The other day I went to put some more corn in my feeder(feed year around). I opened the lid and was going to stir the corn off the sides and found that 3 years of corn dust eventually forms a solid mass. Pain in the arse breaking it up and shoveling it out of the feeder. I think I pitched 150-200#'s of fouled up corn and dust.

Have y'all ever seen this? Feeder holds 600#'s and I usually top it off when its half empty. Now I am thinking I am going to have to let it go empty every few months to keep the dust from becoming dirt clods that adhere to the bottom of the feeder.

Do you have a funnel in the bottom of the feeder? Sounds like moisture is a problem as well.

What you are seeing sir is the telling sign of weevils at work. Damn those nasty buggers.

Wow......I didn't know that.

yep, weevils ... I had a couple old bags of corn back in the corner of the garage that I put in one of my feeders (back during the drought, no moisture issues then) and every time the feeder went off, it looks like a nuclear explosion dust cloud.

Yup its weevils, cleaning out the feeder once a year helps with the build up hardening.

I end up with corn infested with weevils every now and then. I get it from the local farm bureau, and they don't seem to really care. It comes out like a big cloud when the feeders throw the corn, and it sticks to the throwers as well. Real pain...

I bought some from our local co-op and was surprised at how much dust was in it. Back to Buccee's or Lyssy-Echols

at least you can always tell if your feeder is going off with the dust cloud ... LOL

Sprinkle a half cup per bag of food grade diatomaceous earth and you wont have bug problems. I get a 50lb bag from the feed store very reasonably priced. Still need to keep any moisture out tho.