I am one to always try and save what I can and use it whenever possible just ask my wife, at times it drives her crazy! The thing that has always driven me crazy is the amount of feed dust inside the feedbags I buy for the flock. It doesn’t seem to matter what type it is, what manufacturer, organic or not there is always a huge volume of feed dust inside the bag. After I fill my feeders and the birds finish eating there is even more feed dust remaining in the bottom of the feeders. Sometimes it is so much that it clogs up the gravity flowing of the feeder in to the bottom tray…

I have talked to my feed store, written to the manufacturer, but I’ve really seen no change. I decided to do something to help with the issue and didn’t want to spend any more money trying different things.

Here is a quick and simple way to help reduce the amount of feed dust from getting into your feeders.

1) Take a standard 3-quart plastic feed scoop.

2) Drill a series of holes all around the bottom and sides of the scoop. The drill bit I used was just large enough to allow the dust to flow out but small enough to keep the feed inside the scoop. (Make sure you remove all of the little plastic particles so they don’t get into the feed.)

Now, when I scoop the feed, I shake it a little to allow the dust to flow out of the little holes to keep it out of my feeders. Today I was able to save ½ pound of feed dust that I’ll use for something else. Based on how long a bag last me I’m estimating that I’ll save almost 2.5 pounds of dust per bag. That is roughly 5% of the volume of the bag!

Instead of allowing this to go to waste I’ll now add the dust to my winter protein mix, oatmeal or whatever treats I may be able to incorporate it into…Its good for the birds and for my wallet…

“Waste not want not…”