What do you feed treats in?

[HoldensLandingChickGirl]

We have hanging water and grain feeders in the chicken coop, but I am not sure what to put treats/kitchen scraps in for the chickens. I am trying to keep everything off the ground so i don't want to just toss it in there. i was thinking about the metal feeder trough ... any ideas?

 

[laseterlass]

I change the litter in the brooder every night. Granted they are only a week old. But I have a large rainboot box. I throw the treats and some sand in the box. Put the chicks in with it and clean the brooder. This serves lots of purposes. They are welcome to being picked up and handled, they even push and shove to get to crawl up on my hand. It keeps them in the box that I put them in. It tires them out at bedtime. After they are done I slow down and inspect each one as I put them to bed. When they become adults it might be a little scary for the kids to have such friendly 10 lb hens. :cdBut thats next summer.

 

[HoldensLandingChickGirl]

They aren't in the brooder anymore - they moved out to the coop this morning. So I am looking for a permanent solution - something to use daily in the barn/coop for the treats so they are not jut on the bedding/floor.

 

[teach1rusl]

I just take a plate (one of our dinner plates) of scraps out to them...lol. But if you're looking for something permanent, old dog dishes or any old human dishes (like an old pie dish w/raised edges) would work just fine.

 

[HoldensLandingChickGirl]

Quote:
Do they not make an enormous mess with this? I probably can't avoid the mess, but i am trying, lol!

In the brooder, we always fed them all their treats/kitchen scraps by hand, so there weren't' pieces of rotting food left in the bottom of the brooder. We have a lot of mice in/near the barn- I am hoping to keep them out of the coop as much as possible.

 

[karlamaria]

Quote:
Do they not make an enormous mess with this? I probably can't avoid the mess, but i am trying, lol!

In the brooder, we always fed them all their treats/kitchen scraps by hand, so there weren't' pieces of rotting food left in the bottom of the brooder. We have a lot of mice in/near the barn- I am hoping to keep them out of the coop as much as possible.

we do the same thing, our chickens are so tame they eat from our hands and go nuts. they will not eat anything off the ground... silly girls LOL noodles they love to grab and my little boys love feeding them, fruits and veggies, they eat from there hands, bugs? my kids catch grass hoppers and feed them by hand. I guess we trained them well, when they see us they hop on us and look at our hands.

 

[Buff-Island-Australorp]

Use a piece of guttering off of a house and attach it to the base of your run and use it like a trough. If you have 2x4 welded wire, mount it on the outside of the pen, so they can stick their heads through to get it.
They sell plastic guttering which I think might be cheaper, and less chance of getting cut.

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
Do they not make an enormous mess with this? I probably can't avoid the mess, but i am trying, lol!

In the brooder, we always fed them all their treats/kitchen scraps by hand, so there weren't' pieces of rotting food left in the bottom of the brooder. We have a lot of mice in/near the barn- I am hoping to keep them out of the coop as much as possible.

Nope...no messes - they generally clean the plate pretty well. Then I just rinse and stick in the dishwasher. I know the chickens don't care, but I can't just throw scraps into the grass/dirt - for some reason I just think that's nasty. I know to some that makes no sense

 

[PetRock]

We put our adult chickens' treats in two plastic cat/dog bowls. They go back and forth eating from each bowl. If a grumpy hen is at one bowl, there is always another bowl to eat from. Every morning, we give them some plain yogurt with left over rice or steel cut oats and cut up tomatoes or fruit. By mid morning, the bowls are cleaned out! We also give them treats by hand and scatter BOSS for them. We have been using an old metal cake pan for our teenagers. They recognize it and are beyond excited when they see it! We have also been working on building trust by feeding the younger ones the yummiest treats by hand (grapes, mulberries, cooked spaghetti, etc.)

 

[Yay Chicks!]

I use a plastic dog bowl, or one of those black plastic dish things that frozen meals come in. If it's greens, I hang them in a suet cage for added entertainment.