Fermented feed feeder

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I LOVE this idea! I wonder if with 3 openings on the bottom for feeders with a large garbage can, plastic of course. My concern is the lid doesn't seal completely on top... maybe that would be a good thing? inside the coop I'm thinking the natural heat of the fermenting process might be enough to keep it above freezing since it's such a large batch. Or that at least it won't freeze completely. I'm so excited to try this!
 
The 5 gallon buckets I use don't freeze until it's below -10C I don't understand it it's amazing... It won't solidify for days at -10 but it doesn't flow into the PVC the same way at the low temps. I'd love to hear back about your garbage can feeder. I think it's a great idea I've increased my flock size and Im going to be needing bigger feeders in the spring. A garbage can sounds great.
 
I have 36 chickens and 5 ducks on the same coop so I hope the garbage can will be great because it will have time to fully ferment in the cooler temps. Hopefully I can get my husband to help me make one. :)
 
Perfect... 29 adult chickens four ducks here... Chicks in the brooder, eggs in the incubator.
I have four feeders on the go all the time it takes them a couple days to eat that and that's 20 gallons, garbage can should be great :)
 
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So I have confirmed something I have suspected for a while. If you read through the whole thread you've probably seen that I have to have water to the buckets every couple days, to keep the feed at a consistent see that flows into the PVC neck. Anyway it is because the bucket leaks... A little of the leakage is coming from the seams where the silicon is started to degrade. But most of it is spillover leaking out of PVC feeder neck part... I'm not totally sure how to remedy this but I am going to work on it. If I can stop the leakage maybe I can have an FF set up where you can actually leave the birds unattended if you have to go away over the weekend...
I think I may have to go with the design that is more like those pet water dispensers ( the ones that look a little like water coolers ). Alternatively I still haven't tried poking holes in the lids to cut down on the pressure from the buildup of the gases the bacteria are producing... Maybe alleviating some of this pressure would stop the leakage I'm not sure. I think I'll try that right now.
As for dealing with the winter temperatures I think I said that up to -10°C the feeders still work pretty well, below that they freeze so instead of spending money on heated bases I have just been swapping out buckets each day and when it gets really cold -30°C I feed them in a pan...
I still think this feeding system could work really well year round if you live in a warmer climate.
 
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A Whole or two in the lid seems to help a little bit, but I think the main cause of my problem was the angle... the PVC was not sitting up straight ( it was sagging forward ) if you make this feeder make sure you have a nice 90° angle and that the top of the PVC is a level.
 
Thanks for posting this thread and the ups and downs you had with trying to figure out how feed fermented food. I stopped fermenting once we got cold as we have no space inside where I can store my buckets for fermenting. Sounds like I might want to stick to trying to get my fodder stuff going. Thanks again
 

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