Easy self feeder for a small coop. (pics included)

[Kassaundra]

Someone asked to see pics of this feeder Gary (my husband) made for our small coop so here they are. We wanted an easy way for our chickens to have 24/7 access to food, that we didn't have to take care of every day, and that fit in our small coop. This system works for us we only have to fill the bins up once a month or less depending on what season (other food sources they have).

First here is an overall view from the outside, the bins sitting on top of the coops are what I am talking about. We tried several different bins and Gary likes the ones in the following pics best.

Here is a close up of the bin on top of the roof of the coop. It is bolted in place and caulked to prevent moisture problems. It is a locking bin the handle provides for a locking mechanism to the lid.

Here is the straight pvc pipe that comes from the bin just over through the roof and down the corner of the inside of the coop. No bends or anything to hang up the food, just simple gravity fed system.

Here is a closeup of the pvc cap "bowl" at the end of the pipe. At first he had another pvc pipe w/ the top cut out about 1 foot long, but they were able to waste a lot of pellets w/ that, so he cut that off and replaced it w/ this smaller one, there is almost no waste, and it has never got clogged up.

This may not work for others, but in solved a lot of the problems we had w/ a feeding system, size, ease of use, keeping it clean, lessening waste, etc.....

 

[BellevueOmlet]

Nice. I have something similar. It is a 4" pipe down to a 2" elbow filling into a trough feeder. I love low maintenance chicken care.

 

[Kassaundra]

Cool, yes low mantienence is our goal too. We are working on some auto doors, but don't have them running yet.

 

[iBoodle]

Very nice! Low maintenance chicken care= awesome.

 

[mgw]

Great idea! I need to make something like that> Thanks for sharing!

 

[Tres Amigas]

That looks like a good system, Kassaundra. Thanks for the idea and pix!

 

[tdgill]

Sorry but those feeders seem to be a bit small for everyone to be able to eat? Unless you have a few hoppers? I like having a least a few different feeding spots so all the chickens have equal opportunity and don't have to wait or go hungry. I have a hanging feeder at the height of the chickens backs, but use pellets in that. But I also feed from those rubber fortex pans work great for me, last forever, work great for freezing water - flip over stomp bottom. And scrub up very nicely (smallish ones keep birds from standing in the pan) I know that my chickens LOVE it when I give them wet mash too. That would definately stop waste and they'd enjoy their food more. They are looking for goodies and bigger bits of corn in that mash. You don't mix any scratch in with it do you? If so that's definately why they are billing it out.

 

[coolcanoechic]

I only have a couple of birds right now, but when I built my coop, I incorporated this feeder inside the wall between the 2 x 4 verticals. It fills from a little door on the outside of the coop. It goes for a very, very long time before refills. The tray is removable for ocasional cleaning. I thought it might be fun to share a picture.

 

[Kassaundra]

Quote:
That is an awesome idea, right in the walls, efficient use of space especially for those of us that have small coops

 

[rmnancygirl]

Hey, I made this feeder after looking at your idea Kassundra. I made a couple of changes to your design: one, I didn't have the tools to put a hole in the top of my cage; and two: our chickens seem really good at wasting all their food onto the ground! So after a couple of false starts, this is what I ended up with:

To make it I recycled some stuff we had lying around the house. I used a clear plastic sleeve that we had bought a packet of venetian blinds in, cut to size; a plastic food storage container that the lid didn't fit very well on so wasn't much good for putting food in; cable ties {which are definitely my new favourite building material!}; and a small bucket {the blue ice cream container down the bottom is only necessary because the bucket has a hole in it}. I constructed it by drilling holes where appropriate and threading the cable ties through to join it together. It's not especially stable, so I have branches threaded through the wire mesh to hold it upright. To refill it I take the whole thing out of the cage {which is kind of awkward, I may end up putting some kind of hole in the mesh at the top with a funnel or something if it gets too annoying}.
My initial version looked like this at the bottom:

But the chickens {seen here getting really confused with the see through container- they could see the food, why couldn't they eat it!} wasted heaps of food, so I ended up adding a plastic collar at the bottom:

But they still wasted heaps of food, so I ended up sticking it in the bucket in the first picture, which works really well {the chickens have to stretch their necks quite a bit to get the food, because I wanted it put up high enough so they couldn't get their feet into it, but they seem to be eating it fine}.
Here's some more detail of the top {which I made mainly because I was having fun with the cable ties and drill, and hopefully to prevent all the feed falling out if it tips over, but it hasn't been tested yet}. I used a spare button that came with a pair of jeans that the cable tie loops around:

And detail of the bottom when I first made it {it's empty and easier to see the cable tie joins}.

It's now been in use for a couple of weeks, I'm not sure exactly how long it lasts for our 4 chickens before it needs refilling but I think it's a good week or so.
So hopefully that gives other people ideas. I really liked your idea Kassundra but didn't have any of the same materials, so it was pretty fun knocking it together out of what we happened to have lying around the house!