Would you use a dedicated feeder for kitchen scraps? (Design feedback wanted)

[saysfaa]

...

I'm trying to understand:

1. How do you currently feed scraps/fresh foods? (throw on ground, bowls, other?)

Things like a head of cabbage, radish plants that went to seed, dandelions, and whole oats - thrown on the ground. Partly to encourage natural behaviors like scratching, partly because the chickens pull them off any feeders anyway, partly because any feeder big enough to hold them even momentarily would take to much floor space, partly because these kinds of things are dry enough that dust and dirt don't stick much at all.

Things like meat, fish carcasses, tomatoes, and berries - in their food bowl.

1. What frustrates you most about your current method? (mess, pests, waste, time, chickens making a disaster?)

Nothing

Would you pay for a dedicated scraps feeder,

No

or is "good enough" good enough?

The above is good, not just "good enough". I'm not convinced a dedicated scraps feeder (of any design) is better.

1. If you would buy one, what's your honest price ceiling?

If I did think such a thing were needed, probably about $20. More than that and I would cobble something up instead... based in what I did when I needed a feeder, when I needed a water system, when I needed a heated water system.

1. What features would be make-or-break for you?
   • Rodent-proof?
   • Easy to clean?
   • Holds X days worth of scraps?
   • Weather protection?
   • Something else?

The space it takes. I worked really hard to give the chickens as much space as possible.

1. Urban/suburban vs rural? (Curious if needs differ by location)

Subdivision out in the country, I guess. A farmer split off a strip of land that was subdivided into half acre lots. There is a similar subdivision across the road but fields behind some of the houses, including ours. Between this and town is a similar mix of subdivisions and farms.

 

[Sally PB]

I need brutal honesty about whether this solves a real problem or if I'm solving something that doesn't need solving.

I see it as a problem that I can solve myself. If I saw an idea that made me say, AH HA! I probably wouldn't buy it, I'd think of how I could replicate it myself. If I couldn't do that, then I would consider buying it, if my need were great enough. How to serve scraps would not be such a need for me.

How do you currently feed scraps/fresh foods? (throw on ground, bowls, other?)

I either mix scraps with their current mash snack, or toss them on the ground. Mash is served in a pan and on the ground so that all the birds have access.

Your competition is usually an old baking tin which is easily cleaned and repurposed after being too worn or grungy from kitchen use.

This, exactly.

Al had excellent advice about the realities of making/selling something for feeding chickens.

 

[MROO]

Kitchen scraps go right on the ground. Chickens need "scratch tine." I'll sometimes hang larger items - like cabbage heads past their prime but not rotted. Whatever you "share," leave only as much as they'll eat by roosting time or remove excess. Leftover leftovers encourage unwanted guests - like rats.

 

[Penpal]

Your set up looks good for using black soldier flies. Put your scraps in. Put your soldier fly larvae in. Wait. They will grow up and lay eggs, then die. The eggs will hatch and the larvae will eat your garbage. When they get "big" they will attempt to escape from Paradise. At this point, they fall on the ground and the chickens eat them.

Justin Rhodes, on YouTube.com does this and talks about it on his channel.

 

[fsauwphoto]

I just use 6 inch PVC pipe scrap cut in half long ways. It is about six feet long with a cap at each end with some small holes at each end To allow excess fluid/ rain to run out. I put it on a wood foot and throw both my food and oyster shel in there at different ends.You could use a longer piecce of pipe for more birds. For scraps I just throw them on the ground, if the chickens don't eat it all next time I walk by I just grab whatever is left and throw it in my black soldier fly bins. If These scraps are not something I want to feed to the chickens they're too moldy or such then I just put it in the black soldier fly bins and not feed it to the chickens. The black soldier fly bins are storage bins from big box store that have holes drilled just under the lid all the way around big enough for flies to come and go out That way I don't have to worry about rain getting into the bins with the holes underneath the sides protected by the lids. I'll periodically open that up and Just scoop out the larva and give it to the chickens. You could put the bins close to the where you feed so the larve that fall out get eaten by the chicken in their feeding area, although I don't because my chickens are free range.