Sharing a good idea for Chicken Feeder (DIY)

Tired of feeding my chickens twice a day, saw this idea, so made a couple of them. Works great. Now I only have to add feed about once a week. (and it keeps them from knocking a bunch of debris into the feed).

PVC pipe, a threaded cap, and a couple of elbow joints (one 90 degrees, one 45 degrees), then some pipe bands to hold it in place.




Here's a pic of the finished coup (before we added the chickens)

a reply to: Gazrok

lol you added pic of the coup as i was typing....

How big is your coup? I let mine run around the yard. So they eat lots of bugs and stuff. Down side is finding eggs is challenging. I have a coup, but they prefer sleeping in the Leland cypress trees. I like the idea btw. Works when they are only in a coup, otherwise your feeding all the local wildlife.




V

Simple yet effective, good job.
You like watching your chickens fight over a pecking place don't you

That design would function more effectively as a raccoon and possum feeder where I live. There are plenty of wild grains and insects around here. I just let the chickens roam and throw them a few handfuls of feed here and there. They are fat and happy.

a reply to: Gazrok

Pretty slick.

I wonder if you might have an answer to a question my uncle once ask.

"During the day he had a pen full of old hens, but at night he always had a dozen roosters.
How does that work?"

Nice!
I have a different version of that. At the bottom, I have a 90 degree, then a 2 foot pipe off that, with the top cut off, for about a foot. They can eat from both sides, and they don't like to climb on it because it wobbles so much.

As far as coop size, geez, I went overboard. Mine is like 30 foot by 40 foot. plus 8 feet inside the pole barn. I wanted to free range, but the neighbor sprays all kinds of chemicals on his yard.

LOL
Because they are "roosting". I've got a ladder type rack in mine, and they all fight for the top "shelf"

a reply to: teamcommander

Too many local predators to allow them to free range. I am going to be fencing in an area around it though, so they can do so while we're caring for the other animals in the morning. Cats, dogs, snakes, and even buzzards would pose too much threat for them to range.

The coup is about 14 feet long, and about 8 feet wide (and 6' high).

We keep 8 chickens in there. (all hens, Rhode Island Reds)

I put in two of those feeders, and seems to be enough for them. I have materials to make more though.

They do seem to get a lot of insects in their diet (we're in the South, so...), but I also toss in some mealworms often.

They also get some table scraps (they love eggs of course).

Eventually, I'll run an electric line to the coup (for both a light and a fan), and so I can rig up a light in the hay building (the building the coup is hooked to). We keep hay, feed, and the lawn mower in there, so would be nice to have a wired light (currently, we use a motion detector battery powered one).

"During the day he had a pen full of old hens, but at night he always had a dozen roosters. How does that work?"

No idea, never heard that one. Unless meaning they roost at night.

EDIT:

Because they are "roosting". I've got a ladder type rack in mine, and they all fight for the top "shelf"

I put up a few perches at various heights for them. They seem to love using them.

a reply to: Gazrok


Good idea !

Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say...

Although, have you thought about maybe attaching some kind of wide feeding tray to the bottom ? The gravity would still pull the seeds down and into the dish. Rather than having the curve (from the pipe) at the bottom, which controls the amount of gravitational pull, you would instead have the feeder tube (or container) going straight down into the dish part so that gravity keeps pulling it down into the dish. You can also make something like this for a water feeder as well. If its covered (or enclosed) properly, the water flow will stay fresh and clean (except of course for the mess they make in the water dish part).

Gravity does all the work.

This is just like my cat's food and water dishes... I only have to refill them every couple of weeks and it gives her the freedom to nibble/drink anytime she wants.

One is for her dry kibbles and the other is for water:


Expect to see nice fat plump chickens !


Edit to add:

Come to think of it, you could run the pipe up and through a hole in the chicken wire to the outside of the coop and attach a large enclosed container to the top of the pipe which would allow you to add even more feed.... ? Hell, your cluckers could have an endless food and water supply for a month !

Yep, could always go bigger, or add more, but these seemed adequate.

I currently use a gravity fed waterer (though I need a bigger one). Trick is to put it up on a block, so they don't get the water dirty. They make some good ones I can just purchase (for around same price as components to make), so likely just going that route.

a reply to: Gazrok

I currently use a gravity fed waterer (though I need a bigger one).

I use one of those little sand box turtles as my water bowl. Dump and fill it once a week. Low maintenance. Holds quite a bit of water. But again, i have quite a bit of room. I live in the south too, since i got chickens we rarely see ticks. We used to have to check all the youngins heads every time they came inside. Chickens seem to have fixed the issue.

originally posted by: Gazrok
Too many local predators to allow them to free range. I am going to be fencing in an area around it though, so they can do so while we're caring for the other animals in the morning. Cats, dogs, snakes, and even buzzards would pose too much threat for them to range.

I used to let them roam the whole yard but they spent quite a few hours a day sitting on the back porch #ting all over it, got tired of dodging poop every time I went out back. I have a second hand tin shed I bought cheap and reassembled. It is about 8 feet by 4. Around that I have a well fenced yard that is about 14 x 20 feet and a little alley between the fence and main shed. I feed them and they roost in the shed, which I shut every night and open every morning. They spend most of the day in their yard but at about 4:00 pm. when the kids get home from school they let them out of their yard and in to the main yard where they go for the grass and bugs. Because it is only 3 hours or so to dusk, they don't sit on the porch. I have nine mixed breeds, it is early spring here and I am getting 7 eggs a day, giving a lot away to pay back favors.