How to feed bulk fermented feed to meat chickens?? please help!

[Country chicken lady 2024]

details:
50 meat chickens, chicken tractor, really want to continue feeding fermented because its better for gut, lowers feed costs and provides extra water in the Texas heat.

Okay so how do I feed fermented feed successfully to my meat chickens? You can see my previous post of my chicken tractor I built. long story short I don't trust the cattle panels to hold multiple fed troughs (gutters) and not rip the screws out. I was feeding fermented feed in a 10 foot long trough (gutter held up with cinder blocks, and was a pain having to move everyday, having to maneuver around chickens, catching chickens that escaped during the event, carrying out 3 cinder blocks and the gutter every night to move them and then putting back in, all of this is taking the fun out of meat chickens)and having to refill 3 times a day with how much they eat. troughs are a no go since they walked and pooped in it and then at night slept on the cinder blocks and pooped (using corid for coccidia because at least one has it)

I recently bough a 5 gallon bucket and chicken feeders to add to the bucket. I added 4 to it. The fermented feed started pouring out as soon as I put in it creating a mess and wasting food. I even secured the lid to see if it created a vacuum but it didn't. I tried to make it not as wet but then it would become too dry during the day and not flow and then I tried to pour in water at the top of feed to see if that would keep it moist enough to move down as they fed, but it didn't work. Poor guys were starving during the day.

I am at a loss. I really want to feed fermented feed with the bucket since it takes up less room but not sure how to do it . And don't even get me started on the watering cups for their water, those little monsters run around and tilt them and then waste their water.

Does anyone have any other ideas? I am going to feed them dry feed for now. Really trying to get a reliable system down for when I start working, I don't have to worry about their feed situation while I am away.

 

[Debbie292d]

You may not like my idea, but, we use silicone loaf pans. I reviewed them here. However, they make longer ones. I found 13".

So say 8 chickens could eat a full one, you need six or seven.

I have little more than half as many chickens and we use three smaller ones only filled 1/3 of the way.

You could set them out and fill 'em all up in the morning, then at night pick them up to wash for the next morning. We bought a few extras so we didn't have to wash them nightly.

I know my silkies are no comparison to meat chickens, but they can't scratch them over as they just bend.

 

[Country chicken lady 2024]

You may not like my idea, but, we use silicone loaf pans. I reviewed them here. However, they make longer ones. I found 13".

View attachment 3973772

So say 8 chickens could eat a full one, you need six or seven.

I have little more than half as many chickens and we use three smaller ones only filled 1/3 of the way.

You could set them out and fill 'em all up in the morning, then at night pick them up to wash for the next morning. We bought a few extras so we didn't have to wash them nightly.

I know my silkies are no comparison to meat chickens, but they can't scratch them over as they just bend.

I appreciate your idea, they eat 10 gallons of fermented feed a day so that idea wouldn’t work for them. Thank you though!

 

[NatJ]

Does anyone have any other ideas? I am going to feed them dry feed for now. Really trying to get a reliable system down for when I start working, I don't have to worry about their feed situation while I am away.

Not a perfect solution, but you could do some of each kind of feed. You don't have to choose just one or just the other.

I was feeding fermented feed in a 10 foot long trough...was a pain having to move everyday, having to maneuver around chickens, catching chickens that escaped during the event... having to refill 3 times a day with how much they eat. troughs are a no go since they walked and pooped in it and then at night slept on the cinder blocks and pooped (using corid for coccidia because at least one has it)

If you filled a trough once in the morning, they could eat it all before they did much pooping in it, and then they could eat dry feed for the rest of the day.

That would give some of the benefits of the fermented feed, while addressing some of the problems.

You might even be able to fill it before sunup so you can work around sleeping chickens that stay put instead of getting underfoot or escaping.

You can see my previous post of my chicken tractor I built. long story short I don't trust the cattle panels to hold multiple fed troughs (gutters) and not rip the screws out.

Is there some way you could reinforce that part of the tractor so you can put troughs on the sides? If you move the tractor while the trough is empty, you won't have the extra strain of it being full and moving at the same time, although I don't think that detail will make a very big difference.