Anyone recycling chicken feed off the ground?

[drinnenm]

Hi all, I too was going through 25 lbs. of scratch and 50 lbs. of Layer Crumbles a WEEK feeding my 18 hens. They were flipping most of it out on the ground and it was really bad the first of the fall when we started getting a lot of rain, that stuff fermented on the ground and smelled awful not to mention mixed with chicken poop it was a nasty mess! I decided to make a box to set the feeder on that will catch most of what they are flipping out. It's a 4' x 4' box, a 2x4's width high and has hardware cloth wire over the top. I put a 4x4 block in the center to hold up the feeder and it's working! It takes me and my husband to hold it up to dump it, one corner pulls back to release the feed (in the wheel barrel). I put it back in the bags and reuse it. So when the hens get up there are start flipping the food out and it goes into the box. I can recycle this food and it's starting to save me some money. What was lasting only a week is now lasting at least 2 weeks

 

[11mini]

Raise the feeder up so they have to really stand up and reach for it. Mine is at least 12-14 inches off the ground and I don't see any spilled feed.