DIY Ideas needed for meat bird feeder

[imacowgirl2]

I need everyones ideas, because my brain just isn't coming up with a solution, and I really want to figure this out!

I currently have two of these high capacity feeders for my meat birds (New Hampshires, not Cornish Cross, so I dont need to limit feed) -- they're little guys still, only about 5 weeks old so the two feeders are currently working fine.

However, we're quickly getting to the point where only 3-4 birds at a time can eat, and its starting to cause scuffles when they wake up in the morning.

My last batch of meat birds, I fed in a 10 foot long gutter -- which worked great, but it meant I had to fill it twice a day every day, because it didnt have enough capacity to hold enough feed for those voracious eaters!

I would love to be able to combine the two ideas somehow, and essentially build something about 10 feet long that holds feed like these high capacity feeders -- anyone have any ideas on starting points?

I also really really want to be able to fill the feeder from outside the pen...because when these guys are hungry, they mob you like crazy!

 

[Al Gerhart]

Send those back if they are new. $52.00 a pop, $33.00 less than a treadle feeder with non of the benefits.

You didn't say how many meat birds but I'll assume 100. You would be feeding 25 pounds per day once they hit a couple of pounds each and to get to that two pounds weight they will probably have consumed five pounds of feed each or 500 pounds. Say you feed them out to six pounds live weight, you will have fed around 22 pounds assuming you get a commercial grower feed conversion rate.

Between four and eight weeks you will be feeding just over three pounds of feed per week so a fifty pound bag will feed roughly 15 to 16 broilers per week at the ages of four to eight weeks. Less in the first couple of weeks, more at the end.

So, those feeders aren't the best and until you have a rodent or wild bird problem you do not need the best feeders. You might get a year's worth of meat raised and be done before the vermin find you. That gutter trough looks pretty good in my opinion.

 

[NatJ]

I need everyones ideas, because my brain just isn't coming up with a solution, and I really want to figure this out!

I currently have two of these high capacity feeders for my meat birds (New Hampshires, not Cornish Cross, so I dont need to limit feed) -- they're little guys still, only about 5 weeks old so the two feeders are currently working fine.

View attachment 4295421

However, we're quickly getting to the point where only 3-4 birds at a time can eat, and its starting to cause scuffles when they wake up in the morning.

My last batch of meat birds, I fed in a 10 foot long gutter -- which worked great, but it meant I had to fill it twice a day every day, because it didnt have enough capacity to hold enough feed for those voracious eaters!

I would love to be able to combine the two ideas somehow, and essentially build something about 10 feet long that holds feed like these high capacity feeders -- anyone have any ideas on starting points?

I also really really want to be able to fill the feeder from outside the pen...because when these guys are hungry, they mob you like crazy!

Have you considered or tried the hanging tube kind? I'm thinking of the big metal ones that have a tube to hold the feed, and a pan at the bottom for the birds to eat the feed.
Examples:
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/harris-farms-30-lb-hanging-feeder-2167141
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/hanging_feeder.html
https://www.amazon.com/Harris-Farms-Galvanized-Hanging-Feeder/dp/B006ZUNIWQ
https://www.strombergschickens.com/poultry-supplies/40-lb-capacity-hanging-feeder/

That style of feeder can hold a lot of feed because of the wide tall tube, and it allows many birds to eat at once because the trough is all the way around the outside of it. Since you do not need to limit feed, you could fill it before it runs out, and that would prevent you being mobbed by hungry birds.

If you have the ability to hang such a feeder, it works really well. Adjust the height as the birds grow, so the feeder lip is about level with their backs. I'm not sure about situations where you cannot hang the feeder-- it might not work so well then.

You said you used a 10 foot long gutter in the past. With the round feeder, it does not need to be quite as big, because of what happens when chickens stand in a circle and eat from the feeder in the middle: all those big bodies are further out making a bigger circle, while their heads reach the smaller circle of the feeder in the middle. So they don't need as much total length of feeder, as compared with a straight line where each bird needs the whole width of their body available if they want to reach the food at all.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Send those back if they are new. $52.00 a pop, $33.00 less than a treadle feeder with non of the benefits.

You didn't say how many meat birds but I'll assume 100. You would be feeding 25 pounds per day once they hit a couple of pounds each and to get to that two pounds weight they will probably have consumed five pounds of feed each or 500 pounds. Say you feed them out to six pounds live weight, you will have fed around 22 pounds assuming you get a commercial grower feed conversion rate.

Between four and eight weeks you will be feeding just over three pounds of feed per week so a fifty pound bag will feed roughly 15 to 16 broilers per week at the ages of four to eight weeks. Less in the first couple of weeks, more at the end.

So, those feeders aren't the best and until you have a rodent or wild bird problem you do not need the best feeders. You might get a year's worth of meat raised and be done before the vermin find you. That gutter trough looks pretty good in my opinion.

42 birds…those feeders aren’t new, we’ve been using them for years for various groups of birds as needed, purchased on clearance for less than $20 each. Yes, the gutter works great, except for the fact that I have to fill it twice, sometimes three times, a day, which I simply don’t have time for (or a great desire to do when it is -10* outside )

 

[imacowgirl2]

Have you considered or tried the hanging tube kind? I'm thinking of the big metal ones that have a tube to hold the feed, and a pan at the bottom for the birds to eat the feed.
Examples:
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/harris-farms-30-lb-hanging-feeder-2167141
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/hanging_feeder.html
https://www.amazon.com/Harris-Farms-Galvanized-Hanging-Feeder/dp/B006ZUNIWQ
https://www.strombergschickens.com/poultry-supplies/40-lb-capacity-hanging-feeder/

That style of feeder can hold a lot of feed because of the wide tall tube, and it allows many birds to eat at once because the trough is all the way around the outside of it. Since you do not need to limit feed, you could fill it before it runs out, and that would prevent you being mobbed by hungry birds.

If you have the ability to hang such a feeder, it works really well. Adjust the height as the birds grow, so the feeder lip is about level with their backs. I'm not sure about situations where you cannot hang the feeder-- it might not work so well then.

You said you used a 10 foot long gutter in the past. With the round feeder, it does not need to be quite as big, because of what happens when chickens stand in a circle and eat from the feeder in the middle: all those big bodies are further out making a bigger circle, while their heads reach the smaller circle of the feeder in the middle. So they don't need as much total length of feeder, as compared with a straight line where each bird needs the whole width of their body available if they want to reach the food at all.

I’ve been eyeing those…the thing that has been holding me back is that I don’t have a way to hang it and I wasn’t sure if they’d bill all the feed out like they do with the plain ones that are similar in design.

I might have to try one of these though…the Stromberg one said it feeds 50-75 birds, so surely it would fit my 40ish around it.

 

[NatJ]

I’ve been eyeing those…the thing that has been holding me back is that I don’t have a way to hang it and I wasn’t sure if they’d bill all the feed out like they do with the plain ones that are similar in design.

I might have to try one of these though…the Stromberg one said it feeds 50-75 birds, so surely it would fit my 40ish around it.

I have only used them hanging, so I can't be sure how they will perform otherwise.

For those big ones, you can often adjust how deep the tube sits into the pan at the bottom. The deeper it is, the less feed they bill out.

I once bought a cutsey little plastic version, and lots of feed was wasted. The trough had been made shallow, so it looked like it was in-scale with the rest of the feeder: nope, not a good design there. But the big metal one has worked really well, because the trough is deep enough that they don't easily throw the feed out.

With a hanging feeder, I have also found that the chickens pick up some of the feed they drop: because the feeder is hanging, they can scratch around and reach underneath. Of course they do a better job of picking up whole grains or pellets, and less well with crumbles or finely-ground feeds.

Regarding how many birds, I don't think the catalog expects them all to be eating at once, but it certainly will feed quite a few simultaneously, and of course others can take a turn while the first ones go have a drink.

I notice the Strombergs one does have the adjustment for how deep the feed is: there are several metal pieces attached to the trough, that go into holes on the sides of the tube. Each position has several holes, and you adjust the depth of feed/trough by which holes you use. I expect it'll be obvious as soon as you try to put the pieces together, if you do buy one.