Author Topic: chicken feed (Read 2781 times)

andy harris · « **on:** May 12, 2010, 02:53:23 pm »

We bought 3 hens last week and we are new to keeping chickens and i can not believe how much food is on the floor.We have a plastic feeder at the moment and ive put it on 2 bricks but there is still alot of pellets on the floor.How can i stop food waste does anyone have advise ?

egbert · « **Reply #1 on:** May 12, 2010, 03:13:07 pm »

Hi

I am new to chooks too, only had mine a month. Only a thought, but mine are in a pen and if the feeder is too near the sides or water they tend to barge it about and spill more. As long as they have room to get at it, it seems quite tidy.

HappyHippy · « **Reply #2 on:** May 12, 2010, 03:35:33 pm »

My chooks have a feeder inside their house, but never seem to bother with it

I throw a couple of handfulls of mixed grain and layers pellets into their run of a morning and they spend all their time scratching and picking it up - there's never any left, but that might be because the little garden birds can get through the fence and 'help' with the cleaning up. It might be worth only putting enough for a day at a time into the feeder, that way they'll get into the habbit of pecking up the stuff that's on the floor.
The cockatiel in the cage in the house is a different matter altogether though, he can throw his seed up to 4 feet from the cage if he's in the mood

I think birds are just plain messy

JulieS · « **Reply #3 on:** May 12, 2010, 04:41:17 pm »

The only time mine left any on the floor around the feeder was when I mixed layers pellets and mixed corn in there. They picked out all the layers pellets and ate all the corn!

Now they have layers pellets in the feeder and a corn treat scattered around the pen in the afternoon.

Sharondp · « **Reply #4 on:** May 12, 2010, 05:22:31 pm »

They like to scratch around for their food, and when they peck at the food it flies everywhere! I've all but given up with my feeder and I have two galvanised pans which I use to feed them in the mornings. They inevitably throw it all out but then spend the rest of the day scratching around for it amongst the wood chips! There's hardly ever any waste. When they have corn I just throw that on the ground for them to scratch at.

Daveravey · « **Reply #5 on:** May 13, 2010, 12:40:01 am »

I had the same problem when i used to put their feed in a plastic trough... they'd scatter it everywhere !

Got a bit fed up with all the wasted feed on the run floor, so went out & bought a new feeder with an "anti scratch ring".

No wasted feed now