Chicken Feed Calculator

A standard laying hen eats roughly a quarter pound, about 4 ounces, of feed a day, which is the default here. Bantams eat less and large meat birds more, so change the ounces per bird to fit your flock.

You enter feed per bird in ounces per day and bag size in pounds. Results come back as total ounces, total pounds (ounces divided by 16), and whole bags to buy.

Total ounces equals birds times ounces per bird per day times days. That figure is divided by 16 for pounds, then divided by your bag size and rounded up for bags.

Feed is sold by the whole bag, so any leftover need rounds up to the next bag. A run that lands on exactly 90 pounds with 50 pound bags still needs 2 bags.

Yes. Set Bag size to 0 and the Bags needed card shows a dash, leaving just the total ounces and pounds for when you buy in bulk or mix your own.

Yes. Birds eat more in cold weather and during heavy lay, and less in summer heat. These are mild-weather planning figures, so the tool notes to add a margin for winter.

No. It counts complete feed only. Free-range foraging, scratch grains and kitchen scraps cut feed use, but they should stay a small share of a balanced diet.

Ounces and pounds are rounded to two decimals and bags to a whole number. The result is an estimate for ordering, not a lab measurement, since real appetite varies by breed, age and weather.

No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser, so nothing about your flock is uploaded to a server. You can use it offline once the page has loaded.