Against the odds hatching thread (with pictures and questions)

[K0k0shka]

I just sat and read through this whole thread. I love it ❤ you are wonderful

Aw, thank you so much! 64 pages though, I’m seriously impressed

 

[K0k0shka]

The sled wading pool method hasn’t been working out - too slippery and wobbly, the chickens freak out. So I came up with an alternative - a large planter dish. Flat and stable, with some texture to it, to minimize sliding, and shallower, so it’s easy for them to step in. We tried it out today. Only one chicken was brave enough to wade in on his own - everybody’s favorite, the Partridge Orp, of course. He’s the first to try anything new. The rest perched on the edge. Hopefully with repeat exposure, they’ll get used to it. I sprinkled some scratch in the water as incentive. It’s just shallow enough that they can pick the scratch up from the bottom through the water. They really liked that.

 

[RainbowHen]

Such pretty birds!

 

[K0k0shka]

Such pretty birds!

Thank you!

 

[K0k0shka]

I found a way to recycle food scraps (from produce) that the chickens can't otherwise eat - things that are too hard, too tough, too big, too long etc. like cucumber peels, carrot stumps, zucchini stems etc. I chuck them into the food processor to chop them up small, then mix them with the rest of the (produce) food waste we generate, like pepper and cantaloupe seeds and such. We get our groceries delivered, and the delivery guy isn't always careful, so we often get damaged produce and broken eggs. I add all that in as well. Then I add some chicken feed and water, and mix it up into a nice moist mash. The chickens love wet feed mash in general, but this with all the other goodies in it, they absolutely LOVE! My kids love "cooking" it for the chickens, too - from buzzing stuff with the blender, to mixing everything together and pretending like they're cooking. And I'm glad we've reduced our food waste. Everybody wins!

 

[aart]

Make sure they have grit.

 

[K0k0shka]

Make sure they have grit.

Yep, they have a mix of chick grit and big chicken grit in a bowl.

 

[K0k0shka]

I gave up and made one of those PVC elbow feeders everybody seems to rave about. The hanging metal feeder was okay, and most of the chickens were eating politely out of it, but I have this one chicken... The Partridge Orp, everybody's favorite, who's always getting into some kind of mischief. One day I watched him rake everything out on the ground, and that's when I decided I was done. I left the new feeder in the run for the first day, because they spend the whole day outside, to get them used to it. Troublemaker guy was the first to stick his head in there, of course (he's always the first for everything, good and bad... Man I'll miss that bird when he's gone!) The rest caught on pretty quickly. I really hope this helps, because I raked through the shavings in the coop a bit today tidying up, and the amount of spilled feed I saw underneath the shavings was heartbreaking

I managed to fit 5 elbows in there. After the boys are all gone, there will be 5 pullets left, so everybody can eat at the same time if they want to.

 

[aart]

the amount of spilled feed I saw underneath the shavings was heartbreaking

Any pics of inside of feeder after building but before filling?
They can certainly make a wasteful mess.
Mine is absolutely spill and bill proof but still have one bird that rakes up a big pile and tries to get it out of the 3" deep dish...the tubing foils her.

 

[K0k0shka]

Any pics of inside of feeder after building but before filling?
They can certainly make a wasteful mess.
Mine is absolutely spill and bill proof but still have one bird that rakes up a big pile and tries to get it out of the 3" deep dish...the tubing foils her.
View attachment 2280049

Here’s a photo from before I caulked it with silicone:

I looked up DIY PVC elbow feeders on BYC, found a couple of threads with (similar) instructions and followed them. They swore the setup was no waste... BUT... I’m looking at them through the cam right now and it seems worse!!! Troublemaker Partridge is raking out and his buddies are eating it from the floor!!!

It’s hard to tell what I’m looking at in your picture... Do you have other pictures?