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A Chicken Feeder, A Waterer, and Other Odds and Ends
A Feeder
I've had a lot of problems with feed billing.
I'm not talking about getting annoying notices in the mail from the feed store
that my payment is overdue. "Billing" is a kind of confusing term
poultry people have given to a behavior chickens engage in - they use their
beaks to scoop a lot of chicken feed out of the feeder and onto the floor. I
reached a point where I would have chicken feed an inch deep on the floor
around the feeder whenever I would clean the coop. I kept telling the Hipster
Hens that chicken feed is NOT chicken litter. It costs a lot more than pine
shavings, and it's makes me really grouchy when I have to shovel all that feed
mixed with litter and poop onto the compost pile. I turned to the internet for
help and found lots of advice - some of it not so good. For instance, starving
your hens to alter their behavior seems both cruel and sort of dumb. Chickens
are chickens and will act like chickens. Scratching at and billing their food,
is just what chickens do. I did find a number of recommendations for commercial
and homemade feeders that would make billing food out of the feeder difficult -
which seems like a good logical approach.
The one that made the most sense was a recommendation
by Jason at "Locally
Laid".
He waxed ecstatic about a plastic gravity feeder made by Kuhl Corp and sold by Stromberg's Poultry Supply. (It's worth
mentioning that neither Jason nor I have any sort of relationship with either
company.) Without any further deliberation, I ordered one and installed it in
my coop. It has been a miracle. The amount of feed the chickens manage to bill
onto the floor is a fraction of what it used to be with my old feeder. The
secret is the extra-deep feed pan and the inward curve at the edge of the pan.
The chickens still noodle around in the feed with their beaks, but the feed
stays in the feeder. I'm saving so much at the feed store that maybe I should
go out and buy the large screen TV for the coop that all the Hipster Hens have
been asking for!
 |
| Kuhl feeder. Inset - feed pan with curved edge. |
Meet the Flock Roundup – August 2017
Snowball the Silkie Rooster: Feeling very modern and sophisticated in his
fancy new hen pen.
Emile the Bantam Cochin Roo: "You conniving
scoundrel! Here you are in my coop with that menacing camera contraption again!
You've been warned! If you harm my hens in any way you will feel the wrath of
my fierce spurs!"
When the Rooster Crows at the Break of Dawn - Why Roosters Crow
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on
Don’t think twice, it’s all right
"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Bob Dylan
It is a warm and humid morning in mid-August and not yet light. Wakefulness is coming to me this morning before the sun, and I open my eyes to look around the room, lit only by alarm clock glow. A slight breeze blows through the open windows and all is quiet. The nights sounds of owls and coyotes have ceased and the birds have not yet started their songs of daybreak.
Then I hear the first morning sound floating up
the hill, “Err-err-eeeeeerrrrr!”
Emile is awake. “Err-err-eeeerrrrr!” In a bit Emile’s call is joined by another
one, a bit flatter and raspier, “Err-err-Rup!
Err-err-Rup!” Snowball has added
his morning commentary. This duet continues for a while and then is joined by
another voice, more shrill and abrupt, “Errrrr-errrrrr!” Now Paul is chiming in. I swing my legs over the side of the bed and
start my day—the sun is just beginning to lighten the eastern horizon.
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