Feed Spilling Out of Hanging Feeder

[Mema]

My two girls (7 months old) seem to be emptying their hanging feeder onto the floor of their small coop. This started about a week ago. We raised the feeder a bit so it is about at their back level. The floor is very dry with loose dirt and pine shavings mixed in but I can see a lot of pellets under the feeder. They are out in the back yard several hours a day and they seem to be pecking from the ground in the coop but it makes me nervous not to see some food in the feeder. I have been putting a smaller amount in each evening so they will at least have a lot to eat in the morning. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[AccentOnHakes]

Quote:
Raise it higher! I know they say back, but mine kept on spilling, too. I raised it until they had to tip-toe just a teeny bit, and then it was all fine.

Put a dish underneath to collect what they spill, and re-use it? That might work.

 

[swimmer]

x's 2. I used to have the plastic hanging feeder and for some reason they seemed to toss alot of the feed out. I switched to the metal hanging feeder. It has a little bit of a lip on it and it seems they don't toss nearly as much out. Not sure if it's the feeder, or they just stopped flicking it out.

 

[Mema]

Thanks for the good advice - raise feeder, put a pan underneath, and try a metal feeder. I'll try them in that order!

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

It will also help to let them empty the feeder and make them clean up the spills before refilling.

They won't starve!

 

[Tala]

what kind of feed? If it's not all uniform pellets or crumbles, they could be digging around trying to find the "preferred" pieces.

I also second not filling it up till the ground is cleaned up. It really wont kill them to go half a day with an empty feeder if they have other options (free range or cleaning up spills)

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I bought large rubber pans to go under my feeders (slightly larger than the feeder). They save a lot of money.

 

[krazeepolack]

To slow down on wasted chicken feed, I placed two plastic oil change pans(new from Wally World @ $2.++ each), under a 5 gallon inverted water bottle that I fill about once a week. Here's the good part- inside this pan, I placed a wire LOOP about 3" high & just about 3/4 of the pan wall size. This stopped the chicks from crawling/pooping inside the pan, & also stopped a tremendous amount of waste. The pans are also elevated almost to thier neck level. Yes, they can stretch a bit to reach it, but if you baby sit the pans when you 1st install them, you'll soon come up w/the right elevation for it. I suspend the inverted bottles w/a medium duty chain, w/an open link so it hooks back into itself @ whatever elevation works best. Hopefully, pictures will be here to view what I'm referring to. If the pix do not post, contact me & I'll email you the pix.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

That is neat!