We have put 300 lbs of feed through our feeder now with no issues and I am just beginning to get feed dust buildup in the bottom. We put our elbows about an inch off the bottom of the feeder, and feed locally milled organic feed, so it's not pellets or crumbles, but more similar to scratch in appearance. When the feed level drops in a few more days we are going to clean it out and then fill it to the top. We don't have a storage facility for our feed at the moment, so this will part of our solution to reduce loss to rodents. My husband estimates a 5% loss to mice and rats and squirrels right now (feed stacked and tarped on pallets in the garage) and we are organic, so can't use poisons to kill the little buggers. Anyhow, I digress, but we are making another feeder asap! It has worked wonderfully for our pullets and I am thrilled that we got this pulled off for such a great price. We got barrels for free from a dairy and spent about $40 per barrel on elbows and silicon.
