Automatic feeder!

[sassifrassi]

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!

 

[ringfinger]

Here is mine I made with a 3/8" x 8" eye bolt and a 5 gallon bucket. Doesn't get cheaper than that. I made the hole larger than shown in the pictures, just shy of 1" diameter. It works like a charm! It took 24 hours for the first to learn the trick, and I ended up tying a small piece of ribbon to the bolt to encourage pecking.

 

[speedy2020]

Quote:
It will take a 1-2 day. You can help them learn by tapping on the nipples when you can.

 

[rockhaven]

Hi folks.
Was facinated when someone told me about this discussion. Why? Cause I am the person who you have all purchased the feeders from.
First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their interest.

My husband designed these for our own use about 3 years ago and put a couple on ebay to gauge interest. Since then, interest has steadily grown. These are hand made and are quite time consuming, but up until recently we were selling them on ebay for a "Buy it now" price of £4.50. Then about a month ago ebay changed their rules, insisting that any item being sold as "Buy it now" must have a auction start price of just 10% of that value. This meant that all our feeders had to be entered as auction only to make it viable. They have also recently raised their final value payment to 10%, so we had to raise our prices slightly, as the majority sell for the start price. Also they will only allow us to list 15 at one time.

All these circumstances have caused some items to sell for an unrealistically high price. This is not our aim but unfortunately we have no control over this. This is just a hobby which pays for itself and we have always prided ourselves on being helpfull, friendly and fair. Some folk are not really up to speed with ebay and don`t realise how to see other items we have availabe, other than the one they are bidding on. We are however quite happy to sell outside ebay for £4.50 and do so to anyone who contacts us directly.
Hope this is of help to some of you, and please do not hesitate to ask any questions if you are unsure about anything.

Thanks for now,

Kate.

 

[hdmax]

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.

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!

 

[vegaschick]

I love my trigger feeders!!! Best product ever...well, along side the chicken nipples! My girls had no problems learning how to use them because I cheated! I filled the bucket half way with BOSS (the girls favorite treat) and it worked like a charm. After a few days, and refills, I switched to pellets and the rest is history. I loved the saucer on a stump idea but had no stumps available so this is what I came up with....


I filled the pot with big rocks so that it is very heavy and steady! Not shown in picture, I also placed blocks and rocks around base to allow easier access for the hens.


This was a great way to recycle a holey canner! We affixed the two bottoms together and set big rocks inside. Strong, sturdy and I love to hear and see the girls use this awesome product. Revolutionary!





This summer we tried using a spoon in place of the trigger ... it worked. Just saying!


Also, we worried about the feed not funneling out properly so we re-purposed the top of a big water bottle and duct taped it in. Here are some process photos.








Keeps feed clean, dry, safe from rodent/wild birds and teaches chickens better foraging habits. No wasted feed here! Totally worth the shipping money not to have wasted feed!

 

[oldcaptainrusty]

Allergymama I have fed both crumbles and pellets with my trigger feeder, you cut the hole in the bottom of the feeder based on what size feed you are using. I started with the layer crumbles and used a 1/2" hole, when I went to the pellets I had to increase the hole size to 5/8". My girls liked the pellets better than the crumbles. HTH

 

[gale65]

haha! that is the cutest thing EVER. I wish the seller sold on a website or did BIN (I did see why she does not). I hate bidding. But that is too cool. I may get one for an outside feeder since rain wouldn't bother it. Plus it would be fun to watch them make the feed come out. lol

 

[jmagill]

I have been using one for over a month now. It has cut out all the waste and the amount of food I go through. I love it.

 

[gale65]

I think I'm going to get one. I showed dh and he thought it was a great idea. I had been wrestling with the idea of putting feed in the run but worrying about rain making it wet. With this it wouldn't be an issue as long as I get something with a tight fitting lid. Have any of you used it outside without any problems?