Feed and humidity......ya'll help me out!

[cajun chicken]

So here in the deep south we are getting constant rain and sweltering humidity right now. I built a bucket feeder and it works well except that the feed is fermenting inside the bucket pretty badly. It's to the point where I'm just using a flock block and leftovers right now until I can figure out how to fix it. Here's a pic of my feeder and waterer setup. I found the food inside the bucket clumped up and very hot with a lot of condensate accumulating inside the bucket lid. What do you guys think? Am I fighting a losing battle?

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[conny]

I have the same problem, living in Houston. With the heavy rains and humidity it is impossible to keep the food dry and flys away! I am only feeding them now on the back porch and clean up after a couple hours and they can forage in the garden. I wonder if feeding only grains in the feeder and supplement the other stuff some other place would solve the problem. ..
I love your set up by the way!

 

[Den in Penn]

It looks like you run has a roof. My guess is that the rain is blowing in and lands on the feeder pipe, then follows that to the lid where it seeps in. Try removing the feeder pipe and use a solid lid. Maybe making sure the lid/feeder pipe connection is water tight. Other than that use a pan and only put out a days feed till whenever it stops raining down there.

 

[cajun chicken]

I have a uniseal on the lid but i know they're not 100% leak proof. I'll try it with just a lid and see what happens. Might just have to stick with the flock block and scraps until the humidity goes down a little bit. Who knows when that will be lol

 

[coopdeville15]

I use the standard hanging galvanized feeder and only put a scoop or two in it at a time right now. Although under roof, I get some blow in from the sides when it rains, but the feed gets eaten fairly quickly and has not been a major problem.Looks like we're gonna keep getting rain for a while.

 

[cajun chicken]

Sounds like a plan....... Thanks. Coop, do you go to any swaps around the area?

 

[centrarchid]

When feed degrades rapidly, then apply as a restricted ratio until condtions improve. For me that means hand feeding twice a day. It takes a little practice to keep birds in lay.

 

[coopdeville15]

Sounds like a plan....... Thanks. Coop, do you go to any swaps around the area?

I'm pretty new to all of this, I'm not even aware of what activity occurs locally.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I have gone to just using black rubber feed pans and dumping feed in there daily or every other day except for baby chicks. Works great and high turnover on the feed. During the dry season I might go back to a small 3 lb feeder resting inside the black pan.