Too Much Wasted Feed! HELP!

[joedie]

I have 30 chickens and they go thru a bag of feed every 2-3 days. I use a 5 gal galvanized chicken feeder and it sits up on a concrete block but the coop floor is LOADED with feed all around the feeder. What can I do to prevent all this waste?

 

[WalkingWolf]

Move the feeder higher or hang the feeder so they cannot play in the food. Put less food in the feeder, when they run out they will have to eat it from the floor. I use 5 gal frosting buckets from the store they are not gravity fed so they cannot waste food. I drill 3 inch holes around the bucket 2/3 the way up, then I put in the proper amount of food they need daily.

 

[toletiquesbysam]

I have 25 chickens, 3ducks and 2 geese and we go through a bag a week. I use a 5gallon bucket that has holes around the bottom and it sits in a larger feeder type bowl. Soo as they eat a little more drains out into the bowl. I have this elevated on a block so it's off the floor and less waste. I would switch feeders, you are losing alot of food to the floor and it's not cheap food! Remove the feeder and they will forage on the floor for their next meal. Their are other homemade options to use for food such as the PVC pipe feeder that will give you alot less waste!

 

[vfem]

My chickens wasted mad feed when I gave them crumbles I give them pellets now... they do not waste them!

 

[Mahlzeit]

What kind of feed are you giving them? I give my hens layer pellets and I have the feeder hanging from the roof so it is at the height of their shoulders. The pellets are nice because if some do come out and fall on the floor they eat them right up.

 

[joedie]

They get crumbles from Orscheln. They don't have pellets there so I guess I'll go elsewhere and try the pellets. IF that doesn't work I'll have to try to rig up some kind of feeder!
Thanks for the replies.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Go to pellet feed and/or build a feeder they have to stick there whole head in.