Chickens wasting SO much feed!!!!!

[CountryChick561]

Alright. Our chickens are wasting a TON of feed. We feed lay mash that we get from a feed mill for a lot cheaper than tractor supply stores. And I swear there is about 1 1/2 barrels of lay mash on the floor. They just flick it out of the feeder and don't eat it. Our barrels are about 250 lbs. each. It is costing so much to go buy the food. We use those feeders that you just hang from the roof and you can fill up for constant feeding. We can't buy pellets or crumbles because our mill doesn't sell them. Any new feeder ideas?

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Fill their feeders, then don't re-fill them until they have cleaned up everything on the floor. If you continually fill their feeder they will keep wasting feed.

 

[Fred's Hens]

You cannot just fill a big hopper feeder with mash. The waste will be rather horrid.

I moisten the mash in a 2 gallon pail. Just a little moisture and stir. The result is extremely similar to a coarse crumble. I feed them what they will eat in a few hours. Repeat in the late afternoon. Zero waste.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I use these and I have 0% waste.

Recycled PVC Pipe Feeder

Recycled Pallet Feeder

 

[buckabucka]

Wow kuntrygirl! I love the look of those feeders. I'm going to encourage DH to make me one! I could probably make one myself, but it would take me a whole day, while he could whip one up in 10 min.

I feed a mixture of crumble and pellets in one of those traditional hanging metal feeders. It sits on a cement block in the center of a large round plastic tray (the kind you would put under a water heater). The chickens fling the feed around, but many of them will clean up the waste in the plastic tray.

I will always (at least for now) have to have some kind of food bowl that allows food to be flung, as I have a cross-beak hen who can only eat by moving her head along at the level of her back. She is a real charmer, with blue eggs, or we would have considered culling her.

 

[Duramaxgirl]

Quote:
Those are so cool! Good ideas.
To OP post some pics of your feeder so we know which one you have. And maybe we could help a little more. I've had feed waist before and it does get expensive!

 

[kuntrygirl]

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Thanks. And it only takes 10 minutes as you stated. Not hard at all. My feeders can hold 5 gallons of feed.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
Those are so cool! Good ideas.
To OP post some pics of your feeder so we know which one you have. And maybe we could help a little more. I've had feed waist before and it does get expensive!

Thanks

And I agree, the OP should post pics so that we can help a little more. Good idea.

 

[LiLRedCV]

Are your blocks set up about head level for the chickens or do they still need to bend over to eat? You can try raising the feeder up a bit more and I'll bet you'll end up with far less waste! I've got our traditional metal feeder hanging from the coop rafters. Used to have a lot of waste until I figured out the right height for it. Now? I don't have that problem. But the other ideas work too - let the feeders get empty and then wait for them to clean up the mess they've made before adding more.

 

[bloom_ss]

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My feeder looks a lot like yours, but I bought mine at the store. I should have made one like yours instead of paying for it. LOL I don't have any waste with my feeder though, so I guess it's working.