Hanging feeders?

[Punkybrewster]

Yes. Its pretty normal needing a shake once in a while.
You may need to play around with the hanging height. I find if they are able to peck at the inside rim where it falls into the tray, they naturally jostle it on their own.

 

[docdubz]

If you look on the side of the metal feeder near where the feed comes out into the tray, you will see adjusters to allow the feed to come down.

Is this the issue you are having?

View attachment 2351831

I have it opened as much as it will, makes no difference, a small amount will come out for a while but 90% of the feed on the inside stays on the inside until I stick my hand in there and shuffle it around. I even tried hanging it so that one end was 2" lower than the other side to see if I could get gravity to help and nope.

 

[Punkybrewster]

Hmmm.
Is it pellets or crumble?

 

[21hens-incharge]

I wonder if it isn't dispensing because of high humidity or feed getting damp.

 

[Punkybrewster]

Thats what i was wondering too...

 

[SnootyHen]

I wonder if it isn't dispensing because of high humidity or feed getting damp.

Mine definitely isn't damp or humid enough to clump.

Hmmm.
Is it pellets or crumble?

Crumble for me.

 

[DMOTS]

Wow. This is interesting. I made hanging feeders out of 4" pic pipe and reduced it to 2" with 2 - 22.5* elbows and a small extension to keep them from scraping it out on the ground. It worked great but they still ate a lot. (20 Chickens) I made a custom feeder that holds 400LBS of food with the same concept of pipe combo's and I won't have to fill it up for 4 to 6 months. I'll take some pics and post them next time i'm out here.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Mine definitely isn't damp or humid enough to clump.



Crumble for me.

Well there goes my theory then.
I have 2 that hold 30# of feed and 1 that holds 7#. I haven't had the failure to dispense issue with pellets or crumble here. I thought maybe it was our low humidity levels.

 

[David Barkey]

It doesn't seem to fall down naturally even with it set at the lowest hole. Originally I put mine at the higher one thinking it would help control the spillage but hardly anything fell through so I used the lowest. It's not terrible, but I do have to give it a good shake every couple of days to make sure it's coming into the tray.

Does it have a cone in the bottom of it or flat bottom ? Crumb consists of different size particles that will pack under the weight of the feed above . A flat bottom will cause the feed to lock up and not flow as well if not pellets . If it is flat bottom try sticking a upside down funnel (put piece of tape over the tip and refill . Hope this helps .
Dave

 

[SnootyHen]

Does it have a cone in the bottom of it or flat bottom ? Crumb consists of different size particles that will pack under the weight of the feed above . A flat bottom will cause the feed to lock up and not flow as well if not pellets . If it is flat bottom try sticking a upside down funnel (put piece of tape over the tip and refill . Hope this helps .
Dave

It's kind of a cone bottom. Not a steep one but enough that it should fall. I really don't get it and up until reading this thread, I just assumed it was because I don't hang mine (I have it sitting on a few stacked bricks) but obviously people who hang the same one have the same problem. It's not a huge problem because I'm in there several times a day anyway so I just give it a shake when I notice but it definitely should fall down on its own.