The feed store clerk told me something useful on my first bag run: the feed is the cheap part. The coop, the predator-proofing, the vet bills, that is where the money goes. She was right. Feed is the largest ongoing expense, but it is small enough that most keepers are pleasantly surprised. Here is the full 2026 math so you can budget it before you buy the birds.
The building blocks: intake, bag price, flock size
Everything follows from three numbers. A standard laying hen eats about 1/4 lb of feed per day, or roughly 1.75 lb per week. That is a widely published standard, consistent across poultry feed charts. A 50 lb bag of standard layer feed runs $20 to $40 at farm stores in 2026, which works out to $0.40 to $0.80 per pound. Multiply intake by price by birds, and you have your monthly bill.
Let me use a $24 bag, $0.48 per pound, as a middle-of-the-road example. One hen: 7.5 lb per month times $0.48 is $3.60 per month per bird. Everything scales from there.
Monthly feed cost by flock size
| Flock | Feed per month | Cost at $0.48/lb | Cost at $0.65/lb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 hens | ~30 lb | $14.40 | $19.50 |
| 6 hens | ~45 lb | $21.60 | $29.25 |
| 12 hens | ~90 lb | $43.20 | $58.50 |
| 20 hens | ~150 lb | $72.00 | $97.50 |
So the honest answer to "how much does it cost to feed chickens per month" is: $15 to $30 a month for a starter flock of 4 to 6 hens. This lines up with what the backyard-keeping guides publish, and it is the number I give every beginner. If your feed bill is wildly above this, the problem is usually not the birds. It is waste, rodents, or winter.
The three things that inflate the bill
Winter. Intake rises 15 to 30% in cold weather as birds burn calories to stay warm. A 6-hen flock that costs $22 a month in May can cost $28 a month in January. This is the single most predictable budget surprise in chicken keeping, and it happens to everyone exactly once.
Waste and freeloaders. An open pan feeder on the ground can waste 10 to 20% of what you buy through spilling and rain damage. Sparrows and rats eat free at bad feeders, day and night respectively. A hanging or treadle feeder is the cheapest feed "discount" you will ever get.
Free-range math. Birds on good pasture eat less purchased feed, which cuts the bill. But free-ranging is not free: it costs you in fencing, predation risk, and time. I treat it as a quality-of-life upgrade for the birds that happens to save a few dollars, not a cost strategy.
The real question: what does a dozen eggs actually cost you?
A standard hen eats about 1.75 lb of feed per week whether she lays well or poorly, so your cost per dozen depends entirely on lay rate. Here is the feed-only math at two bag prices:
| Eggs per hen per week | Feed per dozen | Cost at $0.40/lb | Cost at $0.60/lb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 (older hens) | 7.0 lb | $2.80 | $4.20 |
| 4 (average backyard) | 5.25 lb | $2.10 | $3.15 |
| 5 (good layers) | 4.2 lb | $1.68 | $2.52 |
| 6 (peak production) | 3.5 lb | $1.40 | $2.10 |
Feed alone looks competitive with grocery eggs, especially from good layers. But I will tell you what the experienced keepers told me: once you add the coop, bedding, feeder, waterer, and the occasional vet bill, homegrown eggs almost always cost more per dozen than store-bought. The honest value proposition of backyard chickens is freshness, quality, and the experience, not the grocery savings. Anyone who tells you otherwise has not done the spreadsheet.
Cutting the bill without cutting nutrition
Buy at the right scale. Do not stockpile six months of feed for 4 hens; it goes stale in 2 to 3 months. For flocks of 20+, ask about bulk discounts, often 5 to 10% off 10 or more bags.
Store it right. A metal trash can with a lid in a cool, dry spot. Musty feed is wasted money and sick birds.
Fix the feeder first. Before you shop for cheaper feed, which is usually worse feed, fix the waste. Most feed bills have 10% of pure loss in them.
Keep treats under 15%. Kitchen scraps stretch a bag, but too much scratch and corn thins the diet and drops production. A dozen eggs a week from healthy birds beats two dozen from thin-shelled underachievers.
Run your flock's numbers exactly: Chicken Feed Calculator. Daily through monthly feed, bags per month, total cost, and cost per dozen eggs for your bird type, flock size, and bag price.
The short answer
Feeding chickens costs about $15 to $30 a month for a starter flock of 4 to 6 hens at 2026 feed prices, with one hen costing roughly $3.60 a month at a mid-range bag price. Winter adds 15 to 30%, waste is the biggest controllable cost, and feed alone works out to roughly $2 to $3 per dozen eggs from an average layer. Budget $25 a month for six hens and you will be close.
Want the intake numbers behind this math? See Chicken Feed Intake Chart by Age and how long a 50 lb bag lasts for your flock size.
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