how do I stop wild birds eating all my chucks food?

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how do I stop wild birds eating all my chucks food?

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lynseyt

Joined: 23 Jun 2005
Posts: 10

Posted: Thu Jun 22, 06 6:55 pm Post subject: how do I stop wild birds eating all my chucks food?

Hi there. I am a bit of an occasional lurker but always find something useful and interesting to read and wondered if anyone could give me some advice.

I have 4 chickens who have the free range of our acre garden and unlimited access to layers pellets and 2 feedings of mixed corn am and pm.

The problem is that this summer we have been inundated with wild birds from magpies, rooks, wood pigeons even ducks as well as all usual finches and sparrows all nicking the chickens food. I wasnt too concerned at first but the amount of poo they all generate and particularly the noise the rooks make at 4 am as well as going through a hopper of food a day is beginning to annoy me (sorry if that makes me sound selfish). Does anyone have any ideas about how to give the chickens access to food adlib but not everyother blighter in the neighbourhood ?? I have tried putting the hopper out for limited periods but dont want to deprive my girls, am not around most of the day and the wild birds just sit and wait for me to come out before descending on my girls.

Many thanks

Lynsey

Naomi

Joined: 26 Mar 2005
Posts: 1945

Posted: Thu Jun 22, 06 7:05 pm Post subject:

Hi there!
Welcome to Downsizer.

You can buy treadle feeders, so that the hens only access the food when there weight is on a foot plate or alternatively you can use a spring feeder ,which they have to peck at to release grain etc(Gamekeepers use these for pheasant poults etc )
Failing that you can put thei,r feeder indoors if they have a large shed.
Although some small birds will still access it even in there.
If they were in a bird proof run it would be easy to keep their food safe from wild birds and we may have to be prepared for this one day, with the threat of Avian Flu .

Hope that helps?

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Thu Jun 22, 06 9:11 pm Post subject:

With all the literature that defra produced on avian flu I would think the sensible thing would be feeding inside, as that is a basic disaplin that anyone should be able to follow.

When we first started with our chickens (wehave 350, and have had for 5 years) we fed outside, but when we started bringing it in the feed order lasted another 50% from the outside feeding.

Economically it makes sense.

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Fri Jun 23, 06 9:17 am Post subject:
I wonder if you cut out the feeding of corn in the morning, your chooks might be more inclined to eat their layers' pellets. If they are hungry, they will be more likely to scare the wild birds off their food.

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Fri Jun 23, 06 11:08 am Post subject:
My birds get fed once and occasionally twice a day . This way I don't have food lying around to attract wild birds and worse still .RATS

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Fri Jun 23, 06 12:35 pm Post subject:
And don't worry - if you stick to that regime - the hens will be there to tell you the minute they run out of food

lynseyt

Joined: 23 Jun 2005
Posts: 10

Posted: Fri Jul 07, 06 11:14 am Post subject:
Thanks very much for that. Silly question but how much should I put out for 4 chickens and how long would I leave the food out for?

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri Jul 07, 06 11:32 am Post subject:

lynseyt wrote:

Silly question but how much should I put out for 4 chickens and how long would I leave the food out for?

Depends on what breed & size thet are. I wrote this a while back: https://www.downsizer.net/Projects/Raising_livestock/Feeding_Chickens/ and say this as a rough guide.

Quote:

The amount to feed varies depending on the size, age and activity of the chicken. Some books suggest feeding enough that can be eaten in 10 minutes, however our hens will often look around for something they fancy before tucking in to their pellets. Our three hens, which are described as a large breed (Sussex), are provided with about 400g of pellets between them each day. Most days they eat them all, but on occasions they don't so any left over are thrown on the compost heap. So, a 20kg bag lasts them just under two months.

However, my hens haven't taken any notice and tend to only eat their pellets if they have to, often leaving them for hours. They are kept in an ark though so no wild birds have access to the food.

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Fri Jul 07, 06 1:50 pm Post subject:
For how much to feed, take a look at the size of your chooks' crops. Probably about the size of a child's fist. They aren't going to eat much more than that each in one go, so see if you can approximate that sort of volume. As Ruby says, if you don't put out enough, they will soon let you know!

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46211
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 13 1:16 am Post subject:
treadle feeders are good

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 13 5:35 am Post subject:
Feeding chickens all day long as much as they can eat doesn't make sense to me. That's both economically and chicken welfare wise.

Mutton

Joined: 09 May 2009
Posts: 1508

Posted: Wed Jan 01, 14 10:19 pm Post subject:

I'd have thought your chickens would be picking up quite a bit for themselves, freeranging over an acre. Ours certainly find a lot - dock leaves, grass, insects, worms, slow moving butterflies, berries in season. We have 16 chicken at the moment, freeranging across several acres, and they have two tin cans of corn morning and evening in winter, and just one of each in the summer, with that being 50:50 layers pellets at time of heavy laying. They are all fine on that - would lay more heavily with a lot more layers pellets, but we have a surplus of eggs on the diet above.

We put it down when we let them out in the morning and they all thunder out for it, and in the evening put it into their shed when it is dusk and they all gallop in for it and we shut the door. The shed does have electric light so they can see the food and they clean it all up in a few minutes. They have water in their shed. They are allsorts chickens of various sizes (none quite as small as bantam).

Toffer

Joined: 01 Nov 2009
Posts: 247
Location: Sutton St Edmund, Lincs

Posted: Thu Jan 02, 14 9:09 am Post subject:
A third vote here for treddle feeders, work very well for keeping both wild birds and rats out of the food

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