6 Broiler Feeder Types For Pastured Flocks That Prevent Waste and Pests
Reduce feed waste and deter pests in your pastured broiler flock. This guide covers 6 feeder designs that save money and promote better flock health.
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Choosing a Feeder for Pasture-Raised Broilers
A feeder on pasture fights a three-front war. It must protect feed from rain, deny access to pests, and, most importantly, prevent your own birds from scattering it everywhere. Broilers are notoriously messy eaters, and a poorly designed feeder can easily lead to 20-30% of your feed being wasted. That’s a direct hit to your bottom line.
The ideal feeder balances several key factors. Capacity is important for reducing daily chores, but it often comes at the expense of portability—a crucial feature when you’re moving a chicken tractor every day. Durability matters, as a feeder will be exposed to sun, rain, and the constant pecking of your flock. Finally, consider how easy it is to clean, because a dirty feeder can become a breeding ground for bacteria.
There is no single "best" feeder for every situation. A setup for 25 birds in a small tractor has different needs than one for 100 birds in a large electronet pasture. The goal is to understand the tradeoffs of each design and select the one that best solves your specific challenges with waste, pests, and labor.
Grandpa’s Feeders: The Ultimate Pest-Proof Option
When your primary problem is feed theft from rodents and wild birds, a treadle feeder is the definitive solution. Grandpa’s Feeders is the most well-known brand, featuring a platform that a chicken must stand on to lift a lid, revealing the feed trough. This mechanism is too heavy for sparrows and squirrels, and the enclosed metal box is virtually impenetrable to raccoons.
Protect your flock's feed with the RentACoop automatic treadle feeder. Its 25lb capacity and pest-resistant design keeps feed clean, dry, and secure from unwanted animals.
The major drawback is the price. These feeders represent a significant upfront investment compared to simple plastic or metal designs. However, that cost is often recouped within a season or two, purely from the savings on feed that would have otherwise been lost to pests. This is an investment in feed security. Training your flock to use it takes a few days, but once they learn, it becomes an automatic, pest-proof feeding station that saves you money and worry.
Brower Range Feeder: High-Capacity and Durable
For those raising larger batches of broilers, the Brower Range Feeder is a classic for a reason. Built from heavy-gauge galvanized steel, these feeders are designed to live outdoors. Their signature feature is a large, rain-shielding top and a massive feed capacity, often holding 100 pounds of feed or more. This drastically reduces the frequency of refills, a huge time-saver for flocks of 50 or more birds.
This feeder is a heavyweight champion in every sense. Its durability is unmatched, but it’s also heavy and cumbersome to move, making it better suited for semi-permanent locations within a larger pasture paddock rather than daily moves in a small tractor. While the rain shield is effective, it offers minimal protection against determined pests like raccoons. It’s best for operations where capacity and weather resistance are bigger concerns than rodent pressure.
Think of the Brower as a bulk storage solution. It excels at keeping a large amount of feed dry and accessible to your flock. It solves the problem of daily labor but doesn’t fully solve the problem of pests.
RentACoop T-Post Feeder: Simple and No-Spill
The RentACoop T-Post Feeder addresses the most common source of waste: the birds themselves. This simple but clever feeder is typically made from PVC pipe with feeding ports near the bottom. By mounting it to a T-post, you keep it elevated off the ground, preventing chickens from scratching feed out onto the ground. The port design also makes it difficult for them to flick feed out with their beaks.
This design is highly effective at minimizing bird-related waste and keeping the feed clean from dirt and manure. It’s lightweight, easy to move, and relatively inexpensive. The primary tradeoffs are capacity and pest-proofing. Most models hold only a day or two’s worth of feed for a small flock, and while elevating it helps, a clever raccoon can still learn to access the ports. This feeder is an excellent choice for smaller flocks in mobile tractors where preventing waste is the top priority.
Harris Farms Hanging Feeder for Portability
This 6-pack of Tiflev Goat Feeders simplifies livestock care by combining feeding and watering. The 3.5-quart capacity minimizes refills, while the mess-free design reduces waste and keeps your coop clean.
The simple hanging feeder is one of the most common and affordable options available. Made of plastic or metal, it consists of a reservoir that gravity-feeds pellets or crumbles into a pan at the bottom. Its light weight makes it incredibly portable, perfect for hanging inside a chicken tractor or from a temporary shepherd’s hook on pasture.
The key to making a hanging feeder work is height adjustment. The lip of the feed pan should be level with the birds’ backs. This forces them to reach in slightly, which dramatically reduces their ability to scratch and sling feed out. If it’s too low, they will waste a tremendous amount of feed. While effective at reducing bird-related waste when managed properly, a standard hanging feeder offers zero protection from rain or pests, making it essential to place it under the cover of a tractor or shelter.
Plasson Bell Feeder: Commercial-Grade Design
You may recognize the Plasson Bell Feeder from images of large-scale poultry houses, but its design offers unique benefits for pastured flocks, too. This feeder must be hung, and it uses a gravity-fed system that automatically dispenses feed into a 360-degree trough as the birds eat. This provides ample feeding space and reduces competition, ensuring less-assertive birds get their share.
The design is excellent for ensuring consistent feed access, but it shares the same vulnerabilities as a standard hanging feeder. It offers no built-in protection from weather or pests. Therefore, it is only suitable for use inside a large, covered structure like a hoop house or a very well-covered chicken tractor. It’s a specialized tool for farmers focused on optimizing feed access for a large number of birds in a sheltered environment.
Little Giant Trough Feeder for Easy Access
Feed multiple animals at once with this durable, hook-over trough. Its galvanized steel grid provides six feeding slots and easily mounts on standard boards or wire panels.
The long, open trough feeder is a staple for starting chicks. Its low profile gives tiny birds easy access to their first crumbles. The metal bar or spinning reel across the top is designed specifically to keep them from roosting on the feeder and soiling the feed.
However, a trough feeder is a poor choice for broilers once they are on pasture. The open design is an invitation for rain to spoil the feed and for pests to have a free meal. Furthermore, larger birds will easily knock, spill, and scratch feed out of the shallow trough, leading to incredible amounts of waste. Reserve this feeder for the brooder, and transition your birds to a more secure, waste-proof design the day they move to grass.
Final Verdict: Matching Feeder to Flock Size
The right feeder is the one that solves your biggest problem, and that problem often changes with the size of your flock. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer, but you can make a smart choice by matching the feeder type to your operational scale.
For a small flock of up to 25 broilers, portability and waste-prevention are key.
- RentACoop T-Post Feeder: Excellent for preventing bird-related waste in a mobile setup.
- Harris Farms Hanging Feeder: The most versatile and budget-friendly option, provided it’s kept under cover and at the proper height.
Once you scale up to 25-75 broilers, the cost of lost feed becomes significant.
- Grandpa’s Feeders: The best choice if pests are your primary concern. The feed savings will justify the high initial cost.
- Brower Range Feeder: Ideal if your main goal is reducing the labor of daily refills. Its capacity is a game-changer.
By choosing a feeder that aligns with your flock size and management style, you move from fighting daily frustrations to building a resilient, efficient, and more profitable pastured poultry system.
Ultimately, your feeder is more than just a container for food. It’s a tool for resource management that directly influences your flock’s health, your daily workload, and the financial viability of your farm. Investing in the right one pays dividends all season long.
