thing. Birds should be fine with consuming it. Thank you for your help. I just got 3 older hens and do not know anything about chickens so all you question and answer sure help.

I would so your chickens have a sense of structure and know when it is time to rise, eat, sleep. Hi from Portugal! I tend my neighbours chickens when they are away often. Their that is the chickens enclosed garden is very large and 7 hens , a cockrel and 2 turkeys share the space.

There is also a separate enclosed space for a hen and her 2 adventurous chicks. All the fences seem secure but obviously not to the chicks! The chicks get into the main space frequently and also into the attached organic garden.

When I appear they scamper home. All the birds seem to get on well. Currently I am cooking an excess of haricot vert from the organic garden as a treat. What a life!! What can I do? We enjoy cutting up a quarter cup of cucumber, about a blueberry each and a banana to split once a day. The chickens go crazy! We then do the same at night minus the banana so we may do squash or more cuke. Your thoughts? Make sure your not over feeding something they cant contain themselves with.

But we typically leave feed out and they feed on demand. Its a different story on treats, do not over feed treats. I feed our RIR just about all kitchen scraps, veggies n fruit only. They get a good diet but they have completely stopped laying. For a yr now. We were getting so many eggs, close to a dozen n a half. But, a yr ago they completely stopped laying. Nothing we feed them has changed. The RIR killed them. We got a RIR rooster, by chance , in the 12 chicks 8 yrs ago.

He is HUGE n mean. Strange that they stopped all of a sudden though. I suggested this option because my three white Leghorn provide me two eggs almost every day. My home offers chicken a better life than my friend can offer. They are still settling in, only six days, no eggs yet! The Brahma are one year plus old by the way. Unfortunately whilst my friend was catching the five Brahmas he inured the leg of one and it now hops around with obvious pain when she puts weight on her left leg. She cannot scratch for food only peck.

She has to sit down a lot. My question is, can someone advise me if chicken have the power to make repairs like a human. Every one seems to love them.

This is a great article. I read that seeds in apple cores contain cyanide. I just fed them cored red delicious apples and they went crazy for them. Not sure if you left that part out or not. Also, I stay away from table scraps. Only the layered pellets and grains plus all the free produce I know they like I can take from one of my courier stops. While there may be no harm in giving them table scraps, I fear I may forget something sometime which may be harmful so I stay away from table scraps all together.

As for their stable feed, I feed them layer pellets with a few grains added. My watering system is PVC and poultry nipples. I saw this on youtube and have to concur nothing makes more sense than this system. They have access to 10 gallons of fresh clean water at all times. Keep up the info. We all need it and it helps us all make more educated decisions. We have an automatic feeder for our girls and they are healthy and happy, I think.

However, so is the growing population of magpies and bush turkeys that also graze happily. Do you have a solution for this? Since then, they have become more like pets and because I am so scared of them being killed, I started letting them into the laundry room each night and they sleep in a huge crate, then in the morning, they go back out to their coop.

However, after the attack, it took them some time to start laying again but then one by one they did and stopped again and have never, in about a year, laid again. They have very healthy diets, clean coops, no illness, no bullying, etc.

Is this due to age or??? TY for your feed back! Love your site and info! I give my chickens apples, but I core them first and take out the seeds. I read that the seeds were toxic.

Is that not true? However, I am a bit concerned that they are going to be effected by all the smoke from the extensive bushfires this summer.

Can anyone suggest ways to protect them or make sure they stay healthy? Apple seeds will NOT harm your chickens. On the farm, chickens eat tons of apples with seeds. You will also find that they prefer to drink out of mud puddles rather than clean water troughs. My 3 Silki Brahma cross girls have just started laying, today we had our first shell-less egg.

We feed layer pellets, fruit veg scraps, mealworms and mixed corn as treats. They have access to a bowl of crushed oyster shells and grit. Is this likely to be the cause of shell-less egg? If we have salmon I cut the skin up into tiny pieces and they get that. In the summer they live watermelon rind. In the winter here in VT I sometimes cook rice or oatmeal as a warm treat.

They sure can be entertaining!! In the summer they love watermelon rind.