Help - Chickens wasting feed!

[Fred's Hens]

It's all been covered well by everyone, but let me say this for someone else who may be reading your experience. You cannot just keep re-filling those plastic feeders and have them beak it out, re-fill and they beak it out, re-fill the feeder............. well, until, in your own words, you can literally shovel it up.

Even crumbles can result in a similar mess, quite frankly, and crumbles are extremely popular as well. You cannot keep refilling just to have it all end up in piles on the ground. While this seems obvious, it just needed saying. Stop. Change something, anything. With hold the feed, change the feed, change the feeder, etc.

When you've something in chicken keeping that obviously isn't working? Stop, drop and roll.

Hope that is funny enough so as not to be offensive, as absolutely none is implied. Best regards.

 

[RhodeIslandRedFan]

I actually may do that (take the feed away)... what they have done is picked out all their favorite stuff (peas, corn, boss, etc) and the rest is what is ending up on the floor! I think that is why they don't waste so much with a pellet or crumble, because it is all the same, no favorite pieces LOL.

I have some smaller chick troughs, and if those will not work, I may ask my husband if he could build me a quick wooden trough and scoop up the food and mix it with some water to get it fed up. Weirdly, the food on the floor does not seem to be overly contaminated with feces. We scooped up a couple shovel fulls today and made a pile outside and it had no droppings in it whatsoever.

If you all do not think that is a good idea, then just letting them clean it up would be my next preferred option for now as we figure out how to change the way we are feeding them. I am going to call the feed mill where we buy our feed and ask them if they have alot of waste, and if not, how, how often and in what they feed (they raise chickens and turkeys for meat as well as eggs also).

You might want to try a feed that doesn't have things like peas, corn, and boss...it's been my experience that chickens will always go for these "treats" and leave the rest behind. I give mine vegetables, boss, and other treats, but only after they've eaten their regular food and only in controlled amounts.

 

[debir1966]

It's all been covered well by everyone, but let me say this for someone else who may be reading your experience. You cannot just keep re-filling those plastic feeders and have them beak it out, re-fill and they beak it out, re-fill the feeder............. well, until, in your own words, you can literally shovel it up.

Even crumbles can result in a similar mess, quite frankly, and crumbles are extremely popular as well. You cannot keep refilling just to have it all end up in piles on the ground. While this seems obvious, it just needed saying. Stop. Change something, anything. With hold the feed, change the feed, change the feeder, etc.

When you've something in chicken keeping that obviously isn't working? Stop, drop and roll.

Hope that is funny enough so as not to be offensive, as absolutely none is implied. Best regards.

I totally agree Fred's Hens! There is a flaw with our feeding system and at todays feed prices, it is an expensive problem! I hadn't realized how bad it was until recently I think because they were out and free-ranging eating grass, bugs, etc, and not consuming as much or making as much a mess! Since it has gotten into winter, the problem has become very evident, especially with the amount of feed we are going through and how deep it is getting on the floor. We had just cleaned the coop a couple weeks before the cold weather hit to get it ready for winter and there was some waste but not an alarming amount like there is now. We definitely need to figure something else out - I don't think that my 32 chickens and 2 turkey hens should be going through a 50 pound bag of feed in 4 days plus treats!

My husband and I are brainstorming the different ideas people have given us and will be implementing at least one or two of them tomorrow and reworking our feeding system alltogether as well (whether we ration feed, wet feed, clean-up feed, etc).

 

[debir1966]

You might want to try a feed that doesn't have things like peas, corn, and boss...it's been my experience that chickens will always go for these "treats" and leave the rest behind. I give mine vegetables, boss, and other treats, but only after they've eaten their regular food and only in controlled amounts.

I wouldn't be against feeding pellets or crumble if I could find some that was non-GMO and affordable. Right now we are paying about $16.00 for a 50 pound bag of non-GMO layer mash that is formulated and ground at a local feed mill.

It is very important to our family to support, encourage and advocate non-GMO foods for both ourselves and our animals (especially since we also eat our animals and/or what they produce like eggs and milk). But it is also important to not kick ourselves in the knee financially since we live in a rural area, are a one income family, and are trying to raise/grow as much of our own food as possible

I am leaning towards ration feeding (they get their main meal once a day and AFTER they have cleaned it up, then we can give them their treats - produce scraps, scratch and/or boss), however, I need some suggestions on how much to feed 32 chickens and 2 turkey hens. Preferably not in pounds LOL, cups would be good like a coffee can full a day, or half a coffee can, or 10 cups, etc. I do not have a scale or way to measure a weight.

 

[marlo1968]

I wouldn't be against feeding pellets or crumble if I could find some that was non-GMO and affordable. Right now we are paying about $16.00 for a 50 pound bag of non-GMO layer mash that is formulated and ground at a local feed mill.

It is very important to our family to support, encourage and advocate non-GMO foods for both ourselves and our animals (especially since we also eat our animals and/or what they produce like eggs and milk). But it is also important to not kick ourselves in the knee financially since we live in a rural area, are a one income family, and are trying to raise/grow as much of our own food as possible

I am leaning towards ration feeding (they get their main meal once a day and AFTER they have cleaned it up, then we can give them their treats - produce scraps, scratch and/or boss), however, I need some suggestions on how much to feed 32 chickens and 2 turkey hens. Preferably not in pounds LOL, cups would be good like a coffee can full a day, or half a coffee can, or 10 cups, etc. I do not have a scale or way to measure a weight.

I had this problem, although looking at your picture, not nearly as bad. I did have a newer small gravity feeder in a black rubber feed tub on the ground, they could get their feet in it and scratch it out. So I switched stratagies. I removed the feeder for an afternoon and they cleaned house. Next day I put in a different feeder, an old one I got at an auction. It has to be hung, its a gravity feeder that you can adjust the height that the tube sits from the tray, I think its meant to hold 50 lbs. I never fill it that full. I have it hung about 4 -5 inches off the ground. All my hens can get food but cannot get their feet in it. Even my banty can reach just fine. I have no waste now. I have also hung my newer feeder and am not having trouble with waste from it either.

My suggestion would be to remove all food and let them clean up, until it is gone, then put food back in. If you have a one quart feed scoop (or jar) give them that full, should be around 2 lbs of feed, for the day, check back around 2-3 see if it is gone, if it is then give them about another 2 cups. If they attack, then you know that the 1 quart wasn't enough. If just a few go at it, then maybe the original quart was close. Trial and error basically to find out what is enough for your flock. I have 29 hens and 4 roosters, so about the same number of birds as you. My flock goes through 100 lbs (2 bags) give or take a little each month. I feed about 4 1-quart scoops every 3-4 days, plus about 1-2 lbs of scratch per day (1/2 of a 1-quart scoop = approx 1 lb, yes I weighed it

I also live in a rural area and we pay about $16 per bag of pellets, about $14-15 per bag of scratch.

Best wishes....and Merry Christmas!

 

[debir1966]

Thank you so much marlo1968 for going into such wonderful detail so I could get an idea of where to start!

Tomorrow I am removing their feeder and making them clean up their mess! I also have an old metal hanging gravity feeder which has a higher rim than the one in the picture. I had been using it in our little old chicken house and had alot less waste (we had to adjust the height a few times to get it right - we had our 10 older chickens in there until this fall when we moved them in with the younger chickens in the new coop).

I had wanted to keep the feeder under the poop boards and that is why we went with a new feeder. However, I can re-arrange and put the waterer under the poop boards and hang the metal feeder where we have the waterer. If they are still having more waste than I desire, I will try a different method (trough type feeder), etc, until we find something that works for both the chickens and our pocket book!


Here is a picture of the old metal feeder.

 

[hollys chooks]

To be honest I'm probably posting this cos I like showing off that I built it, but even without the step and lid mechanism it is a nice depth so the girls can't easily knock food everywhere. My girls have free range of the backyard and I was losing a lot of food to wild doves and sparrows. The link for building it is https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/building-a-treadle-chicken-feeder .

 

[Ridgerunner]

I think this topic has been covered by others but I'll mention a couple of things. You say they are picking out certain things and leaving the rest. They are not getting balanced nutrition that way. If they get hungry they will eat the rest, but as long as they can be selective, they will. You might need a better ground feed or let them get hungry enough to finish what is offered.

One trick commercial operations use to get every hen in the henhouse to eat her portion and not a lot more is portioned feeding. They only put out at one time what the hens can eat. They all clean it up, then when they are again hungry they again put out only what they can eat. This keeps the food bullies from just setting there stuffing themselves and keeping the others from eating. This is not all that easy because you need to know what they can clean up and how much total they need in a day. The commercial operations have that down to a science but for us that can be hard.

We've all got our own unique way to handle things like this. Good luck on figuring out yours.

 

[Sandreso]

How to stop your chucks wasting food... I tried everything untill I went to a friend of mine that has had chickens for many years. She has feed hers like this for the last 2 years with great success.
Mix feed (pellets or dry feed) and plain porriage oats with hot water in a new washing up bowl, there is now NO waste at all! Let it cool first!
30/12/2012 and still getting 1 egg per chuck per day after feeding them this way for the last 12 weeks.
Saves loads of money and the chucks just love it
Hope this helps!

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

debir196--

I had the same exact problem. I went to TSC and got a Beren's metal pan (a couple of inches or so larger than the feeder). It completely reduced the waste of feed. The chickens were healthier because feed didn't mold and affect their lungs.