SHOW ME, your diy feeders and waters

[cluckcluckhens]

My hubby made a chicken feeder made from wood last year. It's a lever feeder, chickens stand on the lever to get to the feed. Must keep it out of the rain in the winter if it rains other wise it will and not close when they step off the lever. This was made because we had lots of wild birds eating the chicken feed. This has stopped and we are not feeding the neighborhood wild birds any more. We had lots of the little tiny birds, sparrow and scrub jays, robins and such. Also had the squirrels doing the same thing, they were also making bedding out of our straw during late summer. No birds get to the feed now unless the lever is wet and gets stuck. Haven't seen any birds in awhile. Chickens used to throw the feed out of their other container so there is hardly any waste in this one.

 

[frogman]

Do your chickens "empty" the feeder by scratching it out?? I keep finding the entire PVC load on the ground - like they stand there and scratch the entire load onto the floor???

 

[alec120psi]

Can anyone give me a pointer for cleaning out my watered? Mine is mostly a permanent fixture and has an outi filler attached to it. What I think might need cleaning is the algae that grows on the bucket sides.

If the algae is not an issue I won't worry about it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[alec120psi]

Do your chickens "empty" the feeder by scratching it out??  I keep finding the entire PVC load on the ground - like they stand there and scratch the entire load onto the floor???

My chicks only do that when I was being nice and added scratch or other treats to their food. Won't do that again.

 

[cluckcluckhens]

Do your chickens "empty" the feeder by scratching it out?? I keep finding the entire PVC load on the ground - like they stand there and scratch the entire load onto the floor???

Not no more. We only give them the pellets. They will do this if we give them the crumbles. Ours used to do this regardless of what we fed them until we started using this feeder. We had a plastic and metal pan one for water and one for feed, they kept turning over the pan and scratching all of it out. It ended up all under the hen house as we found out. We have a new building for them now at about spending 3,000 to build. Food and water stays outside and I only give them enough for the day, we only have a small portions that goes under the feeder compared to all of it. Wasted lots of feed from the hens doing this but, the main reason we build the DIY feeder is the wild birds were eating their feed. As long as the step lever is down the birds only can get a little that is under the feeder. Scrub Jays and Robins showed up yesterday, and the little tweety birds, you might say lots of them eating the feed even in the summer. February of 2014 all the tweety birds were eating the feed when we had over a foot of snow that year, everything was frozen here!

They will scratch all of it out, ours did. Here is a suggestion! Can you put a piece of chicken wire in the PVC or around it that way only their beaks can eat the feed instead of pushing it out. If the chicken wire is small enough they will only be able to eat only! I like to know if this works for you. Others might have other suggestions too!

 

[cluckcluckhens]

Can anyone give me a pointer for cleaning out my watered? Mine is mostly a permanent fixture and has an outi filler attached to it. What I think might need cleaning is the algae that grows on the bucket sides.

If the algae is not an issue I won't worry about it.

Thanks in advance.

I don't use a fixture like that because of that reason. Ours use a plastic pan/container and I take it in the house to wash it out with soap and water and rinse it really well. Since yours is different than mine that is going to be hard to clean it. On another note, my kitties water container also gets that in their water bowl too. This seems to happen when it's warm inside the house, if it's cooler inside it doesn't do this. Is it warm where you are at? That might be the reason for the algae. You need to be able to clean it. They need clean fresh water all the time just like kitties and us!

Maybe do a search on the Internet and see if there is something you could add to the water to keep off the algae. Just a suggestion. Make sure it not going to harm them or make them sick.

 

[andrea2chicken]

I made this automatic poultry feeder from a 5-gallon round plastic pail. It engages my birds in pecking and grabbing in the catch-dish of the feeder and thus reduces boredom and aggression. The feeder keeps my feed secure and away from elements and mice as we can cover the pail by its lid and reduce the wastage of the feeds.

very cool that would come in handy here to keep other critters out of their feed while giving that forgING effect as well I guess. Fun fun for everyone

 

[cluckcluckhens]

That is a pretty cool one too! It sounds like their mad or upset that there is no feed in the feeder. I think this is soo cute.

 

[beautifulpirate]

Made our trigger chicken feeder and finished it just a couple days ago. Couldn't spend $40 on a trigger feeder so just used stuff we had lying around the house. It holds 25-30 pounds of organic crumbles. We have six chickens using it right now.

And our waterer is a fairly simple two verticle nipple system set up on a 5 gallon bucket. We will switch to horizontal eventually but this is all that could be found locally. It was very simple to make.

 

[Beakertheduck]

Those look great! I have a ton of buckets and left over PVC from when I built my house. I will definitely need to try this! I just don't want to spend $15+ each for a waterer and feeder.