Bulk quail feeders?

[FossilPeak]

Anyone ever use these or something similar?


http://dblrsupply.pinnaclecart.com/feeders/waterers/50-pound-quail-range-feeder-pack-of-2/


Sick of filling a dozen feeders every other day! Anyone use a bulk feeder of any kind? How does it do against rain?

 

[Chicken-Farmer]

How many birds are you feeding? I have close to 200 Coturnix breeders and meat birds. I go through 200 pounds of feed a month. Each of those feeders you are looking at hold 50 lbs of feed. They appear to be more for range feeding or keeping game birds around or for large pens. Never seen one, but they must be quite large to hold 50lbs of feed.

Chicken-Farmer

 

[FossilPeak]

Feeding 500 birds per flight pen. As long as they keep the rain off the feed I think they might work.

 

[Quail Jailer]

Feeding 500 birds per flight pen. As long as they keep the rain off the feed I think they might work.

Poor fella, you're almost out ain't cha?

 

[FossilPeak]

We're just getting started! Hatching about 200 a week now.

 

[Quail Jailer]

I was kidding, i cant afford to feed 500, at most I'll keep half that many

 

[Chicken-Farmer]

They should work. I would just make sure the birds don't waste feed. Good luck to you. I have had over 500 mouths to feed before, and it got to the point where it wasn't fun anymore, so I scaled back my farm. I keep 200 grown birds on hand and hatch a couple hundred chicks each month to sell and pay for feed.

Chicken-Farmer

 

[FossilPeak]

Waste is a concern. The suckers dig out half the feeder every time I fill it. If it's dry I just let it sit empty a couple days and they clean up what's on the ground.

 

[Chicken-Farmer]

Believe me I know. You need to experiment with ways to limit the level of feed to your birds while still allowing them to have bulk feed available. After trying several different designs I came up with a feeder that works for me. I bought the mason jar feeders off of amazon for a couple dollars each. The mason jar attachment allows the feed level in the bowl to be too high and the birds throw all the feed out. I removed the mason jar attachment and put a PVC pipe reducer in its spot, pushing it down into the bowl. This limits the feed from an original 2 1/2 inch level down to a 1 inch level. The birds still throw the feed around, but they have to stick their heads into the feeders to get to the feed, so the feed stays inside. The bulk hoppers still work to provide the birds all the feed they want, they just can't waste any feed. Each feeder took about 30 minutes to construct, but they save so much feed and time that it was worth it. I modified 10 feeders. Each feeder keeps 20 birds fed for two days with a 3 inch diameter PVC pipe that is 1 foot tall. A longer pipe would provide you with more days between filling.

You could easily pipe all the feeders together and run them to a bulk hopper. They would be a lot cheaper than those commercial feeders you were looking at. I personally would run them down the middle of your flight pens and call it good. THe only thing you would need to do is occasionally remove the very fine dust feed particles.

Chicken-Farmer

 

[FossilPeak]

Good idea. Need to do that in the brooder boxes as well. Those babies throw out as much as adults.