Solutions for the Coop and Outdoor Feeders
Got chickens wasting their feed by scratching it out of the feeder? Not only is this costing you money, but it’s also attracting rodents and wild birds. This problem can be easily solved by hanging the feeder and placing something beneath it to catch what they scratch out. Simply pour the dropped feed back into the feeder when tending to your birds.
Raise the coop feeder high enough to where the chickens have to climb up on something to reach it, this will eliminate shavings from getting in both the feeder and the container below.
The Outdoor Feeder
Keeping the feed in the feeder is your best defense against attracting wild birds. At night when the chickens are cooped for the night, cover the feeder. The less feed scattered around the feeder the better. Something under the feeder will keep lost feed contained. Wild birds will always be a problem, but lets not offer them a feast 24 hours a day! I like to make it hard for wild birds to find any food at all when the flock is cooped or the feeder is covered. If food isn’t plentiful, wild birds will go elsewhere.
If your birds are free roaming during the day, it’s okay to keep their feeder covered, and just give them access to it two or three times a day for an hour.
Tip: If you have wild birds sneaking in the coop and devouring feed, replace any chicken wire with hardware cloth. Or, offset another layer of chicken wire over the existing. Sparrows can easily squeeze through chicken wire.
TBN Ranch Chicken Keeping Resources 