I made a feeder from a 5 gal. bucket with 1" holes drill in bottom of the sides using a large feed tub on bottom of bucket. It worked great at first then I notice feed spilled out on coop floor. This happen after I hung it up on chain to raise it up as the girls got bigger, I think they are banging it around or sitting on one side and causing spilling. What type home made feeder do you think work best
Feeders that don't waste feed
- Thread starter wac
- Start date
- Apr 28, 2011
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- 22
I use milk jugs. I cut a 1/4 section out of the top so the girls have to reach in. Then I tied 2 jugs together and sat it on the ground. They still can knock it over, but they usually eat all the food if they do. You could tie a 3rd and 4th one on and it would allow you to feed more birds, plus it keeps them from knocking them over.
I drilled a 3/4 inch hole in the bottom of a 5 gallon lidded bucket, dropped a thin handled teaspoon handle side down through the hole, added the feed pellets, put the lid on, and hung up the bucket. The girls peck on the handle of the spoon and only a small amount of feed comes through at a time. Double check the size of the hole (I am terrible with measuring) - start off small and work up til you like the amount of fed that comes out.
Zero waste!
edited to remove dimensions since it can be built to your personal specs.
edited to remove dimensions since it can be built to your personal specs.
Last edited:
Quote:
That's an awesome looking feeder!
We're in the middle of building our new chicken coop and working on a feeder (one that can hold a 50-lb bag of feed at a time) and watering system. Always on the lookout for new ideas at this point!
That's an awesome looking feeder!
Here are my homemade feeders. I have over 200 animals, so I need the trough style feeders. The small feeders are not equipped to hold the amount of feed that my animals need on a daily basis. There is no waster with these feeders.
Love your homemade feeders Kuntrygirl
Quote:
That's an awesome looking feeder!
We're in the middle of building our new chicken coop and working on a feeder (one that can hold a 50-lb bag of feed at a time) and watering system. Always on the lookout for new ideas at this point!
The feeder pictured holds about 65# Mounts on the outside of the coop with just the tray protruding to the inside. Woks great.
Check my page for automatic waterer.
That's an awesome looking feeder!
The feeder pictured holds about 65# Mounts on the outside of the coop with just the tray protruding to the inside. Woks great.
Check my page for automatic waterer.
Last edited:
Quote:
That's an awesome looking feeder!
We're in the middle of building our new chicken coop and working on a feeder (one that can hold a 50-lb bag of feed at a time) and watering system. Always on the lookout for new ideas at this point!
The feeder pictured holds about 65# Mounts on the outside of the coop with just the tray protruding to the inside. Woks great.
Check my page for automatic waterer.
We get so much rain in our neck of the woods (9mos out of the year!) I don't think mounting the feeder to the exterior would work. Too much potential for the rain to leak in and soak the feed or accidentally dumping it all over the wet ground while trying to fill it.
Leaning towards hanging the whole system inside because of that. At least then I'd have a chance of saving it from ruin!
Saw something similar to your feeder posted inside a coop with an easy handmade wood slant bracket which would make taking it down for cleaning easier. It didn't have your cover/holes in the front to keep the gals from scratching it out tho'. I really, really like that! Think I might add a secondary or third compartment to it tho' for the oyster shell and/or BOSS. Or I just might build a secondary or even third (smaller) feeder of the same style for that.
Hhhmmmm... still much plotting to do, but we've still got a tad bit of time to figure it out before we move the girls in!
Your watering system is really nice too, but we also get just enough extreme temps that I'd be concerned about the water lines freezing and busting with an automatic waterer hooked to our private water well.
If that happened, it could possibly cause our pump to burn out and have to be replaced (if we weren't home when it happened). We don't have time to dig a line this year before winter sets in, so it'd all have to come from a hose then giving us an even better chance at freezing lines.
Leaning towards a 55gal food grade barrel and capturing rainwater from the coop roof and then a PVC and chicken nipple set up inside the coop. (see first paragraph about how often it rains here! LOL) To potentially keep the water barrel from freezing up on one of those extreme days/nights, could get one of those stock tank heaters and run an outdoor extension cord to it. Then to keep the PVC from freezing could figure out some way to insulate it where the gals can't get to the insulation. Most of the time, we don't get below 45 degrees tho', so we may not need to insulate. We'll see... BUT if it does freeze up, we don't have to worry about our water well pump either!! Your suggestion for the screen for the watering system reminds me that we'll need something like that too over the top of the rain barrel to keep our local frogs out tho'! ACK! So many little things to remember!
That's an awesome looking feeder!
The feeder pictured holds about 65# Mounts on the outside of the coop with just the tray protruding to the inside. Woks great.
Check my page for automatic waterer.
We get so much rain in our neck of the woods (9mos out of the year!) I don't think mounting the feeder to the exterior would work. Too much potential for the rain to leak in and soak the feed or accidentally dumping it all over the wet ground while trying to fill it.
Saw something similar to your feeder posted inside a coop with an easy handmade wood slant bracket which would make taking it down for cleaning easier. It didn't have your cover/holes in the front to keep the gals from scratching it out tho'. I really, really like that! Think I might add a secondary or third compartment to it tho' for the oyster shell and/or BOSS. Or I just might build a secondary or even third (smaller) feeder of the same style for that.
Hhhmmmm... still much plotting to do, but we've still got a tad bit of time to figure it out before we move the girls in!
Your watering system is really nice too, but we also get just enough extreme temps that I'd be concerned about the water lines freezing and busting with an automatic waterer hooked to our private water well.
Leaning towards a 55gal food grade barrel and capturing rainwater from the coop roof and then a PVC and chicken nipple set up inside the coop. (see first paragraph about how often it rains here! LOL) To potentially keep the water barrel from freezing up on one of those extreme days/nights, could get one of those stock tank heaters and run an outdoor extension cord to it. Then to keep the PVC from freezing could figure out some way to insulate it where the gals can't get to the insulation. Most of the time, we don't get below 45 degrees tho', so we may not need to insulate. We'll see... BUT if it does freeze up, we don't have to worry about our water well pump either!! Your suggestion for the screen for the watering system reminds me that we'll need something like that too over the top of the rain barrel to keep our local frogs out tho'! ACK! So many little things to remember!
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