Grrr - feed waste!

[NickyPick]

My first batch of chicks didn't do this, so I'm at loss at what to do. I hatched a dozen eggs last Friday from my own chickens and this bunch is very different from the first bunch. They toss all of their feed out of the feeder and onto the floor - where they don't eat it! This is driving me nuts! I've raised the feeder (one of those white topped, red bottom ones) up on a chick head height pedestal, but they're still tossing out the feed. Any ideas as to what i can do to stop this? I hate throwing away food.

The culprits:

 

[Ole rooster]

One thing I did that worked for me is to put a frizzbie under the feeder with a weight on top of the feeder bottle so that is don't move when it gets close to empty. I use the quart bottle type feeder. What they pull out I catch and put it back, that is minus the poop they've blessed me with.

 

[NickyPick]

Thanks. I'll have to try that. Any others with experience to add?

 

[georgiagail]

I've put a plant dish (i.e., the kind that one uses to catch water under a flower pot)/old pie pans under the feeder and, like Ole Rooster, recycle what's been kicked out back into the feeder.

It's rather amazing how quickly chicks learn the habit of "scratching" through their feed.

Gail

 

[suzeqf]

This what I do because I was having major feed loss. For the little guys I fill a raised feeder(the kind with the head holes) and I also sprinkle a little bit on the ground in their brooder and that seems to work really good. I have the adults feeder on a wash tub and have switched to layer mash instead of crumbles I get the mash at my feed store and they leave some chunks so it's not just powder is has helped a lot on the waste and I've also started giving them hen scratch outside and that promotes foraging and I add a scoop of scratch to the feeder when I add mash. I'm not filling the feeder up near as often as I was

 

[Christie Rhae]

I have the same problem. My brooder has a wire mesh bottom so when they scratch out the feed it falls through the wire and they couldn't get to it if they wanted to. I run all the chick feed through a blender to make sure that it is all fine crumbles and no big chunks that they won't want to eat but STILL they scratch it all over the place. I swear I think they are just having fun. I started only giving them a small amount in the feeder. If I fill that plastic jar up they will have it empty in one day. The little kooks...

 

[chickensinwasillaAK]

This year I've got a GQF brooder, stacked 5 layers high so I'll be curious to see how that works. The food and water trays are outside the brooder, they have to reach out to get them so no poop in the food or water. The opening are adjustable so as the chicks get older you make the opening larger. It'll be a test, last year I blocked off an 8x16 area of the garage and brooded them there till 10 weeks, still dealing with the dust......

 

[Christie Rhae]

This year I've got a GQF brooder, stacked 5 layers high so I'll be curious to see how that works. The food and water trays are outside the brooder, they have to reach out to get them so no poop in the food or water. The opening are adjustable so as the chicks get older you make the opening larger. It'll be a test, last year I blocked off an 8x16 area of the garage and brooded them there till 10 weeks, still dealing with the dust......

Mine is also a GQF brooder. Just one though. I have never used the outside feeders. I guess I just never felt like i had enough chicks in there. The most I had at one time was 15. But I only keep them in it till 3 weeks. Then I just cannot stand them in the house anymore. I put them outside with a heat lamp then.

 

[Ema]

for my chicks I use a plastic p;ant pot the green ones with the big side holes from wally mart, a heavy dish of some sort like a planter bottom, I fill the pot so the feed spills on the sides and into he dish and then add something on top cone shaped to prevent them form getting inside or on top of the pot and tipping it over, or pooping in their food

the available space all around between the dish and the pot is about 1.5 inches, enough room for them to eat but not get in there and spill it everywhere. chick feeders were not working for me, they rocked on the top of them and pooped in their food,

Ema

 

[SteveBaz]

I put a larger pan under the feeder and then just put it back in the main feeder