Tool

Chicken Feed Cost Calculator: Feed per Week, Cost per Month and per Dozen Eggs

Field guide · Updated October 26, 2026 · about 8 min read

How much feed does your flock go through, and what does that feed cost per dozen eggs? Enter your hens, the price and weight printed on your own feed bag, and either your egg count or an estimate from published lay rates. The calculator uses extension figures for how much a hen eats and shows every formula and number below the tool. It contains no feed prices of its own: the cost lines stay blank until you enter yours.

How the calculator works

The tool multiplies hens by daily intake, converts your bag price to a price per pound, and divides the feed bill by the dozens of eggs the flock lays:

Feed per day = full-size hens × lb per hen + bantams × lb per bantam
Feed per week = feed per day × 7; per month = feed per day × 30
Days per bag = bag weight ÷ feed per day
Eggs per week (estimate) = (full-size hens × first-year eggs + bantams × 50) × laying-year multiplier ÷ 52
Feed per dozen = feed per week ÷ (eggs per week ÷ 12)
Feed cost per dozen = feed per dozen × (bag price ÷ bag weight)

Two choices here are HenClass's, not the sources': applying Purina's percentages to the Leghorn, sex-link and bantam figures, and using the year-4 rate as a ceiling for older hens. If you count your eggs, switch step 4 to your own tally; it beats any estimate.

Feed per dozen eggs by laying year

A hen eats about the same quarter pound a day whether she lays five eggs a week or two, so the feed behind each dozen rises as she ages. At 0.25 lb a day, one hen eats about 91 lb of feed a year (0.25 × 365). Divided by Purina's year-by-year egg figures:

To turn any row into money, multiply the feed per dozen by your price per pound (bag price ÷ bag weight). Bantam eggs also hold less food: a North Central Regional Extension bulletin on bantams says their eggs are about two-thirds the size of large-fowl eggs and often weigh 15 to 20 ounces per dozen.

Cross-check: an extension egg-cost budget

A 2026 fact sheet by Jonathan Moyle, Dale Johnson, Tom Tabler and Nathaniel Bruce, published by University of Maryland and University of Delaware Extension, works out what a dozen backyard eggs costs. Its budget assumes 10 high-yielding layers (Leghorn or Rhode Island Red crosses) raised from chicks and kept for three years, about 200 non-production days for growing and molting, a 70% daily egg yield that already allows for 20% mortality, and supplemental winter lighting. Its feed conversion is 4.5 lb of feed per dozen eggs, close to the year-one figure above.

That budget counts more than feed: chicks, starter and grower feed, bedding, egg cartons, electricity and startup items such as housing, a feeder and waterer and feed storage. It leaves out labor, noting that "valuing labor would discourage backyard producers." The calculator here gives the feed share only, so its cost per dozen will come in below a full budget like this one.

Why your flock may eat more or less

• Body size. Kentucky Extension says that typically "the larger the chicken the more feed they eat," and Mississippi State says brown-egg hens are usually larger and eat more than white-egg hens.
• Breed type. Kentucky gives monthly figures for 25 laying hens in 50-lb bags: commercial white-shell layers 3–3½ bags, commercial brown-shell layers 3–4 bags and dual-purpose hens 4–4½ bags. Over a 30-day month that works out to about 0.20–0.23, 0.20–0.27 and 0.27–0.30 lb per hen per day.
• Heat. Kentucky says feed consumption falls as temperature rises above 68°F and that chickens eat less especially above 86°F.
• Laying. Hens in production have higher nutritional requirements than hens that are not laying (Kentucky).
• Waste. Feed spilled on the floor still comes out of the bag. Alabama notes that adult chickens eating crumbles tend to waste more feed.

Keeping the feed bill down without cutting eggs

1. Keep feed available. Oregon State says feed should always be available and warns that meal feeding can reduce productivity if not managed carefully; UF/IFAS says a few hours without feed will probably cause a drop in egg production.
2. Fill feeders only partway. Penn State recommends trough feeders one-third to one-half full, with the lip level with the birds' backs, to prevent wastage.
3. Give enough feeder space. Oregon State's minimum of 4 linear inches per adult reduces spillage, "which discourages rodents," and saves money. The coop space calculator works out feeder length.
4. Limit treats. Oregon State keeps scratch to what birds eat in about 20 minutes, 10 to 15 percent of daily intake; Penn State says table scraps or whole grains can decrease production. See what can chickens eat.
5. Match bag size to your flock. Check the "one bag lasts" line against the 2-month (Oregon State) or 3-month (Alabama) storage limits before buying a larger bag.
6. Plan for older hens. Feed per dozen climbs every year, as the chart shows. Adding pullets in age groups is covered in how long hens keep laying; model the mix in the egg production calculator.

Measuring your own flock's intake

The quarter-pound rule is an average. For a figure that fits your hens, especially bantams, weigh what you add to the feeder over one week, weigh what is left at the end, and divide the difference by the number of hens and by 7. Enter the result under "My own figure" or as the bantam rate. Feed, protein and calcium by life stage are covered in feeding laying hens.