Homemade Corn Feeders for Deer

A corn feeder will reliably bring deer to your land.

A corn feeder is a simple tube containing corn that deer love to feed on. Placing one on your property is an effective way to attract herds of these graceful animals. Although the feeder itself is a cheap proposition, feed is not. A hungry herd can eat their way through a full feeder's worth of corn in one stop. If you are prepared to absorb these costs, though, there is no need to splash out on a store-bought feeder. With a few tools and some PVC pipe, you can build your own in no time.

Things You'll Need

• Saw
• Drill
• 3.5 feet of 4-inch diameter PVC pipe
• 4-inch diameter PVC male-female-female Y fitting
• 4-inch nail
• 2 4-inch diameter pipe caps
• PVC Primer
• PVC Glue
• 1/2 inch wood screws
• Sandpaper

Instructions

1. Sand the ends of the 4-inch pipe until they are smooth to the touch.

2. Fit a 3/8-inch drill bit onto your drill and drill a hole 4 inches down from one end of the 3.5-foot piece of 4-inch PVC. This will hang the feeder on a nail hammered into a tree.

3. Brush one end of the 3.5-foot piece of pipe with PVC primer and PVC glue, then fit the Y fitting onto it with the branch of the "Y" on the opposite side of the pipe from the small hole you drilled through it. You could also attach the fitting with 1/2 inch screws, as long as they don't protrude into the pipe itself where they could hurt the deer.

4. Cap the bottom of the Y fitting with a 4-inch PVC cap fitting. Once again, it can either be primed and glued in place or fixed with screws. The screws allow the feeder to be taken apart, but risk hurting the deer.

5. Hammer a 4-inch nail into a tree trunk, 5 feet off the ground. Leave 1 inch of nail protruding to hang the feeder from.

6. Fill the feeder up with whole corn, then close the top of it with a second 4-inch pipe cap, which does not need to be screwed or glued in place. Filling it on the ground is less work than hauling the sack of corn up to fill it once the feeder is in place.

7. Hang the feeder on the nail hammered into the tree using the small hole drilled into the back, then wait for the deer to arrive. They may come at night, so lights may be a wise addition to the area containing your feeder.

References

• Homemade Deer Feeder Plans