How much do chickens eat (AKA how much do these eggs and chicken meat cost me?)

 

It is helpful to know how much your chickens should be eating for many important reasons. 

One of these reasons is to know how much feed to have on hand so you can order ahead (this is for all our feed co-op members). Another is to know how much those eggs and chicken meat are costing you.

First, let’s start with laying hens.

It takes about 16-18 pounds of feed (this is an average folks, for exact science you will need to sponsor my expensive feed study…) to raise a chick to a laying age of about 5 months. 

Once your chicks reach maturity, it takes about 4 pounds of feed to produce a dozen eggs. A laying hen will eat between 1/4 and 1/3 pound of feed daily even if she doesn’t lay any eggs at all.

Doing the math, if you have a flock of 5 laying chickens you should have about 50 pounds of feed on hand for the month, or about 10 pounds per chicken.

If you are feeding your chickens good quality organic feed your feed bill will obviously be much higher than the guy down the street who buys the cheapest food on sale and supplements his feed bill with bags of (choke!) stale bread from the local grocery. But the quality of the eggs you produce are directly related to what your birds are eating.

Also, these numbers do not take into account the losses to your free range flock due to predators, etc. (naturally raised chickens live a little too naturally sometimes!). Also, be sure to add in any other costs such as supplements, pest controls, straw and bedding, etc. as these will also have to reflect into the cost of your eggs.

In the end, you may find that you could certainly buy eggs cheaper at the grocery store. But that would not be comparing apples with apples- and would be the subject of yet another article.

Raising Meat Chickens- How much feed will I need?

We raise Red Rangers here on the ranch for several reasons, the most important is that they taste better. They have a darker, richer meat on them that works well for all our favorite chicken recipes. They are also a heathy chicken that have a sweet disposition and are nice to have on the ranch.  These chickens take twice as long to raise to harvest age and on the average eat about 18 pounds of food each if harvested at 10 weeks.

Calculating that out, each ranger chicken eats on the average about 10 pounds of feed per month per bird.  But don’t forget that as new chicks they eat only a handful a day, with the amount increasing dramatically as maturity approaches.

We use Organic Chick Starter and Poultry Grower Crumbles for the first 3 weeks and buy about 2 pounds of feed per bird.
Then we switch them to Organic Poultry Broiler Finisher Pellets to finish which takes about 7 more weeks feeding about 2.25 lbs of food each week per bird.

Say that you have 25 new ranger chicks:

Doing the math very roughly first order a 50 pound bag of Starter Crumbles.
To finish, order about 5 of the 50 pound bags of Finisher Pellets a month (for a total of about 8 bags).

But won’t I need less feed if my chickens are free ranging?

Surprisingly, your chickens will not be eating much less purchased grain if they are out on pasture than if you kept them all cooped up. This is because the amount of calories that they use getting all that exercise mean that they have to eat a lot more than their sedentary cousins. But- your chickens will be far healthier, happier and much more nutritious!

I hope that the above information will help you. The math is a little fuzzy as each chicken will consume a different amount of feed and numbers are not my strong point.

Pellets or Crumbles- Which chicken feed should I choose?

Image via Wikipedia

AKA The Great Chicken Feed Co-op Thing!

I had a very interesting conversation with a fellow chicken keeper yesterday. We talked about many things, but the main thread of the conversation was about chicken food.

I had approached several local people seeking members for a chicken feed/supplies co-op. Local sources for quality chicken feed are not available and our long time feed store doesn’t share my philosophy regarding appropriate feed ingredients.

It didn’t take much conversation with growers in the know to get a recommendation to a feed producer that has what I am looking for- Modesto Milling

Modesto Milling is not only a California company, it has the distinction of being the first organic grain processor in Central California. They are very careful in their selection of grains for their feeds and have a terrific reputation for quality.

The bad part was- no local suppliers!

I wanted to order direct, but of course the shipping fees for less than a pallet load were going to cause the end price to be waaaaayyy out of this farmchick’s budget.

That is where the co-op idea came in. And then, one of my fledgling members came in contact with a local lady who was already doing this very thing.

Getting back on subject, she mentioned that most of her members were ordering crumbles instead of pellets and asked my humble opinion on the subject. I have always preferred pellets because of the economy when I switched over my feed bill went way down. The chickens were gobbling the stuff up!

I had found that when using other forms of feed, the chickens were picking through the feed containers for their choice of goodies (sort of like offering a 3 year old a choice between a slice of cake or a bowl of brussels sprouts). The rest of the feed (there goes that carefully balanced diet) sort of got slung onto the ground during the great search. Switching to pellets threw them off for a couple of days, but no long term problems once they caught on it was love at first gobble.

So, what would lead a flock owner to choose between pellets or crumbles besides my un-scientific and highly biased opinions?

Here is what one county co-operative extension office has to say:

“Converting mash feeds into pellets or crumbles adds a given cost per ton of feed. However, there are some advantages to feeding pellets or crumbles. Because feed is compacted in pellet form, the bird is able to consume and metabolize a greater amount of feed. Pelleted feeds are a complete unit of feed, and the birds are unable to pick out different feed ingredients. Some mash feeds are extremely dusty and are difficult to handle. Pelleting these feeds improves their handling quality. Most broiler feeds are pelleted because pellets make it easier for the broiler to optimize its genetic potential. Also, this form of feed makes it possible to formulate high-energy, high-protein diets, which aid the broiler producer in maximizing the amount of feed used to produce a pound of meat.”

(Read the complete article here)

Nutrition- are both forms of feed good for my flock?

Modesto Milling posts the exact same ingredients for both the pellets and the crumbles so that should not be an issue.

Cost- will one form cost me more than another?

I called the nearest supplier, Frizelle Feeds in Sebastapol and spoke with a delightful woman there. She told me that they carry both the pellets and the crumbles for $27.99 a bag. So the cost per bag is not an issue.

I also asked her opinion on which feed to choose. She asked me a series of questions; chicks or laying hens?, Bantams or large breed?

She says that in her many years of experience, the smaller hens like Bantams prefer a smaller food. Small birds have to break the pellets up to eat them (That would create some waste as the pieces would fly everywhere at least in my coops).

She went on to say that many people think that the pellets cause less wastage in larger birds, validating my humble opinion. And then she added that it is ok to take what your chickens are used to eating into consideration in other words, if they like crumbles feed them crumbles.

Sooooo….. it may be cost effective to feed pellets because of your chickens feeding habits. But if your chickens are already eating crumbles and you don’t have a large flock , let them eat cake! (I mean crumbles)

Related Links:

Backyard Chicken Forum. pellets or crumbles?

The Classroom at the Coop on feed and supplements

Preventing Salmonella in Farm Flocks (AKA Keeping Healthy Chickens Healthy)

Newsbreak! Salmonella in eggs can make people very sick!

Image by epSos.de via Flickr

If you have been following the news lately, the safety of chicken eggs is becoming a major concern. As a relatively small flock owner, I thought it was time to take a look at the problem to be sure that I would not be contributing to it and also to serve as a guide for those who purchase eggs as reassurance that their eggs are safe to eat.

Large chicken producers raise an incredible number of chickens in a small space. Say that you crammed that many people together in a workplace environment you would probably see a lot of colds and flu being passed around. People would be stressed out because they would not be able to move around and get excercise. The noise level would be awful. Well, it may be an extreme example, but you get the point. It can’t possibly make for a healthy flock without a lot of iffy intervention.

A flock of chickens can pass a Salmonella infection along throughout the flock, resulting in eggs that have the Salmonella bacteria not only on the shells of the eggs, but in the egg itself.

What can a consumer do to ensure that he doesn’t get sick from eating eggs?

It is becoming more and more obvious that we cannot expect government to cover all the bases regarding our food and safety. Some basic, even common sense methods of handling eggs can go a long way toward preventing illness from eggs or any other food source:

1. Wash your hands and any surfaces that raw eggs and eggshells come into contact with. I use a 30% lemon vinegar and water solution (post to follow) in a spray bottle as a final rinse to keep my kitchen (and hands) fresh.
2. Cook eggs fully before eating them. That is ok with me as I always order scrambled eggs to go over my Eggs Benedict.
3. Pasteurized eggs are available for those recipes where nothing but semi-cooked or raw eggs will do- check with your grocer for their availability.

If you follow this advice the likelihood of getting sick from your eggs (or any raw foods for that matter) will diminish to the point of being very highly unlikely to happen.

What can a small chicken egg producer do to prevent having a Salmonella problem in his or her hens?

First it is important to realize that although it may be in the news right now, it is very rare for a small egg producer to have a Salmonella outbreak in the flock. But here are some guidelines to help prevent any future problems (The good news is that this is pretty much common sense, good flock management rules to go by in any case!)

1. Start with healthy chicks. Buy your chickens from a reputable breeder whose flocks are inspected and known to be healthy.

2. Buy your feed from a reputable source. Salmonella can be introduced thorough feed that has been contaminated by rodents, feed additives that come from a questionable source, etc. Also, giving your birds the best nutrition possible will keep their immune systems strong and able to fight off diseases.

3. Store your feed in a way that rodents cannot access it. We use large drums with secure lids for our bulk feed, and secure the chicken feeders at night to minimize rodent contamination. Have a system in place to deal with pest control- if for no other reason your neighbors will thank you.

4. Don’t overcrowd your chicken coops. Too many chickens in close quarters will spread disease among each other. Having coops that are designed for lots of fresh, circulating air is more important than airtight coops to keep chickens warm the old folks say. Chickens are very good at maintaining body heat in winter- that is what all those feathers are for!

5. Keep your coops clean. We like to keep a lot of straw and wood shavings in our coops allowing us to sweep up easily (we consider this our “miracle grow” additive for our gardens). We add a good layer of Diatomaceous Earth before the bedding materials to keep the pests from becoming an issue.

6. Follow guidelines for safe egg handling. This will be the subject of another blog, but essentially gather eggs often, clean properly, refrigerate quickly and sell while fresh!

Sure, I could go on and on about wearing separate clothes and shoes to handle the birds, not allowing other bird people into you flock areas, etc., but that is another article worth of info! Hope this helps!