Chicken Feed Cost Calculator
Tells you how much feed your flock goes through and what it costs per month and per year.
- Feed per day
- 1.5 lb
- 45 lb per month
- One bag lasts
- 33 days
- 0.9 bags per month
- Cost per month
- $18.00
- Cost per year
- $219.00
What a typical flock costs to feed
Six laying hens eat about 1.5 lb of feed a day —45 lb a month. At $20 for a 50 lb bag, that's $18.00 a month and $219.00 a year, with each bag lasting about33 days. Put your own flock size and local feed price in above.
How this calculation works
The engine is one extension-published number: a laying hen eats about 0.25 lb of feed per day — a quarter pound, or roughly 110 grams. Alabama Cooperative Extension puts daily intake at 100–150 g and Oklahoma State University Extension uses the same 0.25 lb figure for budgeting. Multiply by your flock size for daily consumption, then by 30 for the month and 365 for the year.
Cost comes from your feed price converted to a per-pound rate. A $20 bag at 50 lb is 40¢ a pound, so a quarter-pound-a-day hen costs about a dime a day to feed. The calculator takes bag price and bag weight separately so you can compare the 40 lb bags some brands quietly shrink to, or price out 25 lb organic bags — organic typically doubles the per-pound cost.
The quarter-pound is an average across the year and the flock. Heavy breeds, molting birds, and cold weather push intake up; bantams, summer, and good forage pull it down. If your birds free-range, expect to buy 10–25% less feed in the green months — but keep full feeders out anyway, because hens compensate for whatever forage lacks.
A worked example
A dozen hens at 0.25 lb each eat 3 lb a day, which is 90 lb — call it two 50 lb bags — a month. At $20 a bag that's $36 a month, about $438 a year. Those twelve hens in good lay produce roughly 18–20 dozen eggs a month, so the feed cost per dozen lands around $1.80–$2.00 — before bedding, birds, and the coop, which is why the startup cost calculator exists.
Two ways to cut the bill that actually work: buy feed by weight not by bag (feed stores often sell 50 lb bags cheaper per pound than the boutique 25s), and fix your feeder. Rodent theft and billing-out — hens raking feed onto the floor — routinely waste 10–20% of a bag. A treadle feeder or a feeder raised to back height pays for itself in a season.
Frequently asked questions
- How much feed does a laying hen eat per day?
- About a quarter pound (0.25 lb, roughly 110 grams) of layer feed per day — the figure used by Alabama Cooperative Extension and Oklahoma State University Extension. Big breeds, cold weather, and heavy layers push it toward a third of a pound; bantams eat noticeably less.
- How long does a 50 lb bag of feed last?
- Divide 50 by your flock’s daily consumption. Six hens eat about 1.5 lb per day, so a 50 lb bag lasts around 33 days. A dozen hens empty the same bag in about 16 days.
- Does free-ranging reduce my feed bill?
- Some — foraging birds typically cut purchased feed by 10–25% in the green months, but they still need layer feed available at all times. Treat any forage savings as a bonus rather than budgeting on it; laying stops quickly when protein intake drops.
- Why do my hens suddenly eat more in winter?
- Birds burn feed to stay warm, and there’s no pasture to supplement with. Expect winter consumption to run 10–20% above summer, right when egg production is also at its lowest. Budget with the calculator’s numbers as a floor, not a ceiling.
- Is it cheaper to mix my own feed?
- Rarely, at backyard scale. Commercial layer feed is formulated to hit protein, calcium, and amino-acid targets at bulk-ingredient prices a small flock can’t match. Mixing your own usually costs more and risks nutritional gaps that show up as thin shells and dropped production.