making a mess and wasting the feed

[silkiechicken]

To really reduce waste, I hang my feeders above the back of the shortest chicken in the coop. That way they all have to stretch to get feed and can't bill food out. Also use pellets. Save a ton of wastage! As for water, I just put thoes on wire crates upside down.

 

[Arklady]

Silkie that also works for chick starter. I just put it where they can't get to it to dig in with their feet. The chicks in my opinion need to be on chickstarter till they are nearing laying age... 4-5 months. I know several people never feed their birds anything else. They do just fine. I am not sure what the habaloo is about the lay pellets because my birds need extra protein and I do augment with turkey starter. Turkey starter is added as a suppliment only, as it is very high protein, about 28%. I don't want to burn my chickens out so I put them on a 3x a week when I start the program. Once they are doing well I level it off to just lay pellets until I see a need for it again.

You have no idea how much false information I got when I started my chickens. I plan on not doing that to anyone else it is too hard losing birds after so much money being put into them not to mention the time!

Chickens have a function in our lives and they have unique needs. Lord knows why the producers only make 16% layer ration instead of 18%. Maybe its to keep us paying attention... I don't know. Still they do stay healthy if they have a good diet. I practice prevention methods as best I can.

I am going to buy some turker starter ration this week its time to augment their diet, though they look pretty good. My young birds are nearing laying age and have been on layer ration for a while now but with eggs being so high in protein I just want to make sure they don't suffer giving me those delicious orbs. Yum!

Arklady

 

[MoonGoddess]

Our local Odwalla company gives us recently expired Odwalla Super Protein food bars. We just open up a package and put a full bar in the run with them. They peck at it until it's gone. They love them!

 

[nccatnip]

Quote:
Do you have a picture of that nccatnip? That sounds interesting.

No- sorry, no pictures- it is pretty simple though- put a nail at an angle in a beam in the ceiling, clip the feeder/waterer to one end, then hang it the other end on the nail. I allowed about a foot of extra chain in case I needed to lower it later on when I have little ones again.

 

[EboyDog]

Bricks work excellant for me, I kept raising the height until the waste of feed and water stopped. I started my 5 gallon waterer about 4 inchs off the ground and now it's almost 10 inchs off the ground which keeps the water very clean, the food in the same way, high enough that the chickens can't get their feet in it and it's just a few inchs down from the heads.

 

[cookinmom]

I have my feeder hanging on a chain too, and it works really well. We used an S hook, so I can raise or lower at will. I feed layer crumbles; they throw a few out on occasion, but then they eat 'em, so I haven't been having any waste.

My water pan is up on bricks. A few of them like to perch on the edge to drink.

 

[Stormhorse23]

I use a hanging bird feeder. It works really well. They appreciate the food much more. haha. Its so cute to see all 12 of them huddled around the feeder when theres, like, 2 more in the run.