Are chickens messy eaters?

[BunnyLover44]

Ok i have heard that chicks are messy aeters hoe do you prevent this? Also are adult chickens messy eaters too?? Vote know!

 

[sourland]

Use appropriate feeders so that they can not waste feed, and chickens are generally not messy eaters.

 

[aleebama]

Mine are messy when they are digging through their feed looking for a favorite chunk. They usually clean up the spillage, though.

 

[fiddlebanshee]

Yes, mine spill some but then eat it right from the ground. There is rarely a lot of feed on the floor of the run. They tend to spill more with crumbles than with pellets and that is why chicks spill so much. I think it is more the form (crumbles vs pellets) than the chickens per se.

 

[HeatherEmme]

My chicks tend to waste more than they eat. It seems that way at least.Granted I don't have a 'proper' chick feeder with the dispenser and holes that you'd typically see. Mine is too large for the brooder so for now the chicks eat out of a recycled food container for veggies. It's shallow yet deep enough for plenty of food. Problem is they like to jump in it or perch on the sides, flipping the thing half over.

So, our food waste is probably due to my refusal to buy a chick specific feeder

when I already have a feeder they'll use in a couple weeks. They will scratch through their pine shavings and eat up what they spilled so it's not so bad.

 

[PSJ]

If you have a chick feeder, the spillage isnt bad. If you don't have one, they WILL make a HUGE mess scratching around in it. As for adult birds, if you have them on pellets, there is hardly any waste.