****** DIY chicken feeder pipe! ******

[WVDoug]

Chicken feed "pours", but it doesn't quite act like a liquid.
As long as the lip of the tray at the bottom is the same height or greater than the bottom of the tube feeding into it, it won't overflow.
I use pellets. I'm not sure if crumbles act differently.

 

[lengardens]

thanks doug,

suppose all we can do is set one up and look see, be great for us we have 6 birds, we put a measure of grain in to 2 planter drip trays and the scratch it everywhere

anyhow for now seasons greetings and a happy new year

len

 

[Chooks n Kids]

hope someone reads this?

how do you stop the grain from simply running through under its own pressure?

many thanks

You will probably have more of a problem getting it to move down the tube than a problem with it running out. I have a U shaped feeder made with 4" PVC pipe on either end, approx. 30" high and an 18" piece of pipe with 5 - 2" holes across the bottom. 90 degree corners. I find I occasionally have to help the pellets move down into the bottom. The hens do a pretty good job of keeping the feed moving down and there is very little loss. I personally do not like the feeders that are one pipe with a bend at the bottom as younger birds can and do try to climb inside, usually with fatal results. Hope this is helpful. Merry Christmas. Sheila

 

[Minflick]

Chooks n Kids is quite right, at least in my personal experience. Lack of flow is more of a problem than too much flow. I also think it really depends on the shape, size, and degree of bend. Here is mine -



This is 4 inch ABS, high enough on the wall that they need to stretch a bit to reach inside the holes in the horizontal pipe. The mess you see on top and under the pipe is after a week of no cleaning, so you can see that very little spills out. I can get about 20 lbs in there, which lasts about 2 weeks for 6 hens. I have 90 degree elbows there, and the crumble flows DOWN the pipe just fine, but across the horizontal much less 'vigorously'. Even when I give the uprights a gentle thump or three (which I did before taking this picture), not so much flows down into the horizontal that it comes even close to flowing out the holes on the top. I'd say when I walk in to clean coop and thump the pipe, and check height of fill in the uprights, the horizontal pipe isn't filled even halfway up the sides. The hens really have to reach down inside to get the crumble. When I first got them, I had two large cinder blocks in front of the holes, but now that they're Big Girls, I took away the cinder blocks.

 

[lengardens]

thanks for that,

we only have full grown chooks too big to try and climb in the pipe, and we use only grain

seasons greetings

 

[RonP]

I think that you would only have this kind of issue if you ran out of food.

My storage system allows me to visually see when food is running low.

 

[WVDoug]

Here's mine:

 

[RonP]

How much does it hold??

 

[Minflick]

Wow! Looks busy, but it all feeds down into one thing. How hard is it to clean out?

 

[WVDoug]

Wow! Looks busy, but it all feeds down into one thing. How hard is it to clean out?

Clean out? No need to. It is dry food that falls to the bottom.
If for some reason you feel the need to clean it, just back out the screws holding it all together and wipe it out.