Comments on: How to Make a Home Made Chicken Feeder

By: Minh

Minh — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:44:56 +0000

Excellent ideas. Thank you very much for sharing. Keep up the good work.

By: Ed Macose

Ed Macose — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:20:14 +0000

Good innovation. I will try it.
Thanks for sharing.

By: Peter Dilley

Peter Dilley — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:02:23 +0000

If the chickens are not able to reach the bottom of the container, cut out the hole lower in the barrel. Each breed will be slightly different in height, but I simply watch the flock on first use of the barrel and adjust the heigh accordingly. With the young 5 to 6 week old chicken, I simply left a few bricks near one entrance hole so it or any other chicken can step up and reach into the barrel further.

As far as keeping out native birds, I leave the food inside the coop area and the door open so any non-native invasive species can easily be caught inside and dealt with accordingly.

Cheers,
Peter

By: Darren (Green Change)

Darren (Green Change) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:37:09 +0000

Does this setup keep birds out of your chook feed, too?

I’ve got a real problem with Indian mynahs and bowerbirds eating all the feed. I estimate I’m going through about twice as much feed as I should be, supporting all these additional flocks of birds.

By: JBob

JBob — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:55:59 +0000

Can the chickens eat all the feed to the bottom of the container? If they can’t empty it out the food will eventually get moldy.

By: Peter Dilley

Peter Dilley — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:43:59 +0000

Off Topic: Mushrooms! Sounds interesting rob. I built mine out of a plastic storage bin as well. Used some duct couplings that clamped on the inside and stuck out the outside and were large enough to get my arms through. Then some heavy duty rubber gloves over the outside and pushed through and I had my glove box. Later on I added a frame, and HEPA filter for home heating systems but I didn’t get my seal super tight but it still worked for doing petri and jar work transferring and growing spores to petri plates to mycelium transfer to jars of grain. I may get back into building some mushroom equipment again over, but this time over here in Australia but expect it to be my next property.

Cheers,
Peter

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:41:57 +0000

Nice idea! Another way to make the holes without a saw kit is to heat up a tin coffee can on the stove for 5-10 minutes then, using tongs or some kind of hand protection, press the hot can against the plastic feeder to melt the holes. Be sure to do it outside or in a very well-ventilated room. This method works well; I’ve used it to make a simple glove box for mushroom cultivation out of a plastic storage bin.

By: Peter Dilley

Peter Dilley — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:52:30 +0000

It is high enough to keep out mice, I am unsure about rats. I have yet to see rats attempting to eat from the feeder.

Rough edges are in the first photo because it had just been cut with the hole saw. I was starting to file the edges but I found I could just pull the loose bits of plastic off with my fingers which ended up in a cleaner overall hole edge, so I finished all the holes by just pulling with my fingers.

By: pebble

pebble — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:43:40 +0000

Good idea. You can get food grade plastic containers for very little from recycle centres. They come out of the restaurant trade and have been used to storing things like vegetable oil. Some are buckets with lids that you could adapt to your plan, some are more like cannisters which would need more jigging as they don’t have a wide cap on top (you could fill with a funnel though).

Did you file off the edges of the holes? They look a bit rough in the first photo.

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:41:50 +0000

The water container also stops the chooks from fouling the water with faeces like they do with an open water container.