Got tired of the chicks thinking the buried bite is better and wasting so much feed, thought I would try something to stop the waste, so far it is working great. They still pick through and pull out the feed, but now it falls back in the feeder, and not on the ground.

Thank me later.

TRG

Looking at your last pic, it doesn't seem like the feeder in the middle is doing much of anything.  Chickens, being innately stupid, will always peck around at their food.  But try adjusting the amount they get if they are wasting that much.  

TRG's solution is really nifty, I'll keep that one in the back pocket.  A feed control feeder with relatively narrow trough area seems to work good enough now.

The feeder in the middle was a pint for the first test. It has a quart jar now, it holds about three days of food, it also gives them no room to step into the feeder.

The point to a feeder is something that will last multiple days, adjusting the amount they get would require feeding them several times a day, no thanks.

Yes they peck around in their food, that is what the bucket is for, it stays contained and if they pull out too much it falls back into feeder and not on the ground, which stops the feed from flowing out of the jar until they eat what is in the tray.

My daughter and I built a feeder for the big chickens several years ago out of scrap 3/4" plywood, and scrap pex plumbing pipe, it holds about 30 lbs of food, and lasts about 8 or 10 days.

Awesome ideas here. I'm going to pass this onto my Wife. Our chickens waste a ton of feed; especially the chicks.

I cut my feed bill in half or more by switching to pellets instead of crumbles.

TRG