8 Ways to Save on Chicken Feed Costs

Chicken feed costs stretching the budget? We get it. Here’s 8 ways to save on Chicken Feed costs.

1.       Make sure you are feeding the correct amount of food – Under feeding OR over feeding your chickens can result in lower laying rates. An adult, laying chicken will eat about 1.75 lbs of feed a week. That translates to about 3.5-4 ounces (about 1/4 lb.) a day which roughly measures out to about 1/2 cup of feed per chicken per day. You can also measure this by measuring your feed amounts then counting the eggs produced in a week. Test with different amounts to see how egg production changes and find the perfect medium.

2.       Feed them food scraps – From your home, local businesses, etc there is thousands of pounds of food scraps thrown away every day. Reach out to a local restaurant, brewery, or other food businesses or even your neighbors, and you might be surprised how much free feed you can get!

3.       Rotationally graze – Easily my favorite solution because of all the benefits rotational grazing provides to the soil but we will focus on feed benefits. Moving chickens from a section of grass to a new section gives them a whole new area of grass, bugs, and range opportunities so they are eating what they should naturally be eating. Some people use this method with zero grain at all. Egg production will drop but the cost benefits are worth it to some. Supplementing grain will give a perfect combination for others.
While this is a little more labor intensive, it is said that rotational grazing can cut your feed bill to a tenth of your original bill. Plus, like I said, huge health benefits to the soil.

4.       Grow them food in the garden or raise worms – Including weeds! Tons of chicken fodders are easily grown in a garden or even your kitchen. The options here are endless. From spouting seeds in your kitchen, to market garden excess & weeds, to fruit trees, chickens are not picky to take what isn’t ideal for human consumption. Worm bins are small and easy to manage as well as a great option to raise a variety of bugs, worms, etc that are an awesome source of protein for chickens. Rasing Black Soilder Flies is also quite popular. See our info on Vermicomposting on how to get started.

5.       Ferment their food – Fermenting stretches food and also offers other nutritional benefits to the chickens. Soak the chicken feed, fully submersed in water for 3-4 days. This will allow the fermentation process to start. You don’t want to go too much longer because it can produce too much alcohol. Benefits of fermentation include; additional probiotic properties for health, protein is more available for digestion, phosphorus becomes more digestible, and combats mold in chicken feed.

6.       Buy in Bulk – Obviously bulk is usually cheaper. Most people save about 20% by buying in bulk. Co-ops are a great place to buy with others if you don’t need that much food for your own chickens or come up with storage solutions to make sure it keeps till you need it.
Here’s some national listings of Co-ops to check out if you don’t know your local one. Grocery.com, Let's Go, and Local Harvest.

7.       Feed them on Compost – Are you a huge composter because of all the soil and garden benefits? The chickens can be your best teammates. Not only do they turn the compost, help themselves to the food, but they also add nitrogen to the compost.

8.       Feed them back their eggs – Finally just have too many eggs? Just feed them back to the chickens. The protein is great for them and they will even eat the shells which is a great source of calcium for them.