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Where does the 50 gallons of water/egg figure come from? I've got chickens, they don't drink that much water and they don't eat that much food.
by steverb 12y ago
Where does the 50 gallons of water/egg figure come from?
I've got chickens, they don't drink that much water and they don't eat that much food.
- ironchef 12y agoI've seen numbers from 30 to 120. I think GRACE says 53 per egg. American water says 120. Orange county water says 36 gallons, etc. It's all over the board and it depends what they're including. For straight up water, I've heard an individual hen is probably a bit less than a pint of water per day. They then start including things like how much water is used to grow the grain they feed the birds (about a half cup day per). It all depends on what's _actually_ included (as well as things like egg laying / lifetimes (hens don't get into the thick of it until probably around 6 months in)). Unfortunately I've never been able to find a _real_ number which is indicative of the food cycle, etc.
- esrauch 12y agoI was curious about this, based on a cursory search it looks like the water claims are because the grain that most megafarm chickens are fed is a water-intensive grain. It looks like one loaf of bread is supposedly 288 gallons of water due to the wheat.