Chickens eat from bowl. Are they spoiled?

[st4rgut]

Hi so it's not a big problem, but my chickens tend to waste a lot of food by scratching at and swiping their beaks in their food bowl. When the bowl is empty they'll complain until their bowl is refilled, even though there's lots lying on the ground. Should I keep filling the bowl or wait for them to eat the food scattered on the ground?

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

Fill up the bowl! To minimize waste, you can try hanging a feeder a few inches off the floor. I don’t use one, but I do have 4 feeders and 2 water bowls for my flock. Unfortunately, I do get waste, but it has been my system now for 4 years. People also provide pelleted food to reduce waste, but my flock prefers crumbles, specifically, Flock raiser with oyster shell in a separate container. My chickens are super spoiled as well. But isn’t that our job to do as backyard chicken owners?

 

[snow5164]

There are amazing hanging feeders with where the “ bowl” is divided in sections so they can’t spray it all out .

They may not clean up the ground , give them more please .... or you might not get eggs

 

[Chickassan]

Put the bowl in a big flat planter bowl or something of that sort and let them scratch away. You can collect the spilled food and put it back in the bowl that way.

 

[st4rgut]

thanks for your ideas! I'm using this old umbrella stand. I can't fill it all the way or else they'll swipe it out.

 

[Twoleggedmotherhen]

When the refrigerator in our motorhome died, I took the door trays and made them into trough feeders. Drilled 6 holes attached to fence with tie wraps. 2 have feed the 3rd one half of one side has oyster shells, other half with grit. Girls love the trough feeders. Ones in pic have the feed. Removed the small dish of oyster shell that is in the pic. Kept the shelves & the glass top of the crisper, never know when they will come in handy.

 

[Kat2141]

Hi so it's not a big problem, but my chickens tend to waste a lot of food by scratching at and swiping their beaks in their food bowl. When the bowl is empty they'll complain until their bowl is refilled, even though there's lots lying on the ground. Should I keep filling the bowl or wait for them to eat the food scattered on the ground?

Wow, this could have been my post up until about 2 weeks ago! It was very frustrating to say the least. They would not eat the food off the floor. I have to say, the feeder that Snow5164 posted a pic of (the one that says top rated) is AWESOME! I got that, tried hanging it from the ceiling but it scared the chicks (8wk old then) when it moved, so I set down for a few days and then a couple days after they started using it, I raised it up so that it is about 2 inches off the floor. That way they won't be tempted to step on it. LOVE IT! It was only about $14 at tractor supply. I'm sure that it will save me that in a year, considering the way they used to waste food. None of them, chicks or hens, have an issue with it now

 

[aart]

There are amazing hanging feeders with where the “ bowl” is divided in sections so they can’t spray it all out .
View attachment 1535263

That looks pretty good, deeper dish than the ones I have(which I don't use any more because they still billed a lot of feed out, despite those nifty little dividers).

I made this instead, pic from prototyping phase,
more pics here, scroll waaaayyyyy down: