Favorite feeders and where to get them

[Agilityscots]

Becky, do you have a picture of this? I'm having a hard time visualizing it.

Amy

 

[dreamgirl]

I am definately going to make these for my outside feeders, thanks. Question though to those who have store bought feeders (the type with a few inches open around the bottom with an attached tray) -- the feed doesn't come out as the chickens eat it, so I am always haveing to shake it to get the food to drop. 1. do you have any solutions to this, and 2. do you ahve this problem with the homemade versions?

Thanks!

 

[BeckyLa]

Amy, I haven't taken pictures yet but I'll try to get one for you this afternoon.

Dreamgirl, one thing that I have done that helps with this problem is to take an aluminum pie pan, slit it from outside edge to the center, then take the cut edges and pull them in, over one another, till it forms a pyramid shape. Since the pans are usually a tad larger than the feeder I can set the pyramid down into the bottom of the feeder without it coming apart. Then fill it with feed. This forces the feed that would remain in the center of the feeder to the edges. But it also takes up some space so you can't put as much feed in it. The best solution I have found for auto feeders is to keep them over half full. Or when I go out to let the birds out I take a minute to shake down the feed by kinda spinning the feeder.

 

[Lunachick]

Isn't food grade DE good for anti caking for the feed? Would that help? BTW thanks Beckyla for the pvc pipe idea I think I can figure something out with that.

 

[ozark hen]

Becky, I have seen dog kennels with feeders made that way. A long length of pvc pipe with a cap over it. They had the lengths of pipe up high enough that you didn't have to bend over to fill them. I loved the idea and it looked very neat.

 

[BeckyLa]

Sorry it took so long, but here is a pic of the feeder I am talking about. It's perfect for a small coop. It could be made any size needed.

 

[ozark hen]

Great feeder!!!

 

[Wolfpacker]

We are inundated with empty plastic cat litter containers around here. I use them to store feed, scratch, pine shavings, and bird seed.

I shall now try to make one of these feeders using one and waterer using another.

 

[BeckyLa]

Thanks! It's very easy to make. For the bigger playhouse we have a 5 gal bucket with a pan attached to the bottom, holes drilled on the side at the bottom of the bucket, and hanging by the bucket handle. It works great, too, since there are a lot more birds there and we already had the bucket.

 

[raceready]

hi, im new here, and new to chickens too, we have had ours for about 2 months now. i was wondering if anyone had ever tried a feeder like this...

i designed it like a calf feeder, it has troughs on both sides. i built it out of a bunch of melamine shelving i had laying around. it will hold just over 100# of feed. the only thing i would have done differently is to have built a peaked lid so the chickens wouldn't hang out on top of it, but as the pic shows, i guess they like to sleep there..lol