No spill chicken feeder??? Not buying the no spill part...

[The Phantom]

I built this no spill chicken feeder and was so eggcited to no longer mess with wet food when it rains. Sadly I’m only seeing the spilling and not the no spilling.
They have spilled more with this thing in a few days than they ever did with the other.
I used 3” 90degree pvc pipe and caulked them in. What did I do wrong???? There is corn and oats slightly mixed in, are they just pick that out soo much? That it spills?

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

Maybe you should have used 'elbows' instead? Like mount them a little lower and the pvc pipe bends upward?

 

[blackdog043]

How far off the bottom are your elbows? They should be 3/4 of an inch. This way the feed is not real deep inside the elbow. Also since your adding some corn and oats, yes that could cause them to pick at it more and possibly pull some up and drop it out on the ground, to get to the good stuff.

 

[SueT]

What are you feeding them? Maybe they don't like it. Does it smell moldy or funky? Check the date on the bag and make sure it's not old. I feed Purina flock raiser in dog bowls and my chickens don't spill it.

 

[The Phantom]

Maybe you should have used 'elbows' instead? Like mount them a little lower and the pvc pipe bends upward?

I really don't want to build another one.....

How far off the bottom are your elbows? They should be 3/4 of an inch. This way the feed is not real deep inside the elbow. Also since your adding some corn and oats, yes that could cause them to pick at it more and possibly pull some up and drop it out on the ground, to get to the good stuff.

Like 2 inches. I will try no corn next time I fill it.

What are you feeding them? Maybe they don't like it. Does it smell moldy or funky? Check the date on the bag and make sure it's not old. I feed Purina flock raiser in dog bowls and my chickens don't spill it.

Purina Layena plus omega 3s. The food smells fine, actually kinda yummy. While I was mixing it my dad smelled it and ate some! He said it taste good.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

@aart has a spill proof/resistant feeder plan I believe...

Gary

 

[aart]

I built this no spill chicken feeder and was so eggcited to no longer mess with wet food when it rains. Sadly I’m only seeing the spilling and not the no spilling.
They have spilled more with this thing in a few days than they ever did with the other.
I used 3” 90degree pvc pipe and caulked them in. What did I do wrong????

I've never bought it either...seems to work for some tho.
Do you have pics of it empty?
From all I've read the length of the pipe inside (from elbow to bottom of bin) can make a difference. The 2" you have from bottom may be the problem....and it may leave a lot of feed in there unreachable by birds. Some have also lengthened the pipe outside the bin. It's a tricky one, not a design I care for. I have no need to keep that much feed in the feeder, I check and fill feeder every day to keep feed fresher and an eye on consumption.

I used 3” 90degree pvc pipe

Maybe you should have used 'elbows' instead? Like mount them a little lower and the pvc pipe bends upward?

"..90 degree pvc pipe.." is an elbow....and you clearly are unfamiliar with this design, they are supposed to go 'down', not 'up'.

@aart has a spill proof/resistant feeder plan I believe...
Gary

This has worked well for me, key is the 3" deep 'dish'. It's too deep for them to 'bill' or drag feed out onto the floor, tho some do try to do that.
I started with a funnel and trigger mechanism, love the trigger concept but it caused issues and funnel capacity was not quite enough for daily volume of feed consumed. Then tried a stand pipe with 5 gallon bottle for a funnel. It has worked very well for 2 years now.
Details are here, scroll wayyyy down for latest iteration.

 

[kraenbring]

I've built a feeder from a 4" 45 deg pvc pipe piece and added a lip to prevent spillage. Thought I was pretty smart. Next day feed was everywhere. Whole vertical hopper was empty. My problem wasn't the feeder, but I mixed into the pellets some scratch grains. They dug out all the boring pellets and went for the treats. Now only keeping pellets (and a little DE) in the feeder, there has been very little mess/spillage.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

You could try changing the elbows so that they are on the outside pointed up. That's the way mine are. Some chickens will rake stuff out if the elbow is really full after I fill up the container, but once they've eaten what's in the vertical part down, they don't (or can't) do it so much (or not at all).

I think the design you have makes it easier to rake stuff out.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

There is corn and oats slightly mixed in, are they just pick that out soo much? That it spills?

I once made the mistake of mixing scratch with layer feed. They raked out the layer feed to eat only the scratch. Yours might be raking out the oats to get to the corn. IMO it's best to not mix anything in a feeder so they don't get the incentive to rake looking for goodies.