To solve the problem about the food on the bottom not going threw you can put chicken grit in the bottom then add your food ! so you do not have old food always sitting ing the bottom. when you add more food just top off some more grit then add the new bag of food. I love your idea !
Just to update, this feeder was still in use up to last year - so about 12 years. And it's still perfectly fine - we just bought a coop with a built in feeder and I haven't needed this one again yet! I've had up to a dozen or so birds in acoop with this feeder, and it worked fine.
Post is too old to edit it seems, but I'm reattaching the photos here