Making a NASTY mess!!

[court1983]

Okay so my girls are making a huge mess with their food.

I took the top off my feeder so i could zip-tie it to the coop so they would stop dumping it over, and now they are scratching at it while eating and getting it all over the ground wasting alot of it. I went out a bit ago to fill it half full and i noticed how much was dumped and matted to the ground, so I start raking it up and I notice that there are a ton of maggots.

So i got most of it cleaned up and there are still maggots in the ground. What do I do about this problem??

Will the maggots hurt the chickens if they eat them?? Also any ideas on a different feeder that will help with the spilling and them not being able to scratch the food out? Help please this is nasty!! Thankyou to all of you!

 

[court1983]

Also it smelled very bad!!!

 

[court1983]

Okay guys, no ideas???

 

[jdywntr]

Something that is raised to about back height will help with them scratching at it. If there are that many maggots, I would say that you need to feed less often and only refill when empty that way they will eat what is spilled also. Maggots shouldn't hurt them. In theory, you should only have enough feed out for them to consume in one day. Wet feed will spoil and could then cause problems.

 

[RonC]

Had one of the little chick feeders and they wasted more than they ate. Thought I would reinvent the wheel and it wasn't alot better. Finally found this! They spill almost none of their feed. Hang it about level with their back. They make a smaller version too. http://www.harrisfarmsllc.com/products/10-pound-feeder.php

 

[court1983]

Okay that works now I will just need to figure out how to hang it.. Thanks for responding..