Automatic feeder!

My chickens have not figured it put yet. They figured out the water nipples. We painted the trigger red. How high off the ground should this be? Getting frustrated.

try making one of these 5gal bucket with two 90 degree elbows, cut the elbow so it is about 3/4 of an inch off the bottom of the bucket, no poop and no waste because they can't fling the food out. Just put a little food on the edges so they see it mine were eating in less than 5 minutes. ....

Thank you for the suggestion! The chickens finally started using the levers as well as the chicken nipples. It is hysterical. A couple can use the lever really well and run back and forth between feeders. The other chickens follow them and now all have more or less got it. The chicken nipples they are all doing.

I purchased one and seen how simple it is, and made a dozen, I then sold a few to local friends for $5 each to recoup my investment, so I now have nothing in them. And in case anyone is thinking of asking, will I make them one. The answer is no. I am not trying to use someone elses ingenuity and R&D to make money. I still have not tried using it yet, but the friends that got them say they work great.

jetdog said:

try making one of these 5gal bucket with two 90 degree elbows, cut the elbow so it is about 3/4 of an inch off the bottom of the bucket, no poop and no waste because they can't fling the food out. Just put a little food on the edges so they see it mine were eating in less than 5 minutes. ....

Click to expand...

Thanks Jetdog.......... I absolutely loved this idea but unfortunately it didn't work for me, probably because I have it about 1" or a tad more off the bottom of the inside of the bucket. I'm too cheap to get another PVC elbow and bucket, so I went back to an old plan that I built a few months ago but didn't work because they spilled it. I modified it a bit (adding a piece that makes them have to stick their head in farther) and now it works great. Here are a couple pics (before my modification). Thank you though for your great idea of the 5 gallon bucket!

hdmax said:

I purchased one and seen how simple it is, and made a dozen, I then sold a few to local friends for $5 each to recoup my investment, so I now have nothing in them. And in case anyone is thinking of asking, will I make them one. The answer is no. I am not trying to use someone elses ingenuity and R&D to make money. I still have not tried using it yet, but the friends that got them say they work great.

Click to expand...

Would you mind posting a couple pictures???? I don't need one but I love tinkering around with stuff and might want to try to make one.

Thanks.

jimmywalt said:

Would you mind posting a couple pictures???? I don't need one but I love tinkering around with stuff and might want to try to make one.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

used a 16 penny galvanized spiral nail, a wire nut, 5/8" x 1 1/2" x 1/8" thick piece of hard plastic, (The same material I used to build my incubator.) and some E6000 adhesive.

I heated the nail up, then clamped it to the plastic so it would melt in to the plastic, I found some old wire nuts I had, screwed it on to the tip of the nail good and tight, I took some E-6000 adhesive, filled the wire nut, and gave a good amount to the head area of the nail on the plastic.


Let this setup over night. I then drilled a 5/8" hole in the center of a 4 gal. bucket. (The hole size is dependent upon the type/size of feed.)

I had to drill and test larger, and larger holes until I had the size I thought worked best for the pellets.


As you can see in the last 2 pictures, the birds have no problem figuring it out. This is less then 10 minutes after setting the buckets up for the first time. I still need to figure out what to do about the tray under the feeders.
Finding this thread motivated me to put these in to action. The birds are now on the second fill up, and they are working great, and both the original, and my homemade one are holding up great.
Hope this is what you were looking for!

hdmax said:

used a 16 penny galvanized spiral nail, a wire nut, 5/8" x 1 1/2" x 1/8" thick piece of hard plastic, (The same material I used to build my incubator.) and some E6000 adhesive.

I heated the nail up, then clamped it to the plastic so it would melt in to the plastic, I found some old wire nuts I had, screwed it on to the tip of the nail good and tight, I took some E-6000 adhesive, filled the wire nut, and gave a good amount to the head area of the nail on the plastic.


Let this setup over night. I then drilled a 5/8" hole in the center of a 4 gal. bucket. (The hole size is dependent upon the type/size of feed.)

I had to drill and test larger, and larger holes until I had the size I thought worked best for the pellets.


As you can see in the last 2 pictures, the birds have no problem figuring it out. This is less then 10 minutes after setting the buckets up for the first time. I still need to figure out what to do about the tray under the feeders.
Finding this thread motivated me to put these in to action. The birds are now on the second fill up, and they are working great, and both the original, and my homemade one are holding up great.
Hope this is what you were looking for!

Click to expand...

Wow. This is great!!!!!!!!!!!!

Could even use a red wire nut ;-)

DenverDawg said:

Could even use a red wire nut ;-)

Click to expand...

Wire nuts are typically color coded. Not always, but many times. And the orange ones that I have worked best on a 16p nail.
I had thought of using a piece of all thread, an acorn nut, (for the bottom!) dipped a few times in red Plasti-Dip! (Not sure how it would hold up, because the birds do grab the bottom and shake it to get feed, and wing nut on the other end for inside the bucket. (Spot weld a small piece of 1/16" steel on the wing nut, and you'd have an easy fix for this automatic feeder.)