Chicken feed cost calculator
What does your flock actually cost to feed — and what does that make each egg worth? Adjust the numbers to match your feed store and find out.
Feed per month
46 lbs
≈ 0.9 bags
Cost per month
$20.06
$241 per year
Cost per egg
$0.16
feed only
Cost per dozen
$1.98
what the store charges is… more
Defaults assume a laying hen eats about ¼ lb of layer feed per day — free-ranging flocks often eat less purchased feed, heavy breeds and winter weather push it up.
The honest math of backyard eggs
Feed is the single biggest recurring cost of keeping chickens, and it's the number that decides whether your eggs cost less than the farmers market or quietly cost more than truffles. The two levers that matter most are waste (spilled feed can be a fifth of your bill) and production — a flock of strong layers spreads the same feed bill across far more eggs. If you're choosing birds, our breed profiles list realistic eggs-per-year ranges, and this guide covers what to expect week to week.
This calculator estimates. Your flock has real numbers — and they change with the seasons, the age of your hens, and every feed price hike. Keep a record of daily collections in PoultryPal and feed purchases with Premium, then use those totals in this calculator to estimate feed cost per egg.
Also handy: the coop size calculator and the incubation calculator.
Common questions
- How much feed does a chicken eat per day?
- Alabama Extension's laying-hen bulletin puts it at 100 to 150 grams a day, roughly 0.25 pounds, so ten hens go through a 50-pound bag in about 20 days. Bigger hens and heavier layers sit at the top of that range, and birds that free-range eat less bought feed in summer. The calculator's default is the 0.25 figure; change it if you weigh your feed.
- How much does it cost to feed a chicken per month?
- At 0.25 pounds a day a hen eats about 7.6 pounds a month. With a 50-pound bag at $22 that is 44 cents a pound, or about $3.35 per hen per month; a six-hen flock lands near $20. Swap in your bag price above and the calculator does the same arithmetic with your numbers.
- Are backyard eggs cheaper than store eggs?
- Counting feed only, often yes — but once you add bedding, the coop, and everything else chickens 'need,' most keepers do it for the eggs' quality and the fun, not the savings. Tracking your real numbers is the only way to know.
- How can I lower my feed bill?
- Stop paying for feed that ends up on the floor: a feeder birds can't rake out is the first fix. Alabama Extension also cautions that scratch grains, treats and kitchen scraps are incomplete feeds, so hens that fill up on them eat less of the balanced ration and lay less; keep them small. Buying feed by the pallet and supervised free-ranging help at the margin.
- Backyard & Small Poultry Flock Management Series: Feeding the Laying Hen (ANR-2913). Wilmer Pacheco, Joseph Gulizia and Kevin Downs, Alabama Cooperative Extension System. New August 2022.
We read each document ourselves and last checked this page against them on October 6, 2026. Where they disagree, we show you the disagreement instead of picking a winner quietly.
Keep the records behind the estimate
Record daily collections in PoultryPal. Premium adds feed expenses, income, and financial charts; use this calculator for feed cost per egg.
