Our chickens are messy eaters...suggestions?

[Zoomie]

Yeah... birds like to "bill" their feed, that's how they are. My canaries do it too! People are always trying to think of ways to stop birds doing that. I've seen all sorts of clever feeders. I just got these: https://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Feeder-Crumbles-Invention-Placement/dp/B016047Q5G?th=1 and I really like them. You can't use these with chicks or young birds but if your birds are fairly well grown they can use these. It's just about impossible for them to get feed out of these. They have to stick their heads way down in there to eat it. Of course when you are first teaching them that this is where the food is, you fill up the little tunnel with feed so they can see it. Once they learn you are good to go.

 

[centrarchid]

The chickens are hard-wired to at least occasionally scratch as feeding. That scratching around concentrating feed sources is causing the feed containment problem.

Consider raising feeder up off ground so they are unable to scratch feed out. They will still "bill" a lot out onto floor. Then place some loose hay below the feeder. The birds will have to scratch through hay to find the feed, satisfying the urge to scratch about as feeding that normally serves to just disperse feed.

 

[Naser]

Try feeding them pellets, pellets are the same and they can't choose

 

[lazy gardener]

You could try fermenting it. Or, put a pan below the feeder to collect what they bill out.

 

[~KH~]

You might try a PVC feeder. I've used them in both places I've lived and it keeps the waste down to a minimum. They can't get in there as easily to flip food out.

 

[gridgeway66]

View attachment 1161058 Our 5 girls are making the biggest mess every time we refill the chicken feeder. They end up eating it all anyway because we brush it off the ground and put it back into the feeder but it seems to me like that's unnecessary work.

Is it the type of feeder we're using? Are there better ones out there? Or can I modify our current one? Any tips will be appreciated.

View attachment 1161057

I took a couole nice clean 5 gallon buckets with lids. And I drilled several holes in them all the way around the side with a 3 inch door hole saw. The chickens have to stick their heads in the holes to eat. Cut down on wasting food 100%

 

[Wolfgang B.]

Thanks for the many tips! I will stick with this feed, they love it so much. They didn't seem too crazy about pallets before. Plus we like to spread out the feed in the outside area and pallets aren't ideal for that especially in rain.
I will show you guys what solution I will go with. Thanks so much for all the friendly and valuable advise!

 

[Frazzemrat1]

All chickens are messy eaters!!!! LOL

That said, I have the same type feeder and my birds make considerably less mess. My feeder is raised up to about their breast height. They don't kick out as much with their beaks, and they can't get their feet up to scratch it out (which I guarantee yours are.)

 

[aart]

If you can find a deep(~3-4") dish the same diameter as bottom of your feeder and screw it on that will help.

I went with this:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-almost-waste-free-funnel-bucket-feeder.67218/
Used trigger first then stayed with water bottle funnel and pipe.

 

[Naser]

You can feed them pellets and give them the other stuff as a treat, I feed mine pellets and give them mixed corn as treat, Preferably before they go to bed at night, that keeps them warm in cold long winter nights, in some stage you will fedup and give them pellets, especially when you get the morehens disease, I used to give them mash myself.