Food everywhere! Do they need more?

[ajay]

I am in between feeders right now. My chickens have outgrown the small chick feeders, but my baby pig feeder hasn't come in yet. The baby chick feeder ends up taken apart and the food all over the sand in the coop, so I started just giving them a pie plate of food...which ends up on the floor in the sand in the coop.

I have no idea how much they are actually eating. Right now they are in their coop full time. In two more days, they will have some free ranging time. In the meantime, should I keep giving them a pie plate of food knowing they have a ton of food already in their coop or should I wait until they have eaten some of what's on the ground?

 

[Gallusfarm]

I'd go ahead and give them more, often they won't actually eat the stuff on the ground. Try using a rock or something to weigh down the plate.

 

[Judy]

I keep a scrap of plywood or OSB under a feeder that they are spilling or billing food out of. One of those disposable oven liners or an old cookie sheet would work -- anything like that.

 

[dianaross77]

Quote:
x2

Also beware of the baby pig feeders. I have one and the chickens bill the food out everywhere. I need to cut some hardware cloth to cover the opening where the food comes out. Right now with 2 silkie pullets, there is at least 3/4c of crumbles all over the floor. It worked better for the ducks.

 

[ajay]

Quote:
x2

Also beware of the baby pig feeders. I have one and the chickens bill the food out everywhere. I need to cut some hardware cloth to cover the opening where the food comes out. Right now with 2 silkie pullets, there is at least 3/4c of crumbles all over the floor. It worked better for the ducks.

Bummer about the pig feeders. We bought them because we need something wall mounted. Seeing as how my chickens prefer making a mess to eating, I am sure they will scratch it all out as well. *sigh*

Thanks for the ideas. I put the pie tin in a low tupperware container this morning. I had it on plywood before, but they still managed to knock most of it out onto the ground, so maybe this will do the trick!

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

They won't eat what's on the floor as long as you keep supplying food in a pan

 

[202roosterlane]

I too put a extra large pan under my hanging feeder. But they still manage to spred some it all over the place. So I let them nibble on that all day and they do seem to eat some of it off the ground. Mine constantly eat and pick, so I figure they can eat some of what they wasted. I wish there was a full proof "non wasteful way. But they do what they do LOL At least with the cookie sheet under it I can recover some of the over spill and put it back in the feeder.

 

[KDK1]

I built an automatic feeder that holds 50+# of feed. I put a board with 1 7/8 holes drilled on it to prevent waste by bill flicking and scratching. It is mounted about 9" off the coop floor so they can't poop in it either. The whole thing mounts on the outside of the coop with just the feeder part inside. I put a little roof over the feed holes to prevent anything from falling in it. Been installed for over a month now with ZERO waste.