Hanging Feeder Humidity, HELP!

[Al Gerhart]

This was absolutely a concern of mine.

Their primary food is still crumble (the humidity's gone, so I'm leaving that feeder in for now) and foraged pellets. The particular whole grain mix I got has tiny little vitamin/mineral pellets. In a regular feeder, the birds would eat around this and pick their favorite pieces.

But my poppy peck toys are suspended over stepping stones. Each piece that falls is considered high value, and the birds scramble to chomp it down. Vitamin/mineral pellets included. The stone also lets me monitor and see if they do start to ignore the premix pellets (in which case, I would discontinue this style of feed.)

I appreciate you bringing attention to this though! I don't always consider that someone might emulate what I'm doing without understanding the risks.

You were way ahead of me on this one! But yeah, that is usually my concern, newbies seeing the post and thinking scratch is okay.

 

[Altairsky]

Whole grain feed is NOT scratch.
With all those additives, it looks pretty much balanced to me and even better than the average layer crumble I find in my area.

 

[Bantam bell Wood]

I keep my birds in a greenhouse type structure and haven't had any problems with this. I use the feeder in the 2nd picture for all my pens. Could it have something to do with the type of feed you are using? Another thing would be if you wouldn't give them quite so much feed at one time. I usually feed mine once a day but I like them to be able to snack during the day. I feed Nutrena.

I L - O - V - E the idea of a green house structure chicken coop… it makes sense that the heat from the sun would dry the environment, which I’m thinking also aids in minimizing respiratory problems?

I’m in the process of setting up my long term coop and run. My girls are small and few, so the starter coop is fine for the time being.

I know a lot folks say you should have this all in order before you get the birds, but I wouldn’t have taken the plunge without the birds in hand.

Any pictures of your greenhouse structure available?

Thanks.

 

[Bantam bell Wood]

I'm using Nutrena chick crumble. It sits in an airtight container in my basement, where I run a dehumidifier, so I know it's bone dry going out to the pen. Thankfully, I've never filled the feeder more than 1/4 full. I'm still wasting so much feed with this issue.

Yikes! I haven’t run into this problem yet (new-B) and we’re in a drought this summer, so rain has not been an issue.

 

[Bantam bell Wood]

Condensation is best addressed with insulating the top of the feeder or adding a low watt light bulb, incandescent is best. Keep the feed and feeder warmer than the surrounding air and condensation cannot form.

I appreciate that tip!

Thank you.

 

[Bantam bell Wood]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but with that logic would it make more sense to keep it in the sun? It's shaded 100% of the day.

I’ve been keeping my feeder in the shade and reading all of this, I see myself moving it.

 

[Bantam bell Wood]

Whole grain feed is NOT scratch.
With all those additives, it looks pretty much balanced to me and even better than the average layer crumble I find in my area.

 

[Bantam bell Wood]

I hadn’t seen this feed.

Thanks for the information.

 

[Bantam bell Wood]

You are now feeding a non balanced diet. Not good. Someone correct me if I am wrong but I cannot see a feed mill getting a balanced feed through a whole grain mix. Are they coating the grain with the admixtures/minerals/vitamins?

Thank you for pointing that out. I am a researcher, so I wouldn’t just go for anything, but you saved my time. I appreciate it.