For those of you who follow the blog, you are likely aware of the stages we have gone through with feeders. The chickens like to dump their food on the ground, and we also have issues with summer monsoons bringing water nearly parallel to the ground, wind gusts and micro-bursts, and also with wild animals. It is the wild animals that bring us the greatest concern, since they not only eat a lot of food, but also can bring disease, so we have been through several versions of feeders to try to come up with the best solution for our animals, who rather enjoy their treats along with their soy-free, corn-free, non-gmo organic feed!
Wyatt recently found these feeders he was hoping to try. So we purchased one and brought it home, hoping to see of it would help with all of the competing needs. The Silkie pen was first for this new feeder.
Being that there was already a hook in the pen, and they don't have as much rain reaching the area where that would put hte feed, it was a good first choice. I added a scoop of feed, which would usually last 2-3 days with them. I didn't figure that would require filling it all the way, which would also mean that I didn't have to fret so much about losing a lot of feed if this idea was a bust with them!
I raided Bailey's stash of bailing twine, and tied the feeder to hang high enough that the Silkies stand properly as they eat, nothing can jump in it, but that the geriatric White Faced Black Spanish hens that are in retirement in the Silkies' pen can still eat just fine. This was very early last week, and it took them much of the week to go through the scoop I put in there. I regularly saw all of the different chickens that reside in there munching away, so I decided it was worth trying a wider spread application of the new feeder.
We cannot afford to purchase new feeders for all of the poultry at one time, but I did go ahead and buy two more last Saturday, and Wyatt and I stood and decided the next to pens for roll out were the main laying pens, the A pen and the Big pen. These pens usually go through about a scoop per day in this weather. So we started in the Big pen, where this 4x4 is angled near the doorway of their barn, helping re-frame it after a micro-burst several years ago. I ran in a longer, thicker cup hook. It wouldn't angled or hang properly if I left it on the hook, so we put it high enough that the feeder would swing freely and not have any pests feeding on it from the support beam, but still have it centered in and back far enough from the opening of the barn.
As soon as Wyatt poured the scoop in, we were surrounded by hens who felt the need to push us out of the way so they could be among the first to enjoy their new feeder.
The A pen was a little more challenging. There is a metal support for the roof, which was pretty easy to tie the feeder to, since the corners are favorite roosting spots and we didn't want accidental poop in the feeder or rain from the monsoons. The blue in the edge of the photo is a plastic tabletop that we use for nesting boxes to sit on, and that arrangement may have to be revisited if they fuss over the feeder or knock into when they fuss over next boxes (don't all hens want to use the same box at the same time at your house, too?)
So far, all of the new feeders are working beautifully. Feed economy might be slightly improved, although Wyatt is having a hard time with filling the feeders which are slightly smaller than the feed scoop. I will have to help him find a better solution for that this week. We also found a couple white buckets that still have the handles on them, which we plan to try to rig as temporary hanging feeders in the grow out pen and a couple of the breeding pens, I will try to take photos when we work on those so you can try it too, just as soon as we get the buckets unstuck!
What all have you all tried? Where do you put the fodder feed for your chickens for those of you who also use fodder? Please share your photos and solutions with us, and let me know who to credit so that I can share them with others trying to learn!
Have a great day!
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