So I've been doing a lot of reading on how it is wise to offer your chickens a variety of food. I'm sold! So now I'm thinking I'll get a big hopper type of feeder with a whole bunch of sections so that one feeder has say, six kinds of food in it.

All of the hoppers I can find have just one section.

I'm sure I can't be the first person to think of this.

For those of you that are currently keeping a variety available to your chickens, do you have a whole bunch of different feeders?

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), June 10, 2001

Answers

Paul, that is so funny I was thinking of asking the very same question only about chicken & goat feeders. I was wanting to feed a variety also. I tried cheap aluminum pans but they rust quickly and are messy! No you are not the first, I was wondering where to buy them also!

-- Lynn (johnnypfc@yahoo.com), June 10, 2001.

I mix new stuff in with the old until they are used to it, My grand parents dumped one kind on each end of the trough and maybe some thing diff. in the middle (like grit) Their pigs had a custom built feeder with doors over diff. kinds of feed, the bags dumped in from the top and the slop when in a low trough. All of this was built by hand. Depending on how your hopper is shaped maybe you could fit a plywood divider down the inside?

-- Thumper (slrldr@aol.com), June 10, 2001.

When we moved in to this 150 yr. old farm ,some feeders were left in the barn.They are homemade out of wood and I'll bet they hold a whole 50 lb.bag of feed.I wish I could draw you a pic..but here goes.They are about three feet high,two ft. wide.The opening at the top is big enough to put the top of your feed bag into.At the bottom is a trough like a baby pig feede.And it has re-rod every 3or 4 inches so they can't roost in it.Aside from drawing vermin I love them.Oh ...the back board is tilted in to feed the contents to the bottom.if you made a longer version you could put in dividers..voila!!!

-- teri (mrs_smurf2000@yahoo.ca), June 10, 2001.

I feed my chickens several different feeds plus I keep crushed oyster shell available at all times. I wound up building a feeder myself out of scrap wood, based on a plan that I found in JD Belanger's book "The Homesteader's Handbook to Raising Small Livestock". I just put in several small compartments for the shell, etc. For the reel I nailed a section of broom handle to the ends of the feeder, after first slipping a piece of scrap PVC pipe over the handle. Works a charm- the girls can't roost on the handle. This feeder would work fine w/out the stand, but I built a stand because I use deep litter and the hens were kicking litter into the feeder. Alternatively, could you use several small feeders and just put one type of feed in each?

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), June 10, 2001.

My chickens have a three to four coarse dinner everyday. To begin with they have a hopper that always have a egg pellet feed in it for them to feed on anytime they want it. It helps provide calcium for a stronger egg. Second I feed them a butter tub full of cracked corn every morning before I let them loose on the range. This gives an excellent taste and color to the egg yolk. Third, they range all day on green grasses and bugs. Fourth, they get to eat any table scraps we throw out the back door. I have people brag about the eggs we sell them.

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), June 13, 2001.

I too have been looking for days on the internet for a multi compartment feeder. I have a bood called 'Chickens in your backyard' which shows a wall hanging feeder with compartments for laying feed, grit, calcium, and greens. It looks great but I can't even find a single compartment wall hanging feeder. Maybe I will just build my own wooden trough with multiple compartments.

-- Tony Bourque (tobourque@attbi.com), December 17, 2001.