How much do you feed your free range chickens?

[momaof3]

I have 19 chickens and 12 of them free range and the other 7 stay in a run/coop area. I bought 100 lbs of chicken feed about 1 month ago and they are almost done with ALL of it. Are they eating way to much?

 

[Pork Pie]

Chickens will only eat enough to satisfy their desire for food. Even if you free range, its important to have proprietary feed available to them - whether you do this by feeding them a couple of times a day or make it available all day is your choice. I free range (in my garden on 0.5 acre - not really "free" ranging) and they go through about 1kg (2.2 lbs?) per bird, per week. Sure, they eat bugs, leaves etc, but the proprietary feed constitutes the majority of their diet.

 

[Dmontgomery]

I must have missed something. How many chickens do you have? I have 46 that free range 12 hours a day over several acres. They eat about 100 lbs per month too, just in feed. That's on top of scratch and other treats.

 

[momaof3]

Sorry for the missing words. Just updated.

 

[BruceAZ]

I have 19 chickens and 12 of them free range and the other 7 stay in a run/coop area. I bought 100 lbs of chicken feed about 1 month ago and they are almost done with ALL of it. Are they eating way to much?

it will depend on what you have in your lot and if you also give them any table scraps

i only have 5 hens (about 6 months old) and they go through the 50lb bag pretty quick.. i would say around 40 days or so and that's including the table scraps i'll give them once in a while

i don't have a lot of things left in my backyard.. they ate all the grass there is..

 

[Den in Penn]

A chicken will eat between a quarter pound and one third pound a day. So by the numbers, using the one third pound for a larger bird.

19 birds x .3 pounds a day = 5.7 pounds a day. 5.7 pounds a day / 100 pounds = 17.54 days.

Yours eating 100 pounds in a month with other food sources is not out of line.