Chick Feeders

 Chicken feeders are an essential tool to have if you keep chickens.  Hungry chickens don’t care if they make a mess with their food, often tipping buckets over, fighting amongst themselves, pooping in the food, scratching dirt or bedding into it or trampling all over the food if it has been fed on the floor.  Chicken feeders prevent all of that - they provide a hassle-free feeding method that prevents waste and keeps the food safe from rats and other pests, not to mention they make life a lot easier.

 

Now, if you keep chickens then it’s likely that at some point your chickens might breed, or you might decide to try your hand at hatching out some eggs in an incubator to get some baby chicks.  In either case you will need a baby chick feeder.

 

Baby chick feeders are feeders which are specially designed to be appropriate for the age and size of the chicks to allow them to eat easily and safely.  There are several different types of baby chick feeders that are dependant on the age of your chicks and it is important to make sure that you select the right one to keep your chicks happy and healthy.  It is also important to make sure that you have enough feeder space for your birds, so if you have a lot of chicks then it might be necessary for you to have two feeders (or more depending on the number of birds you have) in order for every chick to have access to enough food without feeling the need to fight for their share.

 

 

Features of Baby Chick Feeders

Day old (chick feeder pan)

For day old chicks and up to around four weeks old, a chick feeder pan is the most appropriate feeder to use.  As day old chicks are so small they need to be able to reach into the feeder easily.  A chick feeder pan is just like a shallow tray and allows the chicks to learn to scratch and peck around for their food.  It has a small rim that the chicks can easily step over to access the food, but that still prevents the food from spilling out onto the surrounding ground.

 

Baby chicks often have a habit of picking up little bits of everything else that is on the floor when eating - whether it be straw, wood shavings, dirt - it doesn’t really matter to them.  The chick feeder pan helps to keep their food separate from their bedding which means that they will, on the whole, only be eating what they are supposed to be, which can only be a good thing!

 

Chick feeder pans are usually made of sturdy plastic which the chicks can’t tip over and is easy to wash and clean.  A lot of them are red as it is thought that chicks are naturally attracted to the red colour, and being attracted to it will teach them to go  to it and eat from it.

 

 

4 weeks to 8 weeks

When the chicks are around four weeks old it is a good idea to introduce a new type of feeder as by now your baby chicks are growing quickly and getting bigger every day.  A popular choice for chicks of this age is a small chicken feeder trough which has small holes in it for the chicks to put their heads into to eat.  A particularly good feature of these types of feeder is that while the holes are amply big enough to accommodate chicks, they are too small for adult chickens to put their heads into.  This is especially useful if your chicks are with a mother or other adult chickens as it means that you can give the chicks their age-appropriate food without worrying about the adults eating it all and leaving nothing for the chicks.

 

These types of feeders prevent the chicks from scratching all the food out of a feeder pan and wasting it on the floor.  They also stop them from pooping in the food and contaminating it.

 

 

8 weeks to 16 weeks

By now your chicks have grown a lot more and it’s important to make sure that they have a feeder which is the right size for them and holds enough food to meet their nutritional requirements.

 

A larger chicken feed trough is a good idea for chicks at this age.  You can either get one which has bigger holes for them to put their heads in to eat, or you can get a trough with an open top where they can eat out of it as they wish.  These chicken feed troughs are good to use because some of them can be fastened to a wall if you need to, but generally they are unable to be tipped over anyway as they are designed to be stand-alone and sturdily built.  They can hold enough food that the chicks can eat ad-lib, but they still prevent waste as due to the design of them they are unable to scratch the food out and onto the floor.

 

Another type of feeder which is appropriate for this age of chick is a turbo chicken feeder which fills the base where the chicks eat from automatically the more they eat.  This type of feeder again stops wastage and prevents the food from getting scratched out of the feeder.  This type also allows you to leave enough food in it for several days if need be.

 

 

Advantages of Small Chick Feeders

There are many advantages of small chick feeders.  There is a major advantage of starting to use the baby chick feeders from the day that the chicks are born as it teaches the chicks to eat straight away by providing them with the food in one place without contamination by bedding, rather than the chicks having to try and forage around and eating more bedding than food.  This will also give a good growth rate as the chicks are getting all of the food and nutrients that they need to grown strong and healthy right from day one.

 

Chick feeders reduce wastage as they prevent the food from getting scratched out and trampled on the floor and they are much more hygienic as they keep the food clean and dry and prevent a lot of food from getting pooped on and spoilt.

 

Most chick feeders are small enough and compact enough that they will fit inside a hutch or hen house which is particularly useful for feeding very small chicks that have just hatched as they may well still be in an enclosed space.  The chick feeders are far more hygienic to use in those situations rather than spreading the food on the floor.

 

Another important advantage of using a chick feeder is that it discourages vermin such as rats and other pests from coming into the area where your chickens are.  This is because the food is not out in the open and readily available for rodents to eat, nor is there the wastage sitting around on the floor which would usually attract the pests.  This will keep your flock in a better health as they are not going to pick up any diseases or parasites from rodents being in amongst them or in their eating area.

 

Small chick feeders also enable every bird to get a fair share of the food because the food is dispensed evenly throughout the feeder.  Therefore, so long as you provide enough trough space for the number of birds, then each one has access to enough food.  This also helps to eliminate any bullying which might occur when fighting over food, especially as the chicks get older.

 

 

 

Types of Small Chicken Feeder we can Provide

We provide a number of small chicken feeders and as we cater for all ages of baby chicks there is sure to be something to suit your flock’s every need.  We supply the following -

 

Chicken feeding tray - Suitable for the younger chicks, from day old up to a few weeks old.  The chicken feeding tray is a strong and sturdy design that cannot be easily tipped and is easy to clean and disinfect regularly.  It allows for easy feeding for the younger chicks while keeping the food free from contamination by bedding.

 

Turbo feeder - Suitable for chicks from four weeks and over.  The turbo feeder is made from durable plastic and is easy to refill.  The turbo feeder allows for a clean and tidy feeding station, keeping the food free from bedding and droppings and preventing waste and spillage.  The turbo feeder is self-dispensing which fills the feeding tray from the upper part as the chickens eat.  This enables you to only fill it once a day or as and when necessary, rather than each mealtime.  This feature also allows every bird to have their fair share of food and helps to prevent fighting over food and bullying amongst the birds, and it’s solid design also prevents rodents and other pests from accessing the food.

 

Chicken feeder trough - Suitable for chicks for four weeks and over.  The chicken feeder trough is a stand-alone unit that is built for durability and has a sturdy design to prevent chickens from tipping it over.  It is easy to refill and keeps the food clean and up off the floor, preventing wastage and contamination by bedding.

 

 

If you have chickens and baby chicks then chick feeders are an absolute must.  They are designed to be easy to use and easy to clean and they are essential to maintain high flock health and good growth rates in chicks.  There is a wide variety of chick feeders available to suit all ages of chicks so there is something available to suit everyone.

 

We pride ourselves on only using the very best materials and producing chick feeders which are the highest quality so you can be assured that you are purchasing only the very best product for your flock.