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

[MeepBeep]

And they don't drag the food out of the openings and throw it all over the place?  

Nope, very little to no spillage with mine...

 

[DreamsInPink]

Well, it sounds like a pretty darn good set up to me then. My only worry is the littles getting into it and getting stuck or some such nonsense. It seems chickens can always find some kind of trouble to get into. lol

I'd really like to implement this and a nipple waterer as soon as possible. I'm wasting lots of feed and am tired of cleaning chicken water 6+ times a day.

 

[MeepBeep]

and am tired of cleaning chicken water 6+ times a day.  

I have not cleaned my nipple waterer in 6 months although I might remove it and hose it out now that spring is here as the hard water deposits are building up inside...

 

[DreamsInPink]

Oh my Lord! That sounds like HEAVEN!!! I'm definitely going to do this! I do have one question though, if I go with the vertical or horizontal nipples, can I reuse them on a different container later? Right now, I'd probably use a smaller container for the brooder, but would want to move the nipples to a 5 gallon bucket once we get moved into the coop.

Could I do that? Or would I have to buy 2 sets of nipples?

 

[MeepBeep]

IMO don't bother with vertical nipples, the horizontal ones are far superior...

And yes you can move them from container to container...

 

[DreamsInPink]

Yes, that's the conclusion I am coming to as well... from reading LOTS. I'm 99% sure that's what I'm going to do. And the ability to move them from container to container makes me happy. Less $$ I have to spend. Thank you so much for your valuable feedback.

 

[flyin-lowe]

I brought home 9 pullets a week and a half ago. At first I had a cheap feeder from Rural King that holds seven pounds. I was filling it every day to 2 days, no doubt they were wasting a lot of feed. I was thinking I was going to go broke feeding them. After the fourth day I built one of these feeders and filled it up. I didn't weigh the feed but the title says 5 gallons is 25 pounds. Anyway its been about a week and as of last night it was still 50 % full. They have used less feed in the week with this feeder then they did he first three days with a normal feeder. I am sold on this design.

 

[DreamsInPink]

That's similar to the one I'm probably going to build once we get ours in the coop. I found the design here on BYC.

 

[ShrekDawg]

@MeepBeep what size hole saw did you use? If you used one? Cause I know the first page mentions a size but since that's for the 3 inch elbow I thought maybe it would be different for the 4 inch one? Thanks

 

[MeepBeep]

@MeepBeep what size hole saw did you use? If you used one? Cause I know the first page mentions a size but since that's for the 3 inch elbow I thought maybe it would be different for the 4 inch one? Thanks

I drilled 4" holes, about 1/8" smaller all around vs the street end of the elbow, cleaned the cut edge with sand paper to remove all the 'fuzzies' and then using a heat gun on both sides of the tub softened up the plastic around the hole, then rammed the elbow through the hole for a very tight formed fit...

I used this cheap hole saw set, with a 20% off coupon it was only $13.59, cheaper then any other local store would sell a single 4" hole saw and since it was for a simple job like this I was not worried about quality...

http://www.harborfreight.com/34-in-5-in-carbon-steel-hole-saw-set-18-pc-68115.html