Automatic feeder!

allergymama said:

They've been doing really well...until last night...Methinks they were bored and decided to empty the food bucket and tip over the crushed oyster shells...little buggers! Obviously, the shot of the duck run is right after it was finished, because now it is a tramped down, no grass on the inside, tall grass on the outside growing up through the rocks and duck and goose poop everywhere. They sure are messy little fiends. And, of course, someone says pictures and I'm gonna include on of my babies.

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So this is my main concern. Will the chickens keep dispensing feed non-stop so it all ends up on the ground?

Duck Drover said:

So this is my main concern. Will the chickens keep dispensing feed non-stop so it all ends up on the ground?

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hennible said:

Very cool... I wonder if ducks would use one.

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So we made one. It worked like a charm for the ducks and one goose. Until the goose got hit by a car. Then the ducks couldn't seem to figure it out. Lol. Apparently the goose was feeding everyone. They are the pickiest boogers on the planet. They refuse anything except their special feed and for treats it is only peas or salad greens (NO other greens). Ugh.

I was wondering if the ones who figure it out dispense food for the rest since in the video it looked like the same hen kept hitting the lever and the others just pecked at the food.

We use the tube with the wye to feed our chickens, ducks, and even our rabbits. I think the chickens would do well with this pecking at the dropped pellets that fall and scatter but the ducks may do better if they can scoop the feed instead of pecking at it. The biggest issue, though, is if any one bird gets carried away and drops all the feed because then it would just make a mess instead of keeping feed clean and dry.

We get some spilage from our tube feeders, which is more of a problem when it rains and the ground is wet, but it seems every feeder design will have some waste as the birds eat from it so if this eliminates the waste and keeps rodents from accessing the feed (we do not cover ours at night but we could) then it would be worth a try.

I am guessing even Silkies could figure it out and have the strength to move the lever. I am not sure if there are differences in the brands or if a homemade one would work just as well. Has anyone tried several of them for comparison with different breeds?

mine made a mess recently. but in all fairness they weren't figuring it out with the washer so i took the washer out and when they "accidentally" bump it then a whole bunch poured out. But now that they know about it, I'll put the washer back in

sassifrassi said:

Bought it off Ebay. Installed it last week. Used a huge new paint bucket from Home Depot with a lid. Hung it from the ceiling of the coop. Took 30 seconds for the girls to figure it out. So far no wasted feed! Check it out.

Totally recommend it!

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what did you buy off of eBay to make this with? looks wonderful!

I have been using a homemade tube feeder that hangs from the center of my run. It works very well but I think I'm going to try one of these I like trying new things and building stuff