newbie- feeder location question

[Fowl_Play]

I have an A-frame tractor type coop for my 3 ladies. A ramp leads them up the the roost in the evening. I have been storing their food in a feeder hanging in the top level where space is limited. The girls are messy eaters and are spilling a bunch of food which falls onto the ramp. This in turn spills into the run below. This provides some tasty morsels for vermin & I'd rather not offer rats an unlimited buffet of chicken feed. I am wondering if I can store the food in the lower portion of the coop (where there is more room and they are less likely to bump into & spill the feeder).

Do the chicks need access to their food when they roost?

Does anybody else strore their food in the run?

Am I solving any problems by moving the feeder or is spillage / vermin a fact of life?

Thanks in advance.

 

[rockinpaints]

Hi there, I can't get a real good picture of what you are talking about but my gang always knock their food out. They could empty a 12 pound feeder in a afternoon. So I took care of the problem.......We have horses so we have different sizes of round rubber feeders to give the horses grain in. I use one of those under each hanging feeder (I pick the size that fits that particular feeder). They still knock the grain out but it goes in the rubber feeder and they eat it out of there or the next morning I pour it back in their feeder. I think it is a game for them, LOL

The ones I use look like this

and this

They are a couple gallons each and it sure saves a lot of feed (and doesn't encourage rats & mice)
Good Luck!

 

[Fowl_Play]

Thank you. We'll give that a try. Sometimes the simple solution works best.