Question about homemade elbow feeder

[WaveyCreekChickens]

I am looking at making one of these no-waste elbow feeders, but before I get to work, I have a few questions.
I currently feed my flock their layer feed mixed with liquid, so there is virtually no waste. I feed it twice a day, on 3 plates.
I know from the last winters that my chickens won’t eat the wet food as much in the winter. And then it freezes.
Last winter I left food out all day, so they all could eat, dominants and subordinates and each get enough. But..... lots and lots of waste.
I have 2 sets of chickens. One set of 5 and one set of 4. Within each set, there are (surprise surprise), those who peck and those who get pecked.
Now my questions.
Pictures of the elbow feeders always show just 3 or 4 holes. Are they meant for 3 or 4 chickens? Do you typically have several of these feeders? Or are they meant to take turns eating at them?
Are the elbow feeders meant to stay out all day or put out at meal times?
Thanks for your time.

 

[RojoMarz]

We had an elbow feeder. It had three elbows and 7 pullets took turns eating. The more dominant ones ate first, then the others would get their turn. Also, while there is less waste, mine still liked to pull some feed out onto the ground. But, several of the girls preferred to eat the ground food, while waiting for their turn.

We would leave the feeder out all day and put away at night. I no longer use the feeder though. The chipmunk and mice were getting into the feeder, thru the elbows. They would eat the feed and leave poop...We have switch to a Rat Proof treadle feeder. I like it so much better.

 

[WaveyCreekChickens]

We had an elbow feeder. It had three elbows and 7 pullets took turns eating. The more dominant ones ate first, then the others would get their turn. Also, while there is less waste, mine still liked to pull some feed out onto the ground. But, several of the girls preferred to eat the ground food, while waiting for their turn.

We would leave the feeder out all day and put away at night. I no longer use the feeder though. The chipmunk and mice were getting into the feeder, thru the elbows. They would eat the feed and leave poop...We have switch to a Rat Proof treadle feeder. I like it so much better.

Thanks for the reply!
How hard was it for the chickens to learn to use the treadle feeder?

 

[RojoMarz]

Thanks for the reply!
How hard was it for the chickens to learn to use the treadle feeder?

It really wasn't too bad. Probably the hardest part for them to get over was the noise it makes when shutting. To train them, I would put one on the treadle while I use the toe of my shoe to slightly help the door open. That also gave the pullet some time to eat w/o me worrying too much. After 15 or so, seconds, I'd take my foot off. The door would shut because she wouldn't have been standing on it properly. I'd then get a different one and repeat the process, until they all got some food. I then left them for a while...then went back and repeated process. As they got more comfortable with balancing on the treadle, I stopped helping to hold it open. I never propped open the door, as @Al Gerhart has said (and I agree) that doing so prolongs the learning time.

 

[neo71665]

The one I have for my hens has two 3 inch holes and 11 hens eat out of it. Since it stays out 24/7 they all have more than enough time to take turns. Heck I've seen 2 or 3 eating out of each hole at a time. One will grab a bit, back up, and repeat.

I have to have a 2nd one with one 4 inch hole for my rooster and even tho it's set up for him (about 2 inch too high for the girls) the hens will also stretch out and eat out of it. He always waits till his girls are done before he eats out of it.

Different stokes for different folks but I'm not a fan of metal anything in my coop. The humidity here makes everything rust, rusty parts don't move. Wooden parts soak up the water, swell up, and/or rot. I suggest trying everything and go with what you like. For me the no waste feeders were the best and last chance I'd take.

 

[tdstanley43]

I have the no waste elbow feeder and i feed 20 head from it they eat as they want all day and there's definitely minimal waste.It's a three hole feeder, that's about as many as you can get in a five gallon bucket. I also feed fruits and veggies but the feeder is consistent because i don't give extras daily. The chickens are smarter than you think, they figure it out pretty quickly mostly because they are so curious.

 

[WaveyCreekChickens]

Thanks @RojoMarz @neo71665 and @tdstanley43 !
We made a prototype this weekend with a piece of eavestrough elbow and tested it on the Brahmas. The elbow is bigger than the final version will be.
It was fun to watch them. They did a good job taking turns and cleaning the food off each other.

 

[K0k0shka]

Elbow feeders can really backfire depending on the design and the construction. I made one and will never do it again. It was from a popular thread that keeps circulating on BYC, even though lots of people in the comments say they wasted time and effort building it only to have their chickens bill the food out regardless. The problem is that in a lot of these elbow feeders, there is no lip or barrier of any kind to stop the chicken from raking food out with their beak. My chickens were raking a shocking amount out. The bend of the elbow on its own is not enough without additional modifications to either add more pipe going vertically down, or adding a lip at the opening. So, think about that before you put effort into building one. Instead of an elbow feeder, if you'll be building anyway, I recommend you build aart's no-waste funnel feeder instead - it's a very smart design, and it's truly waste-free (I made one and love it!) -

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-waste-free-funnel-bucket-feeder.67218/

 

[WaveyCreekChickens]

Thanks so much, @K0k0shka !!!
You probably saved me a lot of time and frustration!
I saw that very long thread about the elbow feeder, but I don’t have hours to read. Too busy with animals...
We will get everything for the bucket/funnel/pipe feeder instead!
Thanks again!

 

[K0k0shka]

Thanks so much, @K0k0shka !!!
You probably saved me a lot of time and frustration!
I saw that very long thread about the elbow feeder, but I don’t have hours to read. Too busy with animals...
We will get everything for the bucket/funnel/pipe feeder instead!
Thanks again!

I didn't read the whole thing either, and now regret that. So now I'm keeping an eye out for people asking about elbow feeders and sharing my experience, so they don't make the same mistake like me. I don't want to completely badmouth the elbow feeder - some people like it - but maybe they just have very polite chickens. All it takes is one determined messy chicken to show all the others how to rake everything out, and that's it. So it's a gamble, and I think it's not worth it.