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

[Alaskan]

We've been fighting rats galore this year; warm winter + COVID-19 shut down meant closed restaurants = no regular food source, everyone has chickens and veg gardens, and the demolition of an abandoned industrial site nearby, just disgusting infestations everywhere. I can only use metal cans to store food in but I need something like this badly. I'm going to try this with a small metal garbage pail with a gasket to see if it will work.

Then on to a winter-proof waterer.

The nice thing about this design is you can put caps on at night.

However, rats are pretty strong and can be quite determined.... I wonder if it would be better if you found threaded pipes so that you could use a screw on cap...

 

[RojoMarz]

We've been fighting rats galore this year; warm winter + COVID-19 shut down meant closed restaurants = no regular food source, everyone has chickens and veg gardens, and the demolition of an abandoned industrial site nearby, just disgusting infestations everywhere. I can only use metal cans to store food in but I need something like this badly. I'm going to try this with a small metal garbage pail with a gasket to see if it will work.

Then on to a winter-proof waterer.

I had one of these...the chipmunk and mice were getting inside it during the day and eating (and pooping). I switched to a Rat Proof treadle feeder.

 

[RojoMarz]

The nice thing about this design is you can put caps on at night.

However, rats are pretty strong and can be quite determined.... I wonder if it would be better if you found threaded pipes so that you could use a screw on cap...

Can't use the caps to stop them during the day though.

 

[Alaskan]

Can't use the caps to stop them during the day though.

Very true

 

[nrepy]

Here's mine. 8 ports, I did not use glue, silicon, or hardware to hold the street elbows in. Holds 150#, been using it for a little more than two years.View attachment 1830753

Do you have step by step instructions on making this 8 port feeder? I would love to make one.

 

[nrepy]

Here's mine. 8 ports, I did not use glue, silicon, or hardware to hold the street elbows in. Holds 150#, been using it for a little more than two years.View attachment 1830753

Do you have step by step instructions to make this 8 port feeder? I would love to make one. Thanks!

 

[Gramaden]

I come bearing pictures of how to make this feeder with a 90-degree street elbow (hub & spigot) per LoneOak's instructions. (Hope I got it right!)

This is the street elbow with a hub end (the big part) and a spigot end (the narrower part with the flange). This method won't work with a plain 90-degree street elbow because the parts won't fit into one another at the end (you'll see) (EDIT: I was wrong about this, a regular street elbow without a flange will also work!). I had to check online before I purchased it because not all Home Depot's carry them. Here's a link to the product: http://www.homedepot.com/p/NIBCO-3-...Street-Elbow-C48072HD3/100347226#.UnBRP3BwpLc



I started by cutting off the hub end right where it meets the pipe. I didn't need to make another cut after this because after I had cut the hub off, the cut end was still a 90-degree angle to the spigot end, which would allow it to be parallel to the floor of the bucket after installation.



To determine where to cut my hole, I put a scrap piece of 1"x2" under the cut end of the elbow (to ensure the pipe is 3/4" off the floor of the bucket after installation) and traced the hole on the outside of the bucket.



After I cut my hole I put the spigot end (the narrow bit) through the hole. You can see below the flange doesn't allow it to move any farther outside the bucket, which is good.



Here you can see the spigot end coming out of the bucket and the hub that I will flip around and put over the spigot to keep the elbow from falling back in the bucket.



And here it is! No glue required, it's a tight fit. There's a little play in the elbow but it can't fall in or out of the bucket so it still works. I opted for the fancy screw-top for my bucket but if I had gone with a plain lid I could have made this for a total of $10 and about 15 minutes.

Excellent instructions and pics! Thank you very much, any problems or changes come up? Thanks again!

 

[Alaskan]

Excellent instructions and pics! Thank you very much, any problems or changes come up? Thanks again!

The elbows we found were smooth... so nothing had to be cut off.

I have used mine for years, still great, still fantastic.

 

[Gramaden]

Thanks so much for the reply, possible link to your elbows would also be greatly appreciated and your feeder looks awesome! The black color helps I’m sure in your neck of the woods. Again I thank you for your speedy reply! Take care.

 

[Alaskan]

Thanks so much for the reply, possible link to your elbows would also be greatly appreciated and your feeder looks awesome! The black color helps I’m sure in your neck of the woods. Again I thank you for your speedy reply! Take care.

It has been YEARS since we built it...

But we used something like

Type 1

Or

Type 2

That part was NOT cut, and stayed completely inside the trashcan.

Then we took one straight pipe that was cut into approximately 2 inch lengths... I will try to measure tomorrow.

The cut straight pipe was pushed through the wall of the trashcan and onto the elbows.

A couple of the straight pipe pieces were cut too short, and some feed was billed out. So I added collars that were similar to This

I can keep the trashcan outside and the feed doesn't get wet (but it is placed to be protected from driving rain), and holds over 100 pounds of feed that is easily dumped in.