The waste! Oh the wasted feed...

[larissap112]

This is the feeder I'm using for three 12 week old chickens, hanging at their chest height, with crumble:



And dang if they don't knock it around, send it swinging, eat like animals (oh, wait...) and knock at least a third if not more of the feed all over the bottom of the coop.

I tried fermenting feed for a while, but it's too much daily work, and it kept molding.

I've got 50 lbs of crumble to go through before I can switch to pellets I suppose, but I don't like the idea of pellets, it just seems so...boring and rabbit foodish. And will they work with this feeder? Will they still be knocked around?

And why don't they eat that dang crumble off the floor before heading back to the feeder? (Because they aren't intelligent humans, I know, it was rhetorical, lol.)

I hate all this waste!




Any suggestions?

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

You need to adjust the feeder to prevent the chicks from having access to too much feed. There should be a screw at the top of the feeder, screw it down to reduce the gap at the bottom of the feeder to reduce the amount of feed in the trough.

 

[NapaChicknGal]

i use "xtra" feeder a dog dish that holds approx 3# and my first feeder purchased from feed store. Well, long story short the taller and fuller one is emptied within a cpl hrs and spread all over ground; it isn't knocked over--while the original feeder is still half full. What's up? Any suggestions? I'm too cheap to spend another $20 for a "real" chicken feeder.

 

[snow5164]

My only suggestion is fermented feed, it is sticky doesn't fly anywhere and expandes so you use less .a little bit of work? Yes but the time saves you

Put it in a plastic rain gutter and your all set!!!

This photos is from a member of byc.

 

[Mahlzeit]

Yes pellets will work with that feeder. I honestly prefer pellets because they are not as easy to knock out of the feeder and if they do they find them on the floor and eat them unlike the crumbles.

 

[enola]

The bottom of the hanging feeder needs to be at the height of their back or a teensy bit higher.

 

[NapaChicknGal]

thnx for input--w/switch back to pellets--and rain gutter clever idea --until it rains tho', right?

 

[Jeremy Wingate]

this is the design that i use for my chickens with crumble feed and it works great with little waste


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...te-5-gallon-25-feed-bucket-feeder-for-about-3

 

[pdirt]

Sometimes minor modifications are in order. I made this "hole-y" insert for our treadle feeder and it has pretty much stopped the feed waste:

 

[larissap112]

this is the design that i use for my chickens with crumble feed and it works great with little waste


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...te-5-gallon-25-feed-bucket-feeder-for-about-3

This...is the holy grail of spill free feeders. THANK YOU.