How Do I Feed My Chicks in This Contraption??

We have an absolutely lovely chicken tractor that we bought from Randall-Burkey and assembled with much sweat and gnashing of teeth. We are using the feed troughs and watering system from our Universal Box Brooder, hanging them inside instead of outside as the brooder was set up, by using the holes on the perforated side to suspend them. The watering system from the brooder is great and works beautifully, but now that the chicks are getting bigger, when I open the lid to fill the troughs they try to fly out. Even if I just open it enough to insert the pail and the scoop, and to sneak my upper torso in so I can manipulate the scoop, with the lid resting on my back, they will still sometimes escape, and besides, it's really hard on my back (and arms, and shoulders, and head.....) I tried inserting a funnel from the outside and pouring through one of the holes just over the trough, but that didn't work well and when the older chickens are out in the yard they fight me for the food, of course. How would you feed chicks in a contraption like this?

Other than that (other than what has become the main hassle in my whole day) the tractor works beautifully. We bought it to replace an old wooden, tin and corrugated plastic one that DH built but that was just too heavy to move easily. This one is light and I can move it around myself, but they forgot to design it so you could feed the critters that you keep in it!

The picture shows the tractor with the waterer (it's a five-gallon bucket with a hose at the bottom, to give you a sense of size). The piece of wood sticking out on the left is to indicate the lid and how it opens. The other side opens too but because those walls are solid I can't hang the troughs there.

A man who never kept chickens designed that. Other than cutting an access port in the top, I'm baffled. What about stretching some netting or thin fabric over the top, under the lid? Netting, you could pour feed through, fabric, you could reach under or make slits in strategic spots. These would at least keep them from shooting out like scud missiles when you open it.

We live next to a chicken farmer and when we had many problem with our chickens in their yard, coop and condo he asked us a few questions.

Are there too many in a small space? are they fighting each other? and is there enough stuff in there to satify their curiosity?
Are they too hot?
Are they too cold?
Is there a way for them to get shade or to get warm?
Do they have enough food and water to last the day even if it just sits there?


The last thing he said is this....

Chickens are like 3 year old children....but they will never learn more vocabulary that a one year old. So as adults we have to look at our kids and wonder what is not making them happy cause a happy three year old will stay where we put them. What is motivating them to get outside of their coop when we want them inside? Two thing must be there for motivation....a reason I am unsettled and I am seeing something that will make me happy for a minute. This is why big chicken producers keep their chickens in the dark..they can't see anything to fight about. Chickens are descedants of the dinosaurs ans their atural tendancy is to fight...fight their way out of something..fight each other... they basically look for reasons to fight. If they are happy and occupied ad their curiosity is nurtured they wont try to escape.

He was nice about it but he did't answer any of our real questions. We built a larger coop for them and kept them separate from the big guys until they were older and of size and then all of them now co-exist with each other. the first two weeks of introducing them to each other was like gang wars though. They dont make new friends easily. I think that your problem might be due to space. If you have only two in each side of that tractor there would be eough room. We try to make sure that we have four square feet of space for each chicken and we have 70. thats 280 sq ft of room they have in the back yard except when they are housed for the night. They voluntarily go into two ten by ten structures that have many roosts, cross beams and places to sit in the loft of each 'condo'. They seems to be satisfied and dont try to get out of their coop anymore. When we have chicks we divide the coop so the new ones can have the right floor space ad we let them grow until they are of size. When they are little they like huddleing together so providing them overnight shelter is easy with a child sized outdoor dollhouse. We also feed all with freshly mowed grass ad leavings from the gardens cause that is for the most part what they are after when they escape and we provide them with dry sand once a week so they can dust bath themselves when they feel the need. There is also a hole that they have dug themselves uder each coop in order to provide shadeo the hottest days. We would have done that ourselves if we had thought of that...but sometimes the chickens are smartere than we are when it comes to providing their own needs.
LOL.

Hope this helps. Day

Oh, the shiny surface in the background of this coop is mylar in order to refract the heat lamp light durig winter..it helped keep them warm on the coldest days. It was destroyed in a month but during the cold spell it was great...we are now giving them solar heat and water retentive heat with large barrels of salt water in their coops painted black to help keep them warm. They will also have electricity and of course the baby monitor to help us recognise the predators. We have recently gotten geese to help with the predators and it has helped a lot even though the geese are only a month old.

The chicken tractor is meant to hold up to forty chickens until 8 weeks of age, which we are approaching in a couple of weeks, or 25 layers. There's plenty of room; I think they're flying because they get excited, not because they are trying to escape, since once they're out they want to get back in where it's safe and familiar.

I finally called the place that sold them and they had never heard that concern before. I think it's because one option when you buy it includes feeders. We didn't choose that option because it was more money and we figured that we had plenty of troughs. But the feeders that come with it attach on to the end and can be filled from the outside by opening a top flap. Who knew we'd need that? I also called the place that makes them and they just suggested somehow making the chicks go to the other end while I'm filling the trough. When I open the lid they do scatter and move to the other side, but then since I'm putting food in there they come back and start flapping around.

Throw some scratch down on the other side?

Hi Greenhouse: It seem's to me that the builder should have been smart enough to know that, attention to the need of the feeders they build for it, should be directed to potential buyers. A warning that feeding and watering could be difficult by design unless you purchase the ones they design for the coop. That way at least potential buyers have been warned in advance and have nothing to complain about if they don't take heed to the warning. This can be exasperating when no warning is given. Not only does that increase their sales, but makes buyers aware of the potential problem. Hay

Hay, you're 100% right; they should let you know about that potential pitfall! If we had realized, we would probably have spent the extra money. Who knew? This is almost as bad as my frozen waterer problems last winter!

Jay, putting down scratch on the other side might do it. Or keeping a small feeder on the ground there and dumping some in quickly, and then going around to the other side. Good idea...

Since it is a movable tractor, I assume the bottom is open for grazing? Could you just pour the feed on the ground and move the tractor over it?

Can you reach in and take the feeders out to fill them? then put them back when they are full..? Might scare them away enough to stay in while you remove the feeders.. then when they are full of feed, it will keep them in.??

Just a thought.

hi all
my hd make all my tractor
it made out off wood with a top opeing to put water and feed
all the chicken i have in there does not fly out
he put wheel on one end
it open on botton
elle

ZZ, by the time I've reached in, taken the feeders out, filled them (fighting off the hens all the while!!), put them back in, and positioned them so they're suspended by the holes, I might as well just stick my head and the pail in and scoop the feed into the troughs.

Porkpal, the bottom is open, so maybe just putting the feed on the ground and then moving the tractor over it would make sense.

Elle, maybe the top opening on yours isn't as large as the lid on mine. If I had a smaller opening I wouldn't be having this problem, since they escape out the sides while I'm filling the feeders from the front, but I don't want to start modifying this thing and then have something not work any more. Besides, I'm not sure how I'd create a smaller opening in sheet metal - and then have to hinge it.

I think I'll try Jay's idea of throwing in some scratch on the other side and then trying to fill the feeders from my usual place. I'll bring DH along to run interference in case we have jailbreak attempts. If not, I guess the feed-on-the-ground/move-the-tractor idea would tide me over until I take them out of this, but there's more loss of feed that way.

Of course, before we take them out of the tractor we have to demolish the old chicken coop, since it's right where DH is going to put the run for the chicks until they're old enough to defend themselves from both hens and hawks. We do have geese which seem to protect the flock of layers from predators, but I don't think the chicks would put on much weight if they had to compete with the older ones. Last year with these same hens my chicks almost starved to death. I lost a lot of them to pecking and general harassment, too, I suspect.

Dayla - I liked some of your ideas! Especially the salt water barrels and the solar heat! That's cool! I could use that here in Iowa!

no.. not fighting off the hens all the while.. reach in.. grab the feeders... close the top... that's what I did with mine and I never had a problem.?

Yours is probably set up different.. I just had the feeders sitting not hung on the sides.

Oh well..

I wonder if you could attach netting to the sides--like folded wings that unfolded as you opened it? It would just hang down when not needed. I attach a lot of things with slip ties--so it might take very little effort.

We contemplated netting but I was afraid they'd just try to fly through it and get caught or something. What seems to be working right now is using a funnel and dumping the feed through the funnel which is inserted in one of the holes on the top of the lid over the troughs. I can move it around so that the troughs are filled although it's not very even. Still, I think it's better than the other alternatives. The scratch helped a little but I still don't trust them to stay in the far corners.

ZZs, I can't picture what you mean. Just reaching in to grab the feeders and be able to pull them out again would have me opening the lid high enough for the chicks to fly out. They don't need much room! Even if the feeders were sitting on the ground, by the time I maneuvered them out of there through the open lid I'd probably be down several chicks.

I think I'll stick with the funnel for now, but moving the tractor is another good alternative.

Thanks, everyone!!!

If you used shade cloth, I don't think they would try to fly out. It is dark and opaque, but folds like cloth.

Aha, never thought of that. It would look solid to them, assuming that six-week-old chicks have brains advanced enough to make those mental leaps. My luck, they'd just do physical leaps right through the stuff. But that's definitely worth a try. Thanks, Catscan!!

Your welcome! I am in the process of removing about an acre of it from the greenhouses at work--so it did come to mind pretty easily:0)