The waste! Oh the wasted feed...

[Lynn Manes]

We also had your problem until we started using a bucket feeder. It ends up costing $30 if you don't have the tools to do it, but you make it up in feed.It's a 5 gallon bucket with 4 holes we drilled in it, and we stuck four 3" 90 degree street elbows in the holes. Now the chickens have to stick their head down in the elbow to get the feed. Hope you solve your problem.

That's the same ones we use in 2 of 3 quail pens. But you're right,the waste is awful. We chose one of those skinny long feeders with the holes across it where they access the feed. Only thing is,it's good for tiny quail so I don't know how it would work for chickens unless you drilled holes in the bottom on each end so you could stake it somehow in the ground which might be kind of a pain probably. I like the bucket idea from VH Chicken Farm. We don't seem to have waste with the chickens like we do with the ducks and quail. Good luck. I'm sure you'll come up with a good solution.

 

[larissap112]

Hey guys, I thought I'd update this thread to show you my final solution.

It really was so dang simple, so cheap, so easy.

All that was needed was simply to raise the lip. That's it. the trough was just too shallow, making it easy for the birds to scatter the feed in their frenzy.

Now, how to raise it? I didn't want something stiff that could actually harm them.

DUCT TAPE is the answer to EVERYTHING. And while I was at it, I got a nice girly pattern.

This trick also worked very well on the baby chick feeder!

I now have ZERO waste. ZERO. By simply adding a nice, flexible, washable rim.

 

[Den in Penn]

Congratulations on fixing your problem. It fits well with what I have been saying for some time, Most of the commercial feeders you can buy are too shallow in the trough. Another half inch to an inch and a lot of those wasted feed issues would disappear. That is unlikely to change as long as the people selling them are also the ones who sell feed. I like the idea of a tight collar around the chicks feeder I usually put it in a pan for the three weeks its in there with them.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I finally found an easy way for no waste. Ever.

I put the feed in pyrex bread pans. They're deep enough, and narrow enough, that they can't get in it to scratch it out, and deep enough that they can't flick it out with their beaks. Of course, they aren't a self-filling feeder, but I never have any waste.

I found a window plant box that fits 2 of them side by side and adds extra stability to them from falling over (got the box at Menards). I've also set the pyrex bread pans that have the side wings between 2 bricks for stability if I didn't have the box.

Have never had a problem with waste again.

 

[lemmon valley]

I will hang my feeder up during the day so they will clean the ground during the day but I check several times during the day to make sure they still have food to eat.

 

[Texnnj]

Chickens' naturally scratch at the ground looking for food. If it's in a feeder, they still scratch. Mine will eat it off the ground, especially if there is none in the feeder.

 

[zuluchicken]

This is my home made automated feeder. I have almost no waste regardless of which food I am using.

This is what I have used.

1. 5Lt water bottle mounted upside down with the bottom cut out.
2. 60mm PVC drain pipe. It fits perfectly over the mouth of the bottle and mounted to the stand. I used different thickness of timber as spacers in order to line the bottle and the drain pipe up and to create space for the receiver.
3. For the receiver I used a piece of 40cm PVC rain gutter that I had mounted on a flat piece of timber as a base. The ends of the gutter were closed of gutter stop ends.
4. The flow of the food is adjusted by inserting different thickness spacers underneath the receiver in order to adjust the gap between the mouth of the drain pipe and the bottom of the gutter. The gap must be small enough to prevent the food from freely running into the gutter. The chickens must eat (peck) it out from underneath the pipe which results in almost no spillage. It works well for all types of dry food. It also keeps the chickens occupied.
5. The 5Lt water bottle holds enough food for 11 fully grown Buff Orpingtons for 2 days. I would like to fit a larger container at the top so that I can increase the feeding period to one week.

Hope this helps. It is easy and cheap to make and it works very effectively. Try and make the container at the top as big as possible right from the beginning.

 

[SonflowerChick]

Hello - I feel your pain, I also get tired of feeding the wild birds my expensive organic chicken feed LOL.. I do find they waste less with pellets vs. crumbles but still there is waste. I have actually started putting less in their feeder, only a scoop at a time instead of filling it. I have 10 hens, 4 adults and 6 pullets. So if they knock their feeder over or knock it on the ground they are forced to clean up the ground since there is no more in the feeder. I usually check them twice a day so they are never without feed.
Hope this helps.

 

[microchick]

I tried switching our birds to pelleted. You should have seen the 'stink eye' I got from them the first time I poured a 32 ounce glass of it into their feeder. They ate it but you could tell they didn't like it and wanted their crumbles back. I switched them over to a PVC feeder that my husband built for me but it seems that no matter what kind of feeder I use for them, they are managing to dig a good amount out onto the ground, if not with their feet, then with their beaks, little devils. I finally found a large tray, three inches deep that I slid under their feeder to catch the feed they waste. Every couple of days I cut their ration in half and make them work on cleaning up the overspill that is in the tray. They still seem to be wasting a LOT of food.

 

[Lynn Manes]

This is my home made automated feeder. I have almost no waste regardless of which food I am using. This is what I have used. 1. 5Lt water bottle mounted upside down with the bottom cut out. 2. 60mm PVC drain pipe. It fits perfectly over the mouth of the bottle and mounted to the stand. I used different thickness of timber as spacers in order to line the bottle and the drain pipe up and to create space for the receiver. 3. For the receiver I used a piece of 40cm PVC rain gutter that I had mounted on a flat piece of timber as a base. The ends of the gutter were closed of gutter stop ends. 4. The flow of the food is adjusted by inserting different thickness spacers underneath the receiver in order to adjust the gap between the mouth of the drain pipe and the bottom of the gutter. The gap must be small enough to prevent the food from freely running into the gutter. The chickens must eat (peck) it out from underneath the pipe which results in almost no spillage. It works well for all types of dry food. It also keeps the chickens occupied. 5. The 5Lt water bottle holds enough food for 11 fully grown Buff Orpingtons for 2 days. I would like to fit a larger container at the top so that I can increase the feeding period to one week. Hope this helps. It is easy and cheap to make and it works very effectively. Try and make the container at the top as big as possible right from the beginning.

We don't have waste even with our conventional hanging feeder and kitchen scraps sre just thrown out on the coop floor so they can scratch a bit for them too. I like your feed setup. Just one question. How do you flip that 5L bottle full of feed over to place it in the pipe without losing some feed out of it? Did you cut the bottom off somehow to add feed to the bottle? Just curious