One of the largest costs in raising chickens is feed. Yes, our girls free range but the reality is that they still eat a good amount of purchased feed. In our coop just about half of the flocks daily feed is pushed out of the feeders and onto the ground where it lays untouched. We have struggled to find a feed (pellet, crumble, etc.) or feeder that reduces waste enough to satisfy us.
And so my husband built one.
We've been looking online at ideas for feeders that reduce waste and liked the idea of a built-in style that uses PVC elbows. Our hope was that instead of every two weeks shoveling feed out of the indoor coop into the outdoor coop to try and entice them to eat it, we would reduce that amount to half or less.
I am happy to report that we have been using this new feeder for just over a month and have had no waste. Zero. Nada. Isn't that fantastic??? And an extra bonus is that we only have to fill the feeder every 2 1/2 weeks or more!
Here's the details:
- the wood used was OSB only because that's what we had lying around and we wanted to use what we already had.
- 2-inch 45 degree PVC elbows for the actual feeding tubes and distanced apart to give the chickens plenty of room when eating
- a hinged top and hinged front section that both open so bags of feed can be dumped right into the feeder (it holds 2 full bags).
- a fold-out table for setting the feed bags on
- vent holes (lined with wire mesh) so the feed won't get moldy in our hot and humid summer (we will only fill it partially during the summer months)
This style feeder could certainly be made even larger but we opted not to because of our eventual smaller flock size.
Also, Jay turned 5-gallon buckets into waterers. These are everywhere on the internet and I want to tell you that yes, they really do work! The nicest thing is that ours (we have 3) only have to be cleaned and filled every 4-5 days. It will be GREAT in winter!
The girls tap-tap-tap away at the horizontal nipples to release water. Originally we switched out their outdoor waterers but have now replaced their indoor waterer too.