So you decide on getting a chicken feeder but you want to find the right chicken feeder for your fowls. Picking the best feeder for your chickens is not difficult at all as long as you outline all the criteria for buying that chicken feeder. One of the major factors in picking the right chicken feeder is the size of your flock. I am not talking about how much each chicken weighs, but how many beaks will be dipping in that feeder.
If you are a large scale farmer or simply has a lot of birds to feed, a high capacity automatic chicken feeder is recommended. But if your flock is small, say around 1-50 birds and you do filling of the feeder every couple of days, a simple hanging poultry feeder will suffice. The good thing about chicken hanging feeders is that it can still be set on a flat surface to allow feed. These hanging feeders range in price because of of the size and weight. The size depends on how much your chickens eat and how often you will fill it with food. Often for these smaller flocks, you can select a size that you only have to fill once every day or every other day. If you do choose to hang the feeder it will create less of a mess. If you are feeding once per day a feeder of 10 pounds or less will do.
If you are a large scale farmer or simply has a lot of birds to feed, a high capacity automatic chicken feeder is recommended. But if your flock is small, say around 1-50 birds and you do filling of the feeder every couple of days, a simple hanging poultry feeder will suffice. The good thing about chicken hanging feeders is that it can still be set on a flat surface to allow feed. These hanging feeders range in price because of of the size and weight. The size depends on how much your chickens eat and how often you will fill it with food. Often for these smaller flocks, you can select a size that you only have to fill once every day or every other day. If you do choose to hang the feeder it will create less of a mess. If you are feeding once per day a feeder of 10 pounds or less will do.
Let us say that your flock surpasses 50 birds. Not having an automatic feeder will simply increase your work load as you may have to refill the hanging feeder more than once per day. That is time you could have spent relaxing or doing something else around the farm. Chickens don't eat like King and Queens and eating time can get real messy. This is where the trough type feeder comes in. A trough type feeder allows more chickens to eat at the same time with more space. The added room helps prevent spillage and fighting over the feeder. This will save you time, chicken feed, aggravation, and money. Look for a feeder between 10 - 15 pounds if you can only feed once per day.
If you are dealing with more than a hundred birds all hungry and cackling for feed. You will need a feeder of approximately 20 pounds or more. High capacity feeders that hold 110 lbs and can handle 400 chickens per day. These feeders can be a bit expensive, but well worth the cost. The simplicity of pouring a bag or two of feed into the unit and forgetting it is priceless.
Feeders are also available with automatic opening and closing lids that are perfect for keeping other birds away like crows. The chicken walks up, the lid opens, the chicken eats and walks away, the lid closes. Saving you from putting in additional methods to keep away other birds from eating out the chicken feed and even infecting the feed.
If you are dealing with more than a hundred birds all hungry and cackling for feed. You will need a feeder of approximately 20 pounds or more. High capacity feeders that hold 110 lbs and can handle 400 chickens per day. These feeders can be a bit expensive, but well worth the cost. The simplicity of pouring a bag or two of feed into the unit and forgetting it is priceless.
Feeders are also available with automatic opening and closing lids that are perfect for keeping other birds away like crows. The chicken walks up, the lid opens, the chicken eats and walks away, the lid closes. Saving you from putting in additional methods to keep away other birds from eating out the chicken feed and even infecting the feed.