Chicken Feeder Ideas
Chicken feeders come in many shapes and sizes, from automated feeding systems to simple troughs. Simple chicken feeders can be made out of common household items, usually for between $5 and $20. The size and complexity of a chicken feeder depends on three main factors: how much feed it needs to hold, how many chickens it needs to support, and how much labor you want to expend.
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Simple Troughs
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Simple troughs can be used to keep chickens feed in a single area. This helps you judge how much food the chickens have available to them and helps prevent over- or under-feeding. For a small group of chickens, a window flower box makes a nice feeder. It should be sunk in to the ground at least half way to prevent tipping. For larger groups of birds, either offer more troughs or use a bigger trough, like an old tool box or shallow plastic storage bin.
Wooden Automatic Feeders
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To construct an automatic feeder out of wood you will need a saw, hammer, nails and 1/2-inch thick wood. Create a tall slender box with a hinged top and no bottom. Be sure to leave a gap on one side of the bottom for the feed to escape from. Then create a shallow box, just wide enough for the tall box to fit in to and double the depth. Make this box with no top. Attach the two boxes so that the feed can be dumped in to the top of the slender box and spill in to the wider box below. This feeder will need to be attached to a wall or pole to prevent tipping. This feeder can be made as wide as needed to support many chickens.
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PVC Feeders
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Several types of feeders can be made from PVC. The easiest can be made by attaching a piece of PVC pipe to a wall and leaving a small gap between the end of the pipe and a swallow dish on the floor. Fill the pipe with feed, and it will fill the dish. Just be sure that the sides of the dish are higher than the edge of the PVC. You could also drill holes around the bottom edge of the PVC and attach a dish directly to the bottom of the pipe. The wider the PVC and dish, the more chickens it can support.
Buckets
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A chicken feeder can be made out of a 5-gallon bucket using the same principle as the PVC pipe feeder. Cut small holes around the bottom edge of a bucket and attach it to a shallow dish using common bolts. As long as the sides of the dish are higher than the tops of the holes, the feed should stay in the dish.
Wild Bird Feeders
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For a small group of chickens, consider purchasing a wild-bird feeder. Many wild-bird feeders can accommodate cracked corn and other chicken feed. Look for something that is not too fancy, as it might scare or confuse your chickens. Use one feeder or several depending on the number of chickens you need to feed.
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References
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