How to make a do-it-yourself chicken feeder and types of proper chicken feeders
Breeding chickens (even at home, even in a large farm) is very profitable, especially in modern times. This activity will have a positive impact on your budget, and will also help you eat healthy, high-quality, environmentally friendly products of your own production. However, it will not come without costs. Feed is one of the main expenses for raising chickens. They must somehow get to our chickens, so let’s think about how to make chicken feeders with our own hands. You can, of course, get by with an ordinary plate, but it will be very inconvenient: the chickens will climb into the plate with their paws, scatter everything that you poured on them.
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What are chicken feeders
It is not possible for ordinary people to buy an automatic feeder for chickens today, and even for many farmers today due to the high cost, budget options from China are also not an option – practically guaranteed breakdowns, to eliminate which you will have to send the package back to China, while not leaving the chickens hungry.
Feeders made of various materials are common – wood, plastic, iron. If you feed your chickens with grain, compound feed, look at the wooden options, and if you feed them with a wet mash, look at the metal ones. feeders divided into the following types:
- Bunker. It consists of a tray and a hopper. This option will allow you to save time, because it is quite convenient to use: you can pour feed in the morning and it will last the chickens for almost the whole day, and in some cases even longer.
- Tray. It is a tray with sides. Suitable, perhaps, for any small poultry.
- Zhelobkovaya. It is most appropriate if your chickens live in cages. The feeder is placed outside the cage.
How to make a feeder with your own hands
Plastic feeder
It is not difficult to make such a feeder. You will need a plastic bottle. It is desirable that she had a handle, and the walls were dense. Approximately 8 cm from the bottom, we make a hole, hang the feeder on the net by the notch on the handle.
Automatic feeder
It would seem, judging by the name, to make a product with automation is difficult, but in fact it is not, you can also do it yourself. The advantages of this option are obvious – the feed itself goes to the chickens in the tray when they have finished the previous portion.
In order to make such a wonderful feeder, we need a large plastic bucket with a handle and a seedling box. Regarding the bowl, its diameter should be approximately 15 centimeters larger than that of the bucket. At the bottom of the bucket we make holes, through them dry food enters the departments menagers. For reliability, we fix the components of our product with self-tapping screws, close the bark with a lid on top.
A do-it-yourself bunker feeder is usually mounted on the floor or hung at a level of about 20 centimeters from the floor of the chicken coop. It is usually made from sewer pipes. We need a PVC pipe with a diameter of 15-16 centimeters (you choose the length yourself, it doesn’t really matter), as well as a pair of plugs and a tee.
Two pieces of 20 and 10 centimeters long will need to be cut from the pipe. With the help of a tee, we connect a larger (20 cm) piece with a long piece of pipe, install a plug at the ends of the pipe and the piece. We mount a smaller piece of pipe to the branch of the tee; it will act as a feed tray in our design. We fall asleep food and fasten the long side to the wall of the chicken coop. If necessary, close the opening of the tray at night with a plug.
pipe feeder
Ideal if you keep not a few, but a whole population of chickens. Usually several such products are made at once and then connected to each other. The plastic pipe is cut into two parts, one of which must be 30 centimeters in size and connected with a plastic elbow. Holes of 7 cm are made in a smaller piece (it is convenient to cut them with a drill with a circular crown), these holes are very important, because through them the chickens will receive food. Both pipes are closed with plugs and mounted in the chicken coop.
wooden feeder
To begin with, we will make a drawing, where we will depict in detail the details of the future craft – the place where the food, rack, base and others will be poured. If a product size 40x30x30, then for the bottom and cover it is desirable to select the same pieces of material. It is worth marking up the material with special care, at this stage the price of an error is very high, if you do something wrong, you will have to do everything from the very beginning. We use a board for the base, plywood for the roof, and timber for the rack.
We mount the racks on the same line on the base, making a small indent. To fix the racks in the bars, we use self-tapping screws. Next, we strengthen the plywood roof on the racks. We either put the result of our work in the chicken coop on the floor, or attach it to the grid.
Two-story feeder
The main advantage of this design is that the chickens will not be able to climb up, which means they will not be able to trample or scatter food. In order to make a two-story feeder, you will need boards and bars for making a frame. Determine the length based on how many chickens you have on the farm. Approximately the lower tier should be made in the size of 26 centimeters wide and 25 in height. The end sides of the bottom need to be done 10 cm above the wall.
We cover the inner sides of the box with plywood, having previously made grooves for the damper. The upper part should resemble a trough, divided into two equal parts. The second floor is mounted on the ends of the lower one and secured with hinges. You should get windows from which the chickens will eat.
Bunker feeder for broilers
For such a feeder we need:
- corners for mounting
- 10 liter plastic canister
- nuts and screws
- insulating tape
- board or plywood 20 by 20 centimeters for the base
- a piece of sewer (10-15 centimeters in length) and plumbing (25-30 centimeters in length)
We mount a larger piece of pipe to the base using mounting angles and screws, we fasten the smaller one with screws to the larger one. A narrow pipe is cut from below, first with a longitudinal, then with a transverse cut. A thin pipe is installed inside a wide one, they are connected with screws. The bottom is cut off from the canister, then the canister is put on with a neck on a narrow pipe, the joint is wrapped with electrical tape. We make a hole closer to the top, we stretch the rope into it. We drive a nail into the wall and attach our finished feeder to it, which will provide it with additional stability.
So, we found out that making a chicken feeder with your own hands is quite easy. In addition, you are free to choose materials. On many materials, you can save a lot without sacrificing quality. Having made a good feeder, you can also save a lot on feed.