A feed hopper designed for pheasants has been put to good use feeding grit to hens on a westcountry free range farm.
BFREPA vice-chairman John Widdowson admits he has not been the most conscientious of grit feeders in the past.
“I’d never found an easy or particularly effective way of doing it until I tried the pheasant feeder,” says John, who keeps twenty thousand birds on his farm near Tiverton, Devon.
The feeder, manufactured by Quill Productions from Dorset, consists of a 200 litre metal drum with slots cut around the base. This sits on a round plastic tray which in turn sits on a tyre to raise it off the ground. A large plastic lid then drops over the barrel and offers shelter to any feeding birds.
John reckons one of the main advantages is the large volume it can contain, reducing the number of times it has to be filled up.
He has calculated it holds over 250kg of grit and based on the Freedom Food requirement of 28 grams per bird per month, that means a full hopper holds enough to last one of John’s 4,000 bird flocks over two months.
“By positioning the feeders just outside the house on the range area, they are really easy to fill up,” says John. “I simply draw alongside the feeder with the bags of grit either in the back of the pick-up or on the pallet forks of the tractor and tip them in. There’s no struggling through a shed of hens with a bag of grit on my shoulder.
“The hens have taken to them well and so far we’ve had no problem with them gorging themselves on the grit. There’s no waste either because if they flick the grit out of the slot in the barrel it’s caught in the tray below.
“The feeders are not at all expensive and they’ve certainly solved the grit feeding dilemma on this farm.”
The feeders, complete with barrel, cost £33.50 each plus vat and delivery. Quill Productions can be contacted on 01258 818239.
