When I got my first batch of chicks, I made the classic beginner mistake: I bought a 50 lb bag of layer pellets on day one. The chicks stared at pellets bigger than their heads, I had no idea how much they would actually eat, and that bag sat in the corner of the garage for five months while I bought three more bags of starter in the meantime. Nobody told me a chick eats about a tenth of an ounce a day at hatch and ramps up more than tenfold by laying age.
So here is the chart I wish someone had handed me. These are per-bird daily intake figures, the feed type that belongs at each stage, and the transitions that actually matter.
The full intake chart
| Age / stage | Daily feed per bird | Feed type |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | 0.4 to 0.5 oz (10 to 15 g) | Chick starter, 20 to 22% protein |
| Week 2 | 0.6 to 0.8 oz (18 to 22 g) | Chick starter |
| Weeks 3 to 4 | 1.0 to 1.3 oz (28 to 38 g) | Chick starter |
| Weeks 5 to 6 | 1.4 to 1.9 oz (40 to 55 g) | Starter, transitioning to grower |
| Weeks 7 to 10 | 1.9 to 2.6 oz (55 to 75 g) | Grower, 16 to 18% protein |
| Weeks 11 to 16 | 2.6 to 3.5 oz (75 to 100 g) | Grower / developer |
| Weeks 17 to 20 (pre-lay) | 3.5 to 4.1 oz (100 to 115 g) | Pre-layer or grower |
| Week 20+ (laying) | 4.2 to 4.6 oz (120 to 130 g) | Layer pellets, 16% protein, high calcium |
These stage figures come from published poultry feed intake tables (agrifarming.in's feed-by-age guide and similar extension charts). Individual birds vary, but if your flock is eating dramatically more or less than these ranges, something is off: check for feed waste, rodents, or a health problem.
Why chicks eat so little (and why it still adds up)
A day-old chick weighs about 40 grams. At 10 to 15 grams of feed a day, it is eating a quarter of its body weight daily, which is actually a ferocious appetite by proportion. But in absolute terms, 25 chicks at two weeks old eat roughly what one adult hen eats. That is why a bag of starter seems to last forever for the first month and then vanishes: intake roughly doubles every couple of weeks through the grower phase.
Practical takeaway: buy starter in small bags. A 25 lb bag of starter will comfortably carry 12 chicks through their first month. The 50 lb bag is for later, when you have real teenagers eating like teenagers.
The three transitions that matter
1. Starter to grower, around 6 to 8 weeks. This one is forgiving. Starter is 20 to 22% protein; grower is 16 to 18%. Mix the two for a week to avoid a sudden diet change and you are fine. I have watched people stress about this for days, and honestly the birds barely notice if you blend bags.
2. Grower to layer, around 18 to 20 weeks. This is the one that trips people up. Layer feed carries 3.5 to 4.5% calcium for eggshells. That is exactly what a laying hen needs and exactly what a 12-week-old pullet does not. Too much calcium too early can stress young kidneys; too little calcium too late gives you thin, soft shells and the heartbreak of finding a shell-less egg under the roost. The window is 18 to 20 weeks, or when you see the first eggs, whichever comes first.
3. Layer to... nothing, mostly. Once they are on layer, they stay on layer. The only change I make is during molt, when some keepers switch to a higher-protein feed (18 to 20%) to support feather regrowth. It is optional. Your hens will survive molt on layer feed; they just might take a week longer to feather back in.
Bantams and broilers: the outliers
Bantams eat 40 to 50% of what a standard hen eats, roughly 1.8 oz (50 g) a day. If you run a mixed flock and do your feed math as if everyone were a standard layer, you will over-order. I keep my bantams on the same layer feed, just budgeted separately.
Broilers are the opposite extreme. A Cornish cross at 8 to 9 weeks is eating close to 6 oz a day, and it only goes up from there. Meat birds convert feed to weight fast, which is the whole point, but do not use layer-hen numbers for them or you will run out of feed mid-batch. Broiler-specific guidance suggests roughly 0.3 lb per bird per day through week 4 and about 0.5 lb per day after that for fast-growing strains.
What the chart does not tell you
Intake is not a fixed number. It moves with season, housing, and management. Cold weather pushes intake up 15 to 30% below about 40F. Good free-ranging cuts purchased feed 20 to 30% in the growing season. Wasted feed (spilled from a bad feeder, stolen by wild birds) can easily add 10 to 20% on top of what the chart says, which is why I always tell people to fix the feeder before blaming the chart.
Want the numbers for your exact flock? The Chicken Feed Calculator takes your bird type, flock size, season, and free-ranging into account and gives you daily, weekly, and monthly totals plus bags and cost.
The bottom line
A chick starts at half an ounce a day and lands at about a quarter pound a day by laying age. Match the feed type to the stage, hit the grower-to-layer switch at 18 to 20 weeks, and budget separately for bantams and broilers. Everything else is just keeping the feeder full and the rodents out.
And if you are wondering how all this feed translates into dollars and egg costs, the companion piece is worth your time: How Long Does a 50 lb Bag of Chicken Feed Last?, with five worked flock examples from 4 hens to 30 birds.