Monday, February 20, 2012

Zero Waste Chicken Feeder

After years of messing around with poorly designed chicken feeders that are prone to waste feed, I've moved to a different home made model, and the results thus far have been terrific, my feeder has zero waste.

I've always suspected that the chicken feeder and waterers companies have mutual agreements between each to keep manufacturing shoddy products that waste feed and promote the purchase of more and more of the other. It's an interesting thought at least to a guy that can't even seem to keep his side burns trimmed straight.

The combination of this feeder and using pellets (instead of crumbles) has resulted in my feed bags lasting 30% longer. This design prevents waste by forcing the chicken to stick it's head back into the feeder 2-3 inches, and any twitches or sudden head tilts that typically send feed flying into the wasteland with a standard feeder is blocked by the walls on the deep feeder, and the feed flies back into the consumption area. With feed prices shooting up, preventing feed waste has become more important to me. Also, it gives me a reason to build something new, and this design is working better than I expected.

The feeder consists of a 3 feet long, 4 inch PVC pipe, a single reducer and 2 45 degree elbows. Stick it all together, it was just around 20 bucks total. The feeder will save me that 20 bucks spent in about the first 3 months of use, so it's a sound investment.

Capacity and food access is probably suited for around 6 birds, and since I typically have about 10 birds, I may build another one. The opening could be a double access with a pair of 45 degree adapaters if someone wanted to open it up a bit.





6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Hi, I had a conventional round chicken feeder but they wasted a lot of food. Yesterday I made one like yours just from a 65 mm pipe and two angles (about 65 deg).
    It is amazing. Thank you very much for the design. Regards Mike. Auckland. mfg6@accessdbdev.com

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  3. Congrats Mike, glad it worked out for you!

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  4. Where did you buy the 4" PVC? I just got back from Lowes and didn't find any. Thanks!

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  5. How is this feeder attached to the wall?

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  6. Thanks for sharing! How many chickens do you estimate can be feed with one set up? I have 5 pullets and I'm wondering if I need to install 2 of these to avoid fights.

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