Peck-O-Matic anyone tried this?

[Michael56]

I hear ya, I'd like to buy just one of his funnels....to use in this combo trigger/no waste feeder but with the taller 7 gal bucket.

We can use the entire bucket to store feeds. If we are away, we can fill the bucket with feeds for 1 weeks or more. And I also searched for a funnel like this but can't find any of this quality or shape.
watch this video of chicken using peckomatic outside the chicken coop from youtube.

I buy peckomatic after watching this video of Peckomatic Assembly Instructions. It is easy to make. We only need a 5 Gallon Bucket. Nothing in this is screwed or glued together. I think the funnel and all in the kit are of good quality and worth its price, as Half that price is shipping.

 

[aart]

Quote: I agree it a fair price at $20....
....but I have very little money so not going to pay $35 for something I can rig for $10 (my funnel cost).
Plus I like inventing/building thing myself.

Plus the way I cut the bottom of my bucket keeps any feed from landing on the floor, which was my main goal...and the capacity is fine for what I have now but will continue to research components and prototype my own devices.

 

[jmagill]

Actually very little feed hits the floor. My chickens have moved all the litter checking to see if any is there. I am loving this feeder and I am one of those people that DIY's most of my stuff. It holds lots of feed. It gives the chickens an activity during the winter months because they actually have to do a bit of work to get their food. It is easy to clean and very easy to change feed sizes.

No problem with building your own but it is actually a great deal and a wonderful design for those that don't want to.

 

[GoodwinFarm]

Just heard about this design for a feeder. Do you guys think it would work for meaties? I had quite a problem with mice in my chicken tractors last year so was thinkng of some sort of trigger feeder. The treadles won't work I think as the birds are too small to stand on the bar and reach the food.

I used hanging feeders last year, but there was so much scratched out of the feeder....

 

[marktoo]

The sparrows have been making a nuisance of themselves so I started looking into demand feeders. I tried to contact Triggerhappyhens but never got a response. Perhaps it didn't really go through! In the interim I dabbled with making one. I tried using an eyebolt as a trigger as was suggested on other posts but thought it offer too much resistance & it didn't seem to feed well. I used a canning funnel & cut a hole in a large yogurt container to accept the funnel, a long bolt & wooden dowel is used for the trigger, a wooden plug with a hole in it fills the neck of the funnel. I would imagine you could find fender washers to change hole size but haven't looked. I put peanut butter on the end of the trigger to train the hens. I have seen one hen using the feeder so I assume the others won't be far behind. I intend to get another funnel so I can continue to refine this a bit without taking the other offline. The yogurt container is considerably smaller than a bucket but since I only have 4 hens it lasts for a few days. So, after all this I happen across the Peckomatic. Oh well, guess I saved myself $40! ;o)

 

[CelesteInTex]

Marktoo, can you post pictures and details about how you built yours? That would be so great!

 

[CelesteInTex]

Has anybody using the Peck-O-Matic been able to verify that it really is rat proof? I saw several comments expressing skepticism, but no posts claiming that it really is.
Thanks!!

 

[marktoo]

Marktoo, can you post pictures and details about how you built yours? That would be so great!

I'll try to get some pics up in the next day or two. I would think how rat proof the are would depend largely on how they are mounted, if the feeder is suspended from something the rat would have to come down from that point or jump from the ground. I think it would be pretty difficult but I'm not gonna get any rats to test it out. ;o)

Oh, yeah! Welcome to BYC by the way!

 

[yyz0yyz0]

After reading through this whole thread and seeing all the back and forth about the funnel got me to thinking.

I have a TriggerHappyChicken trigger feeder and like others I find that I have about 2" of feed left in the bucket when the feed stops dropping through the hole. I had occasionally given thought on solutions to the coneing of the feed in the bucket, but not too deep of thought.

So as I was reading these posts I had an Ah-ha moment. We all put the trigger hole in the center of the bucket but then have issues with the bucket not emptying without some type of funnel shape to the inside of the bucket.

OK, so what if we put the hole off center(actually near the edge/bucket side) and put a small kink in the bucket handle to hang the bucket slightly at an angle with the hole at the lowest point?

I know for my setup I would have to redo the feeder tray that hangs from the bucket but besides that issue so far I'm not seeing where there would be problems with it setup this way.

What do others think?

p.s. I'm thinking that the hole would have to be slightly away from the true side of the bucket so that the trigger doesn't get blocked/jammed by the side of the bucket.

 

[marktoo]

Marktoo, can you post pictures and details about how you built yours? That would be so great!

Here you go. This is the trigger, just some 3/16" threaded rod, couple of nuts, 3/8" wooden dowel & small plastic tab cut out of lid at the base of the dowel.

Canning funnel

Wooden plug with hole in it. I used a sandpaper wrapped dowel to make an indent for the trigger to ride in.



The hole size will vary depending on material size. The plastic tab wouldn't be needed if hole was right size. Drop in washers with various hole sizes would be the easiest. Although not pictured funnel sits tight against side of container.


Container just drops into bracket of wood & plumbers tape.

Of the two mounting positions pictured I prefer this, as it allows 360 degree access to peck at the trigger. Here it just sits on the transition between the coop & run