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
