How much feed do chickens eat? The monthly maths for 4, 6 and 12 hens
One of the first questions new chicken keepers ask is deceptively simple: how much feed will I actually go through?
The planning number most keepers use is about 1/4 lb (roughly 115 g) of feed per laying hen per day. Scale that up and the monthly picture looks like this:
- 4 hens: ~1 lb a day → ~30 lb a month
- 6 hens: ~1.5 lb a day → ~45 lb a month (about one standard 40–50 lb bag)
- 12 hens: ~3 lb a day → ~90 lb a month
That one number drives two useful things. First, your feed budget: multiply bags per month by your local bag price and you have your real monthly cost. Second, it feeds straight into your cost per egg — divide monthly feed cost by the dozens you collect and 'free' backyard eggs get an honest price tag (for a lot of small flocks it lands around $2–4 a dozen, feed being most of it).
I built free calculators that do this maths for any flock size, in lb or kg:
- Chicken feed calculator: https://flockcalc.site/chicken-feed-calculator
- Cost per egg calculator: https://flockcalc.site/cost-per-egg-calculator
- All the flock calculators: https://flockcalc.site
If your flock eats noticeably more or less than the 1/4 lb rule, I'd love to hear what breed and setup you're running — real numbers from real coops are what make tools like this better.