Ok, I'm tired of throwing away feed with the bedding. Seems as soon as the feed hits the ground, they don't want it, has to come from the bowl. For the last flock we had built a PVC feeder, really neat space saver. But the birds wasted a lot of feed then too.
Is there a prevention method that I don't know about? Is feed waste inevitable? The 3 young birds are worse than the 6 older hens. The babies have a no-flop double dog bowl since they kept knocking over their other bowl. The big birds have regular birds. I've used the "auto" feeders before that look like the waterers, same waste.
What about an elevated trough type design, with higher sides? The waste seems to occur when they "sort" it with their beaks, eating a tiny bit and throwing a lot. Repeat, times 9 birds. But with higher sides and the feed lower down, they wouldn't be able to "sort" it out. The feed is uniform crumbles... there's nothing to sort!
The design would need to be thin enough they couldn't stand in it, or on it, to avoid pooping in it.
Any ideas?
Is there a prevention method that I don't know about? Is feed waste inevitable? The 3 young birds are worse than the 6 older hens. The babies have a no-flop double dog bowl since they kept knocking over their other bowl. The big birds have regular birds. I've used the "auto" feeders before that look like the waterers, same waste.
What about an elevated trough type design, with higher sides? The waste seems to occur when they "sort" it with their beaks, eating a tiny bit and throwing a lot. Repeat, times 9 birds. But with higher sides and the feed lower down, they wouldn't be able to "sort" it out. The feed is uniform crumbles... there's nothing to sort!
The design would need to be thin enough they couldn't stand in it, or on it, to avoid pooping in it.
Any ideas?