Show Me Your Feeders!!

[RonP]

I posted this on another thread:

2014 started off badly for me health wise, in and out of the hospital, sometimes for days straight.

Flock had enough supplies to last a week without maintenance, thought they would be fine, and they always were, except once, when I was confined for 9 days straight unexpectedly.

Had to have my daughter travel 2 hours just to feed my birds...

With all my down time, I came up with this idea for an extended indoor feeding station. I just built it this weekend.

Mind you, the flock spends their waking time, and eats, 90% outdoors, in an enclosed secure run.
I feed them fermented feed whenever possible...

I built this mostly for peace of mind, and as a backup.



Three stations, 3" PVC pipes with Y fitting. Concrete 16" paver block for nail and beak maintenance. It is sitting on 2 8" cinder blocks, I use deep litter.




Middle station is for feed. Picture shows the reserve, a 5 gallon reused water bottle with the funnel, a cutoff of another 5 gallon water bottle for extra reserve. It will easily hold 30+ pounds. It probably will last well over a month, if used exclusively. This reserve empties straight down into the middle feeder.



Above shows the 3 stations. Far left holds Grit, middle holds Feed, far right holds Crushed Oyster shells. Far left and right are capped. 2 foot pipe probably holds over a years supply of grit and oyster shell.



Another picture of the feed reserve, I'm pretty sure I put close to 40 pounds in there.
The reserve just sits in place, no nails or glue.
Everything can come apart easily if needed.

It's only been 2 days, but this seems to be working well

.

Just thought I would share in case someone else needed ideas.

 

[onafixedincome]

The ingenuity I see around here never ceases to amaze me! Never!

My flock of larger birds tends to really tear through the feed, although they're pretty diligent about cleaning up what they scatter, too. But the Seramas...oh, the Seramas! Looking for ways to provide feed that they CANNOT instantly scratch six inches of bedding into!! Some of the hens have remarkably good aim and because the feeders need to be low enough for young Serama, it gets very frustrating.

Ideas, please, I'm going NUTS here... (Ok, so I was nuts before but it sounds good, eh?)

 

[Settle4nuthin]

116 qt tub with lid $17.99, 6 elbows $3.49/ea. Zip ties to hold elbows in (I had on hand, but like $2.00 for a 50 pack). Holds around 100 pounds of layer crumble. Elbows are 1/2inch off the bottom of the tub on the inside to allow food to gravity feed. I had the bucket design that I made from this forum, but i got more chickens, needed something bigger

 

[CliffB]

Got tired of the birds pooping in their feeder tube and poop getting trapped behind the pvc so i made some new feeders today.

 

[Mahlzeit]

Some great looking feeders on here

 

[sumterflfreed]

Not much action on this thread anymore but I am proud if my "chick" feeder it would feed adult birds but you would have to fill it often. It's a flower pot that sits on a wall I think I'm not sure I found it in the shed and instant thought was gravity feeder. I just cut a |__| out of the front and folded it back and used a liter to plastic weld the angled piece glue would have worked but I didn't want to hold it until it dried. I then sealed any gaps with caulk. Going to test it tomorrow

 

[mammakugs]

I really really appreciate all the posts about the bucket feeder with the street elbow. I think by all the positive reviews on it that it will be the way I go. I am new to this whole chicken thing and would rather not go through 8 different styles till I figure out the right one. Thanks so much!!!

 

[RedheadinWA]

Ok newbie here!! I made the bucket feeder with street elbows. Used 2 elbows, I put the skinny side out so I can use PVC caps on them at night to keep out water from sprinkler system & mice.

My question is...of my 5 hens 2 have it all figured out & the other 3 no so much. I just placed it yesterday evening. Any suggestions or should I worry?

 

[CrazyChickLady7]

I am looking at these like wow they are so cool.....i could never do it

 

[Sunflowergirl]

Ok newbie here!! I made the bucket feeder with street elbows. Used 2 elbows, I put the skinny side out so I can use PVC caps on them at night to keep out water from sprinkler system & mice.

My question is...of my 5 hens 2 have it all figured out & the other 3 no so much. I just placed it yesterday evening. Any suggestions or should I worry?

RedheadinWA, how are your hens doing? Did you read back and see what some others were doing to try to get the chickens to use the feeders? I am just reading through this thread for ideas and saw your post! I know some people did a combination of the old feeder with the new until the chickens figured it out. Some, set out only new and then if saw had not eater, gave them feed in the evening. Some set feed or smeared peanut butter at the opening of the feeders to draw attention to that area.

I hope to be making some of these soon! Think I might do a bucket to have inside the coop and one of the rectangle tubs to set out in the run.

For those of you using the tubs, how is the feed distribution working for getting feed to all the pipe holes all the way across? I guess if a chicken does not find any feed in one hole, they will move to another?