Feeding

[kmvigil64]

Hello all we are new raising chickens we have one older one 2 (teens) about 4 months and 7 little ones. we introduced the teens without a hitch. As we move forward when it comes to feeding a flock do you use a few feeders or a trough . We have 3 outside now feeding and we feed the 2 separate from the older one, now the younger ones are gobbling up her food. When we all 10 chickens are outside what the best feeders to use and to we use multiple feeders

Thanks K&M

 

[Perris]

what are you feeding them at the moment?
If you have chick feed, everyone can eat that and will do well on it. If you have layers ration, only laying hens should eat that, but a little won't hurt anyone else (unless they're really tiny chicks, when they won't do well with the size of a pellet).
Do you feed wet or dry or fermented?
If dry, you can use a variety of types of feeder. If wet, a bowl or trough works better. If fermented, a non-metallic bowl or trough is required.
It is generally a good idea to have more than one feeding station, spaced apart, so that any bully cannot prevent a bullied member of the flock from accessing feed.

 

[aart]

I feed all my birds Purina Flock Raiser crumbles with Oyster Shell in a separate feeder for the active layers.

I dinked around with various feeder until I was able to tweak this for no spillage waste:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-waste-free-funnel-bucket-feeder.67218/

 

[kmvigil64]

what are you feeding them at the moment?
If you have chick feed, everyone can eat that and will do well on it. If you have layers ration, only laying hens should eat that, but a little won't hurt anyone else (unless they're really tiny chicks, when they won't do well with the size of a pellet).
Do you feed wet or dry or fermented?
If dry, you can use a variety of types of feeder. If wet, a bowl or trough works better. If fermented, a non-metallic bowl or trough is required.
It is generally a good idea to have more than one feeding station, spaced apart, so that any bully cannot prevent a bullied member of the flock from accessing feed.

what are you feeding them at the moment?
If you have chick feed, everyone can eat that and will do well on it. If you have layers ration, only laying hens should eat that, but a little won't hurt anyone else (unless they're really tiny chicks, when they won't do well with the size of a pellet).
Do you feed wet or dry or fermented?
If dry, you can use a variety of types of feeder. If wet, a bowl or trough works better. If fermented, a non-metallic bowl or trough is required.
It is generally a good idea to have more than one feeding station, spaced apart, so that any bully cannot prevent a bullied member of the flock from accessing feed.

Thanks for the information,so the chicks are on chick starter. The the older one and adolescents are spoiled they get petite white corn for breakfast and some superworms we also have a tray of fed called hi octane in the yard. We are probably going to go broke with corn and superworms we are looking into start giving the hens outside layer food soon as the adolescents should be ready to start laying soon since they are 16 weeks old now.

 

[Perris]

We are probably going to go broke with corn and superworms

2 things:
1. I think mealworms are nutritionally better for chickens than superworms.
2. You can grow your own mealworms for next to nothing! I spent £2.50 on a tub of live mealworms from a fish/reptile petshop, and £8 on a 20 kilo sack of bran, and nothing on a re-purposed set of plastic drawers. I have had more mealworms than 16 chickens can eat since about 3 months after that initial outlay to start the farm.