Make your own - No waste - 5 gallon (25# feed) bucket feeder for about $3

[heartland]

I love this idea! Going to make this by the weekend. I have a bunch of square litter containers that I use for all kinds of things and this looks like it would work really well.

Has anyone tried using a square one inside of one of the nesting boxes that aren't being used? I have 7 girls and 6 nesting boxes. I obviously won't need them all.

 

[TexasMomof5]

I plan on making this feeder but have 1 question.  How old do the chickens need to be to use this.  My chicks are 6 weeks old.  Are they too young?  

s

We made smaller versions for our day old chicks and they figured out as soon as we lowered the feeders in the brooders.

 

[henless]

I made 2 of these all by myself! I love them! I do have one opening that they can get a bit of the feed out when eating, but I probably just need to make a little longer insert.

I have 21 chickens, ad decided to put 3 openings in each bucket to give them plenty of openings.



I think you might can fit 4 openings if you work it right.



Here it is in action. The first one to use it was my little Buff Orp to the left of the feeder. She's half the size of the rest of them, but the same age. I'm thinking she might be a bantam or else just a runt. She is a sweety!



I love my feeders!

 

[Fishburne]

I built one of these recently and love it. I did one thing with mine that I haven't seen yet in this thread so I thought I would share. I know this isn't a problem for many "chicken tenders" but for me coop/run space is at a premium. However, this bucket feeder made it possible for me to keep the feeder on the outside of the run where it's not using run space and easy for me to monitor and refill regularly. Meanwhile the chickens only have access to food from inside the run, meaning the food is secure from critters and accessible to the chickens 24/7. Here's my setup:

 

[twostep]

Thanks for the idea! I think I'm going to do the same!

 

[Mama Chicky]

I just made a smaller version of this feeder for my chicks. I used two 1 1/2in. elbows. My youngest chicks are 3 weeks old and my oldest are 6 weeks old and they can all eat out of this feeder with no problems. I also made the horizontal nipple waterer and they all took to it pretty quickly.

 

[FLSweetTater]

I made one. My chicks were 7 weeks old when they started using it, no problem. I put it on a 3" block & it is just the right height for them.

 

[Toehead]

So I learned one thing: Don't use caulking around the PVC. It is apparently a chicken delicacy

 

[Shido Burrito]

So I learned one thing: Don't use caulking around the PVC. It is apparently a chicken delicacy

I had to use caulk on one of the waterer nipples but thankfully my chickens didn't develop a taste for it (yet)!

 

[butch vb]

on my waters and feeders I use food grade silicon on the inside I use a 4 to 3 pvc feeder with a fuel gauge made of tennis balls weights and heavy gauge strin i can tell from my house if I need to refill in my run I use the bucket feeder with 3 outlets but have it hung cause I move it every three or four days I use nipple waters in both coop and tractor clean and reill food and waters every weekend with 17 chickens but I also feed ff twice a day fooder I time a day chicken care has never been this easy and sanitary I love it