New feeders are up

[HenHouse4Life]

I enjoy these feeders so far, and the chickens picked up on how to use them very quickly. Our fencing isn't done yet, as you can see, but we needed to get the new feeders going as we have had suspicions of rodents coming around. After much research we decided on these feeders because they are supposed to be rodent proof, wild bird proof and weatherproof. I personally don't like having food inside the coop. These were fairly easy to make and we finished 4 of them in little over an hour.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I guess I'm less smart than a chicken... how does this work? Is that a toggle and food drops out if it's poked?

 

[HenHouse4Life]

I guess I'm less smart than a chicken... how does this work? Is that a toggle and food drops out if it's poked?

Oh gosh I'm so sorry..... yes.....we drilled a hole in the bottom of the bucket, used a 3/8" X 6" eye bolt going thru the hole. Washers, nuts, and a small piece of PVC on the bottom of the eye bolt per the directions we followed. The chickens peck at the PVC..... or the nuts.... the eye bolt sways and just a few pellets fall to the ground. Chickens clean it up right away and peck again if they want more. We have had ZERO food waste. We made 4 of them and two 50lb food bags filled up all 4 perfectly.

 

[HenHouse4Life]

We also removed the bucket handle and replaced with bolts, nuts and a 32" chain

 

[rosemarythyme]

Interesting idea! At first I was thinking that would lead to MORE rodents but it makes sense that the chickens would only toggle it when they wanted food. And I like the replacement of the default handle, as the chain and bolts looks far stronger.

(Just glad I'm not relying on that for dinner, I would've starved since I couldn't figure it out from looking at it. )

 

[HenHouse4Life]

Interesting idea! At first I was thinking that would lead to MORE rodents but it makes sense that the chickens would only toggle it when they wanted food. And I like the replacement of the default handle, as the chain and bolts looks far stronger.

(Just glad I'm not relying on that for dinner, I would've starved since I couldn't figure it out from looking at it. )

totally my fault, I should've explained it in the first post
I was worried it would take a while for the flock to catch on but it really didn't. They're a lot smarter than they get credit for! If I were to make a guess as to how much food comes out per peck I would say anywhere from 4 to 7 pellets, depending on who is doing the pecking. If you wanted more to fall you could just drill the hole a little bigger I suppose

 

[HenHouse4Life]

This morning when I let the chickens out they all went right to the feeders! So pleased with these

 

[igorsMistress]

Love it! I'm curious, do you have pigeons in your area? If so I wonder if they'll figure those out. Pigeons are the bane of my existence right now with feeders and we got creative with pvc. They work great, but our sun will surely kill them shortly so I'd really like to try this idea!

Do you have a link to the instructions you followed?

 

[HenHouse4Life]

Love it! I'm curious, do you have pigeons in your area? If so I wonder if they'll figure those out. Pigeons are the bane of my existence right now with feeders and we got creative with pvc. They work great, but our sun will surely kill them shortly so I'd really like to try this idea!

Do you have a link to the instructions you followed?

We do have pigeons within a few miles, usually I see them under and around the freeway viaduct. We are in a very rural area and I haven't seen any here on the property. I'll try to find the link and post it.....I believe my husband found it on YouTube

 

[HenHouse4Life]

This is the video we saw....I hope I copied the link correctly and you don't get an error message. If it didn't work please let me know and I'll retry