Simple idea for feeding (to reduce waste, etc.)

[pawsplus]

I put my Chix' food in plain old heavy-duty dog bowls. I only have 2 chickens (should be 3 and will be again), and I never leave food out at night in order not to draw predators, so I don't use those big hoppers.

This works pretty well, but esp w/ their a.m. oatmeal (layer pellets, rolled oats, ground flax, eggs, cooked in m-wave and allowed to cool) they sometimes, in their excitement, drop big chunks outside the bowl.

So I'm now putting the bowls on concrete pavers. I figure this will not only make it easier to pick up spilled food, but if they peck at what they do spill, it will trim their beaks!

We'll see how it works!

 

[jomoncon]

This is a great idea. I have a big, wooden chicken feeder that holds almost 35 pounds. I've only been putting a little in it since they seem to waste so much. I've been seriously thinking about using bowls & picking it up every night. I know I have some mice in the run, since my 8 RIRs have become excellent mousers!

 

[pawsplus]

Yeah, it's a little more trouble, but not much. I just pick up the bowls in the run when I go out to lock them in their coop at night. In the a.m. I take bowls out when I go to open their pop-hole. So it's no additional trips.

I tend to spoil mine by giving them all sorts of special stuff anyway, LOL, so it's a rare day when I'm not preparing chicken oatmeal or mealworms or something to take out.

It also ensures that things stay clean, b/c as long as the bowls are in the house every 24 hours they get WASHED every 24 hours.

I also store my feed in the house (b/c keeping it on the porch, even in bungied metal trash cans) drew raccoons. So I just fill up 1 bowl w/ layer pellets and 1 with oatmeal or whatever and head out.

 

[Erica]

Aren't pavers useful? You have a lovely neat pen pawsplus!

I use those stainless steel dog bowls with a rubber rim -- they stay put even if the birds stand on the edge. I punch nail holes in the bottom for drainage and leave these out in the run where I can fill them with whatever I like during the day.

regards
Erica

 

[pawsplus]

Quote:
LOL--I DID just put the sand in, so it probably won't be this purty for long.

I do clean up the poop every day, though, now that I have the sand.

 

[aarronh]

I bought goat mineral block holders, cut them in half, and screwed them to the walls of the coops... seems to be working better than bowls for me thus far... I got tired of the birds dusting in their feed LOL

 

[Arielle]

Love everyones ideas! Useful, practical, and cheap.