What are they doing, and is it normal?

[WagarFamilyFarm]

Group,

I just got back home form 2 days of graduate work and my wife was looking over the chickens. Just before I left we purchased a second feeder and some grit. I placed food and grit mixed in both and left. My wife then text's me this morning and says that they filled their food trough with bedding? Why would they do this? She cleaned it out, and when she checked on them again, it was full again? When I arrived home today, I went down and cleaned it out to find that there was still food in it, so I cleaned it out and we'll have to wait and see if they do it again... I just thought it was strange... Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[ChicknThief]

Totally normal.

They all do it. It's a chick thing I guess, LOL. You could try getting a suspended feeder to help prevent this if it is bothering you.

 

[jenjscott]

As soon as I started putting pine bedding in with the chicks (at about a week) they started doing the same thing so I watched to see what was going on. Those little biddies would scratch from half a brooder away and it would throw the bedding everywhere, some of it landing in the feeder, some in the waterer. I had to raise the feeder and waterer, it helped, but didn't stop it completely.

 

[PotterWatch]

My two RIRs were knocking over their feeder and filling it with shavings every night. It was driving me crazy! I finally solved the problem by raising it up on a couple blocks of wood and using velcro on the bottom of the feeder and the top block of wood. Now they can't knock it over no matter how hard they try!

 

[dacjohns]

My chicks liked to scratch and filled their feeders with litter. I have a different feeder now that they are out of the brooder and it doesn't get filled with litter.

When the chicks hatched from under the hen I put the same chick feeders in with them. One of the little red plastic things with oval cutouts. Momma would just tip it over. They get food sprinkled on the ground since I don't have a big kid feeder for them. When momma takes them out though they eat out of the big feeder and eat whatever they find or whatever momma hen tells them about.

 

[Cetawin]

raise it to chest height and it will stop most of that.

 

[Red]

I don't think they mean to do it. They're just so busy exploring this big new world that when they scrat, half of the shavings end up in the food or water bowls