Duck Feeder?

[zchryjmsbnntt]

Hi everyone!

So I have been all over the Internet and BYC looking at different threads about duck feeders. There are a couple on here but all are more than a couple years old. I'm about to start my duck coop for three pekin females and still trying to figure out the feeder situation. I've attached pictures of some ideas I like which all have the same common idea: a pvc hole the ducks stick their head in. But all the pictures or ideas I have seen only show chickens eating out of them.

The question is, I've read ducks do not like or take to kindly sticking their head in a hole to get food. Just wondered if anyone has has come across this? Or if anyone has any pictures or ideas for a duck feeder that would work well/better?

Thanks again for any help!

 

[larryh13]

This duck doesn't seem to mind

 

[BurbanWoodsFarm]

Great post, I've been looking for ideas as well. We've just moved our ducks to their pen/run and I'm looking for feeder ideas that won't let the ducks drop too much food everywhere and attract rodents. I saw this idea on Pinterest that seemed like it would help contain the food with the added bonus of being able to put the dropped food back in the feeder.

 

[zchryjmsbnntt]

So I thought I should follow up on this thread as I've had my girls for about two months now. And maybe it will help someone else out looking for a feeder solution.

At first I had one of those PVC gravity feeders that you see all over Pinterest. It didn't work at all. I was finding that the feed would get clogged so it wouldn't auto-fill. I also had an issue with mold from all the rain we get in central Florida. So that ish got thrown away with a quickness.

This is feeder number two (pics below). Also found on Pinterest but a friend of mine also uses the same system for her chickens. It's a 5-gallon water jug and a 5-gallon bucket. Total cost was about $10. The link to where I found this solution is below. It says chicken feeder, but it honestly works great for my ducks
http://toolmakingart.com/2008/06/10/chicken-feeders/

Now this is where my genius kicked in. I was still concerned about the rain making the food wet (the top of my duck's enclosure is just hardware cloth). While walking through lowes, I noticed some pretty large trash can lids and thought, "maybe I can use this as a cover for my feeder." And it actually works REALLY well. The only problem I found was that my curious ducks liked to knock the lid over and play in it. So, To get around this, I took some left over yellow chain, and suspended it from the top of the enclosure. So this is what the current set up looks like:

 

[larryh13]

I would do a test run to see how they react before building a bigger project. I know my ducks would run threw fire to get food. But some run from there own shadow. I will post up some Ida's I've seen that I would like to try also. Believe it or not I've seen a ton of feeder ideas on Pinterest.

 

[chickenzooo]

I also need a feeder for my ducks... this was helpful

 

[larryh13]

 

[zchryjmsbnntt]

I would do a test run to see how they react before building a bigger project. I know my ducks would run threw fire to get food. But some run from there own shadow. I will post up some Ida's I've seen that I would like to try also. Believe it or not I've seen a ton of feeder ideas on Pinterest.

Thanks for all the pics! I've seen a lot on Pinterest as well but they always seem to show pictures of chickens instead of ducks so I didn't know if ducks would actually stick their head in a hole lol. I mean, I guess if they didn't want to be hungry they would learn to lol. What are you currently using to feed your ducks?

 

[larryh13]

Thanks for all the pics! I've seen a lot on Pinterest as well but they always seem to show pictures of chickens instead of ducks so I didn't know if ducks would actually stick their head in a hole lol. I mean, I guess if they didn't want to be hungry they would learn to lol. What are you currently using to feed your ducks?

Right now I'm just using grounders.

But I too have been considering a new setup. Especially now that I'm building a bigger duck coop.

 

[Duck Drover]

We make our own feeders like the second one by cutting a 12 foot pipe into three 4' sections. We put a cap on top, a wye on the bottom, and a grated plug in the bottom of the wye to let any moisture and/or feed dust out the bottom (you could use a solid plug if you prefer). The ducks eat out of the angled wye andcwe can keep them filled since they are gravity feeders. We use them for our chickens too. My husband also added a rain guard over the wye with a piece of plexiglass with a 4" hole cut into it so it goes down over the pipe. Then we attach it to a fence, tree, or coop to keep it upright.