Many complain about chickens wasting feed, but why don't I see it?

[off-grid hen]

I use flock raiser right now, and when some spill out of the hanging feeder, there is always another chicken to pick it out of the shavings. I see a few crumbles when I clean the coop, but not tons of waste. I even toss a handful into the shavings so they'll fluff it up, and they find it all pretty quickly. Does this happen only with certain types of feeders, only with full-grown chickens, or maybe I just have good girls? I have 16 chickens. Maybe I'm just not seeing the crumbles mixed in the shavings?

 

[R.M. Hens]

I just posted about the waste I am having. I feed my 12 hens pellets, but I am thinking about switching to crumbles because of so much waste on the ground by the feeder. Maybe it's because my feeder is on the ground and not hung?

My feeder is a big red and white one that is found at all the feed stores.

 

[southerndesert]

Our feeders are hanging and we do not have waste issues either and we use pellets, perhaps try hanging yours?

 

[ranchhand]

Couple of thought based upon experience-

Mice, rats, roaches, squirrels, etc. will all clean up crumbles from the floor. Also, wild birds. Some during the night, some during the day.

The janitors!

I do find pellets to be less wasteful, and putting the feeder at the chicken's back level helps a lot. If it's at ground level they'll scratch it out all over.

 

[off-grid hen]

Quote:
Yeah, I think that having it hung up helps a bit. We don't have cockroaches, but mice could be cleaning up. I haven't seen any droppings, though. I'll be on watch. I have only seen one chipmunk in our run. (We built the run over his hidey hole!) When the chickens see it, they all give chase. It's pretty funny to watch. I wonder what they'd do if they caught it. Heh.

 

[ranchhand]

Wow. We have roaches so big that we call them skateboards.

Uhm, they'd probably eat the 'munk if the caught it.

 

[off-grid hen]

Quote:
Glad I live in the frozen north! *shudder* I have seen 3 wood roaches (they aren't like other roaches- they act more like a cross between ants and moths) in 12 years.

 

[colebarnhart]

Yeah, not sure, but it does seem to be certain chickens do and some don't. But I think it depends on what the coop & feeding set up is and what is used for flooring or bedding material and/or what is in the run area. I've heard that some just look for a certain size of feed crumble before they will eat it and will then pick out what they don't want.

 

[NonnasBabies]

Mine don't really waste food. I do see some on the ground but it's not enough to complain about. My biggest issue is with crumbles. They will go through a 50lb sack of cumbles in about 3 days and it'll take them about 5-6 to go through the same amount in pellets!!

 

[sammyh312]

I mix scratch and layer crumbles normally, but after a failed attempt at pellets recently, i mixed those in too along with a few pounds of starter I had laying around. I fill their feed pans, then scatter four or five cups about the run to give them something to do. They hunt, scratch, and eat all day, with none wasted that I can tell. They WOULD NOT eat the pellets by themselves though!!!