Need ideas for a creeper feeder

[AinaWGSD]

Mamma Limu's eggs are due to hatch on Tuesday. Currently I have the area under the poop board penned off for her and the chicks, but my plan is to open that up once the chicks are a few days old. I'd love to see ideas/pictures for creeper feeders that others have used. I've got a few thoughts, but I've never used one before (or even heard of this until a few months ago) so I'd appreciate any advice

 

[NatJ]

Mamma Limu's eggs are due to hatch on Tuesday. Currently I have the area under the poop board penned off for her and the chicks, but my plan is to open that up once the chicks are a few days old. I'd love to see ideas/pictures for creeper feeders that others have used. I've got a few thoughts, but I've never used one before (or even heard of this until a few months ago) so I'd appreciate any advice

You mean a creep feeder that only the chicks can access? Why do you want to do that?

It is often easier to provide chick starter to the entire flock, with a separate dish of oyster shell so the hens who are laying can get the extra calcium they need.

If you want a separate area where just the chicks can eat, maybe use a piece of wire fencing as a divider, with holes big enough to let the chicks walk through but keep out the adult chickens. Or you can use a piece of cardboard with chick-sized holes cut in it. Or lay a pallet on the ground, and newly-hatched chicks can run under the slats but older chickens cannot. You can prop it up on bricks or something as the chicks grow taller, so they can keep getting into the space.

In general, I would expect the chicks to stay with their mother and eat what she shows them, not go somewhere separate and eat different food. So if you have a feeder only the chicks can reach, I would not expect them to use it much, because the mother is not using it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't have it anymore and lost all of my photos to a computer crash but I knocked something up with spare wood. It was a rough box big enough to set the feeder in the middle and the adults could not reach the feeder through the holes. I spaced the slats far enough apart the chicks could walk through but the hens could not get in to the feeder.

@NatJ I was feeding all of them Starter. The broody and chicks were sleeping in a predator proof pen in the run, never went in the coop. By two weeks of age the chicks were flying up to the feeders set up for the hens but this was for the first couple of weeks before they did that. If I put a feeder on the ground where the chicks could get to it the hens would eat that first, as if it were dessert, so this allowed the chicks to eat in peace.

After a couple of days the broody hen would take the chicks to it to eat before they went out to forage, even if she could not eat there.

@AinaWGSD do not expect the chicks to leave the hen's feed alone once they can get to it. If you are planning on using this to feed the chicks Starter and leave the older hens on Layer, it will not work.

 

[AinaWGSD]

@Ridgerunner I'm not worried about the chicks getting into the adult's food, I feed an all flock pellet anyway. I guess my concern would be for when they're older and the potential for some of the other girls resource guarding.

 

[Ridgerunner]

@Ridgerunner I'm not worried about the chicks getting into the adult's food, I feed an all flock pellet anyway. I guess my concern would be for when they're older and the potential for some of the other girls resource guarding.

If you have enough room have multiple feeders and waterers really spread out. That's one reason you need extra room for integration.