Wildlife feeder to feed the chickens

[elmo]

Chicken feed + wet ground = moldy feed? That's what I would wonder about. I think chicken feed as a manufactured product would be more prone to mold/spoilage than chicken scratch which is commonly fed on the ground.

 

[barnwife]

Here in texas it rains about twice a month, and the rain doesn't wet the ground for even 24 hours no matter how hard it rains due to the intense heat around here.

Mold does not grow in heat very well, either, no matter how wet it is. Most mold dies out somewhere around 90 degrees...we've been having 100+ for over a month already. 90+ usually hits us around March. Mold is not much of a problem here.


Maybe the feeder wouldn't work well in a wet area, though, I agree. But if you program the feeder to put an appropriate amount of feed out, there wouldn't be a pile of feed waiting to mold.

The feeder doesn't disperse in a pile. It "throws" the feed in a large area circle using centrifugal force from a spinning "arm". The bucket that you put the bags of feed in is covered and usually airtight to prevent condensation and molding inside the barrel.

The mold is a good concern for some areas, but I don't think it would be a problem unless it was raining when you filled the barrel itself.

 

[ladyj]

I set up a 5 gal hanging feeder in my hen yard for scratch. Goldie and frizzle jack seem to know what time the feeder is set for the scratch it is so funny to watch them hang out by the tree waiting for the timer to go off. It holds a 50lb bag of scratch and i don't have to worry about them getting to much scratch and not eating their food. works great and helps to regulate their treats. course silly things still like their greens!

 

[elmo]

If you try this, let us know how it works, and whether you lose any stock from spoiled feed. It's an interesting theory.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Chicken feed + wet ground = moldy feed? That's what I would wonder about. I think chicken feed as a manufactured product would be more prone to mold/spoilage than chicken scratch which is commonly fed on the ground.

Most arent looking at this the right way.

It doesnt HAVE to scatter feed everywhere.

It doesnt MEAN they can only eat a couple of times a day

Its an automated feed DISPENSER.

If you put a collar/funnel device around the bottom spinner, and a trough underneath, you could set it to FILL the trough as many times a day as needed.
The chickens would eat when they wanted, and it would be refilled AUTOMATICALLY.

All that said, unless you have a LOT of chickens, I dont see where it would be needed.

One hanging 30 lb feeder will feed quite a few chickens for several days before refilling, and you need to check on your animals at least once a day anyway.​

 

[RendonRoo]

This is a great idea for free range chickens. If they are free range they don't really need much feed other than treats. I thought about this before but my chickens are in an enclosed run. I decided not to do it because my chickens and i both enjoy scratch treats. Hope it works out for you.

 

[Akane]

It could work but I think it's a bit overkill. You could just put a big feeder out there and then you wouldn't have feed going to waste by dumping too often and you wouldn't have birds going hungry.

If you do use it I see 2 potential problems with your plans even if it's not with the feeder itself. The first being that you should not mix things into the feed. Chickens will pick through the feed leaving and scattering what they like less and eating more of what they do like. Even if they finish it all off the bigger pigs of the group will get all of the more desireables and the bottom of the pecking order will get more of the leavings. So mixing minerals in could result in an overdose in one and a deficiency in another. Adding grains like corn could result in one getting all the corn (which is not healthy at all) and the rest getting none (not harmful in the least). You risk either your most dominant or least dominant birds being unhealthy and not laying. You should not mix anything with the feed and especially with a feeder like this. Treats should be fed seperately for only a short time in controlled amounts so the chickens are forced to eat only the layer feed or forage. If you want to leave out whole grains do it seperately so they can just eat chicken feed if they feel they need to and if they are eating too many grains you can cut back the amount without cutting back all their feed intake.

2nd thing. You say the feeder could automatically feed for many many days. Why do you need that? The only time might be if you have someone else taking care of them that can't or doesn't want to feed. Chickens should be locked up every night. Especially free range chickens. You also definitely want to get the eggs at least daily in that heat. So plan to be there every evening and every morning unless you also put in an automatic pop hole door and want to risk the eggs going bad or being partially incubated when you get them. Chickens left with an open coop or roosting in trees at night will get eaten. Most definitely. No matter where you are. It's hard enough keeping them from all getting eaten free ranging in the country when you do lock them up at night. I see no reason a 50lb bag of feed couldn't be dumped in a large feeder everyday. That's currently what I do but mine only holds 20 so I dump from the same bag about 3 days in a row every morning before hauling a new bag out there.

 

[silarajc]

So, I was also looking for a timed feeder and came upon the deer feeder, although I was looking for something smaller to put in the coop. I too wanted my chickens to get most of their nutrition from free ranging, and use the feeder to "call" them into the coop at night before the door shut. I didn't want to supplement their foraging any more than I had to during the summer months.

It was my understanding that chickens allowed to free-range would not need supplemental feed if they had adequate foraging. I think this would be an excellent system.

 

[silarajc]

Thinking more about the auto feeder for my flock...I read somewhere that chickens need about 10 cm each of feeding space. If I had feed available all the time, that might not be as much of an issue, but if I'm only feeding once a day, they are probably going to swarm it. That means I need just over 10 feet of trough space for my 33 chickens, that will fill from the auto feeder...I need some help with the logistics of that inside the coop. The coop is 10X12, but I'm walling off 3 feet, so it is 10 X 9 of chicken space. Perhaps have the feeder in the center, so I could have a five foot trough that the chickens can access from both sides?? That would require some creative funneling. Any ideas??

 

[Dianna dancing]

That looks like a good idea!

Quote:

Most deer feeders have 3 legs and a hopper that will hold anywhere from 200 - 1,000 pounds of feed. Some of the bigger ones that hold several hundred pounds - a couple of thousand pounds usually have 4 legs and are solid steel construction.

I took this picture from the deer stand a couple of years ago. Its the thing on the poles. It has a motor that runs off of a rechargeable 6 volt battery. The motor has a timer that spins twice a day for X number of seconds that you set it to. The time the feeder goes off, the spin rate (how fast), and the duration of the spin can all be adjusted.

Quote:

It would not be a "all you can eat feeder". I was thinking of setting the timer to go off once in the morning and once in the evening.

Smart! All you can eat would likely produce fat chickens who are unhealthy and fat. They wouldn’t lay as well. Also might check with a chicken farmer and see what the ultimate feed amount is. I used to work on a farm. They don’t free eat. They’re given specific amounts for size and weight. Good luck. Keep us updated please.