How to not waste food...

[Grags26]

I've started a small backyard coop and have 4 female coturnix. Does anyone have any recommendations for how to maximize food intake efficiency? While that sounds silly as I type, Im finding the food is spread all over the place and this will start to get extremely expensive. I currently have the Miller multi chick feeder with the plastic jar attachment. I try to catch the food below on a paper plate and give them the plate afterwards. They end up pecking at the plate and bathing in it.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Yeah I go through about 50# of 24% per week and it gets expensive. The round red ones with the jar are terrible for wasting food. The holes are large and angled making it easier for the quail to flick the feed out. When it runs low, baby quail will get inside it and when you go to feed them you'll see 2 or 3 of them jumping up & down inside the jar. Setting it on a brick or piece of wood to raise it about 2" will cut down on wastage a little bit.
My breeder cages have 6 birds per cage and I use red plastic 18 hole chick feeders. I only fill them half way up once per day so the birds have to stick their heads so far into the feeder that they can't flick the feed out.

 

[dc3085]

Raise the feeder off the ground with a block. I use 4x6 cut offs from work so it's practically free. The waste will drop by about 90%.

 

[Quail Jailer]

DC, I use galvanized feeders like the one in your pic, my birds dance those things all over the pens How do you keep them in place?

 

[dc3085]

Your birds are smarter than mine lol. One cage I have does it sometimes they have a zip screw in the bottom of theirs but it makes it kind of a pain.

My brother in law has a 3" ABS feeder where he puts about 3 feet of pipe as a "silo" and then a Y fitting at the bottom (not a tee) on the elbow portion (the sweep) of the Y he puts a 12" piece pipe (which is parallel to the ground) he drills holes in this piece large enough for his chickens to eat out of. On the portion of the Y that will be pointing at the ground you can put a plug fitting but don't glue it in. This is how you clean the feeder if it gets clogged or the bottom fills up with too much powder.

You'll want to install it high enough off the ground that they have to reach for it.

You can play around with pipe size, height, etc. That is it made any sense to you.

 

[Quail Jailer]

I've been studying on making some drop in restrictors for my feeders, as soon as I get my mitts on some material to make them out of.

I can knock them out pretty quick on our old lathe but finding 2 5/8" plastic rod,... not exactly something you find laying around, I could use 3/4" sheet but

rod would be a million times easier.

 

[quail325]

I'm fermenting the crumbles and then putting that in a piece of 3" PVC with caps on the end and a 1" wide slit the length of the pipe. Works great and there is no waste at all.

 

[Quail Jailer]

I can't ferment feed around these people, someone will try to strain it and drink it....

 

[enola]

I can't ferment feed around these people, someone will try to strain it and drink it....

I would imagine one trial taste of fermented feed water would change their mind ............

 

[Quail Jailer]

Dude, if they'll drink lysol I doubt fermented feed will slow them down...

Actually there are no folks like that around me, but they ARE here.

I've seen them mix lysol (and hairspray) with water.... I can't even imagine how someone could swallow.

I'm satisfied fermented feed would be champagne to those taste buds...