This is WAR I tell you! WAR!!!!

[silkiechicken]

I've declared war and it is one tough ongoing battle. The trick I have found is to put the feeders high so they have to reach to get the feed. This way they can't bill out half of it in the process of finding that one pellet with a larger piece of corn in it.

 

[EweSheep]

I too have problems with chicken wasting feed! The bantams are the worst...they go into the trough and scratch it all out! The big chicken like to fling it around thinking there is a better treat somewhere in the bottome of the trough.

I may have to install a few PVC pipes around the wall for several girls to eat when I do get a new shed going.

I have wasted one too many bags of feed and YES THIS IS WAR!

 

[HenHappy]

I've wondered about putting wire or mesh over top of the food. Has anyone tried this? That way scooping the feed out would be impossible. Is there a drawback I'm not seeing with this?

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

With three boys and lots of friends around, we go through the plastic buckets of cheese balls, pretzels, etc. I knew there had to be a use for them, so I went to the local Ace Hardware store and purchased plastic Flower pot bottoms and a couple of nuts and bolts. I cut some openings near the bottom for the food to fall out and then used twin from hay bales to make a hanger. What you see in the picture cost me less than $2 (well the pretzels cost money, but we would buy those anyway).

Like SilkieChicken said, I hang them high enough that they can just reach them, but they definately can not get their feet into them.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I tried that with the wall-mounted rabbit-feeder that I was using for my 3 hens for a while last summer. I bent up a rectangle of 1/2" hardware cloth so it fitted inside the tray part of the feeder.

All of a sudden I stopped going thru much feed at all. Not only were they not wasting it, they were not hardly *eating* it. Sigh.

So I gave up and took the wire out.

I do not know whether a) I just have weird chickens, b) 1/2" is too small a hole, or c) what, and it is still probably worth your trying it. I'm just offering this one small data point.

Good luck and I'd like to hear how it goes if you try it,

Pat

 

[Brian]

Go get 'em LoneCowboy!

My girls are only 11 days old, but I've already got a commercial feeder in the coop; the kind that you hang from the ceiling. Is that not good??? It hasn't been used yet, and it cost me around $17, so I could always take it back to the store still. Ditto for the water fount.

Brian

 

[chickflick]

Where do you guys find the pellets? I only find crumbles here. Looks like there would be less waste with the pellets...or not?

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

Here where I live, we have a local feedstore that sells both. The brand is PenPals.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Mice and rats are the problem I have the most with wasted feed. Yes the cost too, but I just can't stand the grain making the rodent population thrive.

Sooooo I simply make the gals clean up. I know how much feed they go through in a day and I have the feeders up so they can scratch about for any droppings. I fill the feeders late in the day so for sure they go to roost with full crops but I time it so they run out in the feeders about noonish. From then on the scratch till I fill the feeders again late afternoon..... I monitor the feeders on my days off so I know how much feed it takes. Having an endless supply of feed just makes for picky eaters.

 

[Katy]

I used to have trouble with my chickens wasting a lot of feed until I tried some different brands of feed. They like one kind much more than the others and I can guarentee that if I have to buy one of the kinds they don't like because I can't get to the store that carries what they like, most of it is gonna be on the floor under the feeder. I do agree tho that keeping the feeders hung high helps.