Warning! Chickens died in pvc feeder!

[DaveOmak]

Thanks for the pictures.... There must have been some pushing and shoving, in the food line, for that terrible situation to happen...

 

[6of6chicks]

Thanks for the pictures.... There must have been some pushing and shoving, in the food line, for that terrible situation to happen...

Or one accidently fell in and panicked when it couldn't turn around...another came to investigate and see what all the noise/fuss was about...ended up getting stuck as well. PVC is slick, so I imagine once they're in there's no way to get traction to get back out.

Poor little babes. I was thinking of trying out meat birds with this feeder - definitely won't be doing that now. Thank you for the warning!!

 

[klantes]

I am so, so sorry for your loss - I've lost a few of my own and it's devastating. Thank you for alerting everyone to this possibility - I've been seeing a lot of articles about pvc feeders and waterers and was thinking of putting some in. I'm like you; I would never in a million years think something like that could happen.

 

[lm84]

We are either going to put hardware cloth, some type of funnel piece or something in there to block anything from crawling in but that will allow the food to flow freely.

 

[lm84]

Thanks everyone. I do believe that one probably perched on the end to get to the food on the bottom and another probably pushed it's way in, causing the first one to slip and get stuck and the second one probably just followed. I still love the feeder (with some safety modifications) because it really makes it easier to keep and feed the chickens when you don't have to refill as often. I just want everyone to know there are dangers that weren't obvious to me or probably anyone else using these.

 

[VinFin]

Don't blame yourself. Have discovered chickens can get in fixes I didn't consider beforehand. When this occurs, I count it as lesson learned and to be remembered. Been learning about chickens for 50 plus years and still can't predict every danger. Have 41 eggs due tomorrow and hearing peeps. If I could, would send you two of flock I hope will hatch which could not happen, even though I've done everything right in my estimate. Possible after all these years to overlook something I never thought of. Keep on truckin'. Peace.

 

[VinFin]

Don't blame yourself. Have discovered chickens can get in fixes I didn't consider beforehand. When this occurs, I count it as lesson learned and to be remembered. Been learning about chickens for 50 plus years and still can't predict every danger. Have 41 eggs due tomorrow and hearing peeps. If I could, would send you two of flock I hope will hatch which could not happen, even though I've done everything right in my estimate. Possible after all these years to overlook something I never thought of. Keep on truckin'. Peace.

Imagine. John Lennon.

 

[DrRocco]

I'm sorry you lost a couple birds. That's certainly not anything anyone would want. I've only had chickens for a few weeks and don't have much personal experience from which to draw. That being said, when determining which style of feeder would work best for my needs, I ruled out the PVC feeders because I was worried something like this might happen. I built a feeder similar to those shown in the links posted below and I couldn't be happier with it. The girls are not a bit hesitant to feed from it, it has a large storage capacity, and a bird can't crawl inside after more food when it runs low.

 

[birdlady79]

I'm so sorry that happend to your chickens!! It's so hard when you loose them.... We copied off of someone on BYC and built ours like this..... It's done great!! Just a option if you still want to use PVC... I also used the part we cut off, cut it in half and use it as a trough feeder for mash.....

 

[DLCShark]

I've been looking into the PVC method but 3" to 4" PVC is too expensive. Back to the drawing board.