[dizzylizzie]

hi, i have ex-batts(they are fab and i love them dearly), and they make a huge mess with their food..i do the same as joyfull and just pick up the feeders late afternoon, if theywant more they get it off the floor. mine are free ranging then anyway so if they dont want to lower themselfs by eating off the floor, there is always my pumpkins

[AmandaH]

Hi dizzylizzie.  Yes, mine free range too.  I used to let them out first thing but now I keep them in the run until about noon, to make sure they eat enough crumbs, and then let them out.  Otherwise they just shoot out, start scratching and causing mayhem.

They are funny little things, aren't they?  Hugely entertaining, with a way of getting under your skin.  I mean, they're not cute and fluffy like a puppy or kitten and sometimes they get a look in their eye that makes you glad that they are small and not six feet tall (think velociraptor) but... you can't help but love them.

I will do what you and joyfull suggest and take away the feeders when I give them their mixed corn late afternoon.  Force them to eat off the floor!  I was thinking how bad I would feel about that and then thought - duh! - that's their favourite thing, eating off the floor and pecking about!    

[dizzylizzie]

just a quickie... i have their feeders on slabs, and every night when they have gone to bed i sweep and hose down. i dont want to attract vermin, but i also dont want my girls eating mouldy food. its one thing eating stuff that they have spread that day, but i wouldnt leave it there for another day . i do the same as you ...keep them in till lunchtime to make sure they have a good helping of the ex-batts pellets. its made such a difference to them, its fab stuff....although its taken 6 weeks to swap them from the crumb compleatly....anyway, good luck with them x

[CattinJ]

Hello,
Just wanted to say my ex bats are also really messy and do just the same...and now we have rats!!!!!!!!   We found one had dug under the run last night to get the food so Im now taking it out at night but there's so much scattered around...
We have changed to pellets and are introducing them slowly but think Ill try the trick of taking the feeders away from them when they go in in the evening and then they can just have what's left on the ground.

We have one of the red bottomed plastic feeders with spokes and thet's even worse than the metal one if this helps.

Cattin

[LittleRedHen]

I have one similar to this and my hens do the same thing.  Alot of waste!

[AmandaH]

Yes, I've just discovered that CattinJ - new feeder with spokes arrived this morning but, by this evening, food everywhere again!

But pellets also arrived today so hopefully I can wean them over to pellets, which (again, hopefully) don't have the same tendency as crumbs to just turn into a sludge around the feeder.

Good grief, I haven't mastered feeding the chickens and I am acquiring a tortoise at the weekend as well!  Do chooks and tortoises get on? :-)

[peter o]

hi
i have messy eaters i take the feeders away at about 5pm and then they eat up all the mess from the ground before dark

[8doubles]

Have you tried sticking a couple of bricks under the feeder to raise it so they have
 less neck movement to dig the food out.

[AmandaH]

Yup.  The feeder in the run is on bricks.  

(Sigh)

[8doubles]

If you keep adding another course of bricks they will eventually stop making a mess as the short ones will have to eat what the big uns drop.

[AmandaH]

But all my girls are the same size!  

[viettaclark]

Just a thought...the eglu "grub" dispenser seems pretty good. It's fixed up on the run mesh at head height and the chooks have to put their heads inside the lip to eat. Mine were really messy using the spoke feeder or bowls, now it's just the odd pellet that falls. Don't know if it would work with trimmed beaks but maybe someone else has ex-batts and a "grub" to let us know? Only prob is you need to fix it onto a specific size of wire because the plastic hooks are very wide...won't work on normal mesh.
Calling Auntie...didn't you rig up something ingenious for yours?

[AmandaH]

It's worth a try Vietta!  I have had a look on the omlet website and the Grub is less than a tenner so I think I'll give one a try and see what happens.  Thanks for the suggestion!