# How much Chicken feed do you keep on hand?



## Gophfer (Feb 14, 2017)

I have around 50 layers and 2 roos. With the abundance of predators in my part of Florida, I only free range them when I am working in the coop area. If a long term event happened I would have to butcher and can a large percentage of them and begin free ranging the rest of them longer and feeding them commercial feed less. 

How much chicken feed do you keep on hand? I try to never get below 100 pounds in reserve but that doesn't last long, about a week.


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## AmishHeart (Jun 10, 2016)

I keep about 100 lbs of layena, 100 lbs of chick starter, 50 lbs of scratch. I also keep 150 lbs of sunflower seed, whole oats, and wheat which I sprout in large jars, and I also use these seeds to grow fodder. Chickens get a large jar of sprouts daily, and a pan of fodder twice a week. I store about 300 lbs of rice, and also give them cooked rice as well as cooking scraps. We have 30 chickens, 3 roosters, 8 babies in the brooder and 19 eggs in the incubator. We have two chicken runs, both are covered. One has a large hen house and the other just has nesting boxes. They get some free ranging in the runs, but we have way too many predators to let them run around.


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## jnrdesertrats (Jul 3, 2010)

We buy it by the pallet, so 2500 lbs.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

We keep a 50lb bag of feed & a 50lb bag of oats unopened for 8 hens. When we open them, we buy another. The ladies are good free rangers & we feed them scraps from the kitchen as well. We have a renewable calcium source from muscle shells at the river & we refeed them the eggshells.


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## HardCider (Dec 13, 2013)

We keep 200-300 lbs of feed on hand but because we free range we go thru very little in the spring summer and early fall. They also seem to hit the sheep hay for the greenery in the winter. They make a mess of my compost piles looking for worms and grubs. They sleep at night in the coop and run loose with the sheep and dogs during the day


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

When the last bag is empty I purchase two more bags.

TEOTWAWKI I will have bigger problems that will prevent me from maintaining my flock of 7.


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## ClemKadiddlehopper (Aug 15, 2014)

I buy 4-6 tons of wheat and 3 tons of field peas every fall if my Amish neighbors planted any. I give them 2 cents/lb over grain elevator prices and pick it up from them in the tractor bucket. They bag it for me. They don't have to pay to get it delivered to the elevator and worry about less than pristine quality. Win Win.

If they don't plant or get a crop for some reason, than its downsizing time for the ducks and turkeys and I only buy about a third of the usual amount to last the chickens a year. If the chickens stop paying for themselves and the others, they will get downsized as well and that year supply will last at least 3 years.


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## oldasrocks (Jun 30, 2012)

We have 15 Red Star hens and one rooster. I like them because they lay all winter.
We keep a 50 gallon barrel each of chicken scratch and one of egg mash. I think this is about 300 lbs of each or 6 bags. Too many chicken hawks etc to free range. 

I found some nice used barrels that held cotton seed oil with removable lids. Even outside here the feed stays dry and mouse free.


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