Hens making mess with feeder

[nick98370]

Hi, BYC! I've only been keeping hens for a few months and my coop and run have undergone modifications as I've learned.

Latest issue is the mess the hens are making in their coop from their feeder (see below).

They are spilling their pellets everywhere!

I keep their water in the run so as not to add moisture to the coop, but keep their feed inside away from critters. So far, it's been working for me until the last couple of weeks when their coop floor looks like this.

Any suggestions or ideas why they'd be spreading their food all about?

 

[Alaskan]

Those metal feeders have hooks to adjust the height of the tray.

It might not fix it completely if you adjust the hooks, but it should help.

I have switched to a honemade feeder, PVC pipes in a trashcan. It is great, and zero waste.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Because chickens are messy.

Somebody built a really cool no-waste feeder out of a five-gallon bucket and four 90-degree joints of 4" PVC pipe. I made one and love it. But I have not been able to find that thread again! And I don't know who the author is! Please, if someone knows who that is, and can persuade him (I assume it's a him) to put that into an article, that would be awesome. Mine works, but it's ugly. The dog used to steal the chicken feed and was getting quite fat on it. There are other no-waste feeders available too, I'm sure folks will tell you about their favorites.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yeah, similar to @Alaskan's, but smaller! Apparently I was still typing and didn't see the post above. Nice! I only have 20 birds ATM so don't need one that big.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

I bought these by Rent-a-Coop from Amazon and we made it easily from a container. They can’t bill the food out of the container, so it’s zero waste. It was
Easy to train them by placing scratch feed just inside the ports.

RentACoop DIY Port Feeder (2) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D1BMN4D/?tag=backy-20

 

[blackdog043]

How high is the feeder from the floor? It should be at least back height of the chickens. This can help with billing feed out. Also as mentioned above, the tray on the feeder can be adjusted. You might even try drilling new holes, to make a smaller gap at the tray.

I use no waste feeders with 3 inch 90 degree elbows, in a bucket. I use L brackets to hold the elbows in, instead of caulk. Below is the link to the no waste feeder build thread. If you build one of these, make sure you use 90 degree elbows, not 45 degree. If you have a rooster, I recommend using 4 inch elbows, because of the bigger combs.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...lon-25-feed-bucket-feeder-for-about-3.834227/

Inside my bucket, with L brackets holding the elbows.

 

[fsauwphoto]

Here are pics of a feeder I made so my goats can't eat the food and the chickens can't waste it. It is a 5 gallon bucket with a slit 1 inch tall cut around the bottom with some small posts left intact to hold the bucket to the bottom. It is then riveted into a pail that is 4 inches deep and 2 inches larger than the bottom of the 5 gallon bucket so the chickens can stick their heads in but not throw feed out . If you have other animals that would eat the feed , the 2 x 4 inch welded wire wrapped around the whole thing stops the larger animals from getting at it ; if you do have the larger animals you will need to suspend the whole thing from above, so the larger animals will not be able to knock the whole thing over. I put a large PVC fitting in the top to be able to fill it without taking the whole lid off the bucket . I was using the above bucket with the PVC elbows in it but my goats can stick their noses and tongues in it and eat all the feed, thus I came up with this design.

 

[archeryrob]

I tired those no waster feeders and they work good but food was collecting on the bottom and drawing moisture from the air and getting rancid after weeks. Plus those elbows cost $5 each.

I built two copies of @jthornton feeder from this thread. The slope of the bottom funnels all the food out of the feeder and none is left in it week after week. With the 1" gap on the bottom and dividers the birds can't really push food side to side and make a mess. I only edited his design with a wood panel on the front with a small lexan window for strength. One sheet of plywood for $20 so Each feeder only costs $10 plus glue, screws and nails. My copy is here if you want to read it. His version of the feeder is the best I have ever seen!

Sweep up all that food and throw it into the run. They will ignore it in the coop but act like it's halloween candy when you throw it in the run. Chickens are stupid like that.

 

[Ted_Harrell]

My feed is out in the run under the shelter and when they eat it eventually.

 

[GC-Raptor]

Yeah, like blackdog043 said raise the feeder.

Did you change the feed type/brand. If you did? Was the change gradual? Is the feed fresh? All these could result in spilt feed. GC