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Taking care of the household takes a lot of time and effort from the owner. Even if there are only chickens in the barn, they need to change the bedding, line the nests, and, most importantly, feed them on time. Using primitive feeders from a bowl or box is unprofitable, since most of the food is scattered on the floor and mixed with droppings. Store-bought bird feeding containers are expensive. In this situation, an automatic poultry farmer will come to the rescue. chicken feeder, which you can assemble yourself in a couple of hours.
Device of automatic feeders
Automatic feeders come in a wide variety of designs, but they all work on the same principle: feed is automatically added to the tray from the hopper as the chickens eat it. The advantage of such a device is that it constantly provides the bird with food, as long as it is present in the container. The bunker is very convenient because it can contain a large supply of feed. Let’s say that the daily food allowance will save the owner from visiting the chicken coop with broilers every 2–3 hours. Thanks to automatic feeding, the feed is dosed, and this is already a good saving.
Factory-made automatic feeders
Factory chicken feeders are available in a variety of modifications. Cheap options are offered to poultry farmers in the form of feed containers with trays or without a hopper. Expensive models already come with a timer, and a special mechanism is installed to scatter the feed. The cost of such automatic feeders starts from 6 thousand rubles. The installed timer automates the feeding process. The owner only needs to set the correct time and fill the bunker with food on time, and the automatic feeder will do the rest itself. Feeders are usually made of plastic or sheet metal with powder coating.
Cheap models with a tray and hopper are a ready-to-use design. The poultry farmer just needs to fill the container with food and make sure it doesn’t run out.
A very cheap automatic feeder is sold in only one tray. The poultry farmer needs to look for what to make the bunker from. Typically, such trays have a special mount designed for a glass jar or plastic bottle.
For expensive automatic feeders, additional installation of a barrel with a volume of at least 20 liters is required. The photo shows how such a structure is mounted on racks made of steel pipe. The mechanism itself is installed at the bottom of the barrel. It runs on regular batteries or a rechargeable battery. The timer is used to set the operating time of the mechanism for scattering grain. In the automation settings, even the amount of feed poured out is regulated.
The use of expensive automatic feeders is beneficial when keeping a large number of chickens.For small quantities of poultry, small, cheap products are suitable.
Primitive automatic feeder made from a bucket
Now we will look at how to make a primitive chicken feeder with your own hands with automatic feed supply. To make it you need any plastic container for a hopper and tray. For example, take a bucket with a capacity of 5–10 liters of water-based paint or putty. This will be a bunker. For the tray you need to find a bowl with a larger diameter than a bucket with a side height of about 15 cm.
The automatic feeder is manufactured using the following technology:
- Small windows are cut out at the bottom of the bucket with a sharp knife. They need to be made in a circle in increments of approximately 15 cm.
- The bucket is placed in a bowl and the two bottoms are tightened with a self-tapping screw or bolt. If you have good glue, you can simply glue the hopper to the tray.
That's the whole technology for making an automatic feeder. The bucket is filled to the top with dry food, covered with a lid and placed in the chicken coop. If desired, such a feeder can be hung at a small height from the floor. To do this, the rope is tied at one end to the handle of the bucket, and the other end is fixed with a bracket on the ceiling of the poultry house.
Hopper automatic feeders made of wood
Automatic feeders made from plastic buckets, bottles and other containers are good only for the first time. In the sun, plastic dries out, cracks, or such structures simply deteriorate from random mechanical influences. It is best to make a reliable bunker-type automatic feeder from wood.Any sheet material such as chipboard or multi-layer plywood is suitable for work.
Hopper automatic feeder without pedal
The simplest version of a wooden automatic feeder is a hopper with a lid, at the bottom of which there is a grain tray. The photo shows a drawing of such a design. Using it you can cut out fragments of the automatic feeder from sheet material.
The procedure for making an automatic feeder is as follows:
- The presented diagram already contains the sizes of all fragments. In this example, the length of the automatic feeder is 29 cm. Since one adult chicken should have 10–15 cm of food tray, this design is designed for 2–3 individuals. For a larger number of chickens, you can make several automatic feeders or calculate your own sizes.
- So, all the details from the diagram are transferred to sheet material. You should have two side shelves, a bottom, a lid, a side of the tray, a front and a back wall. The fragments are cut out with a jigsaw, after which all ends are cleaned of burrs with sandpaper.
- Along the edges of the parts where they will be connected, holes for hardware are made with a drill. Next, according to the drawing, all the parts are connected into a single whole. When assembling the automatic feeder hopper, you need to pay attention so that the front and rear walls are at an angle of 15O inside the structure.
- The top cover is made to open on hinges.
The finished automatic feeder is impregnated with an antiseptic. After the impregnation has dried, grain is poured into the bunker and the product is placed in the chicken coop.
Hopper automatic feeder with pedal
The next type of wooden automatic feeder consists of the same hopper with a tray, only we will automate this design with a pedal. The principle of operation of the mechanism is that the pedal will be pressed by the chickens. At this time, the tray lid is lifted through the rods. When the chicken is full, it moves away from the feeder. The pedal rises, and with it the lid closes the tray with food.
To make an automatic feeder with a pedal, the previous scheme is suitable. But there is no need to increase the size. For the mechanism to work, the chicken that enters the pedal must be heavier than the tray lid.
First you need to make a bunker feeder. We have already looked at it. But when drawing up the drawing you need to add two rectangles for the tray cover and pedal. The rods are made of six bars. Take the two longest pieces. They will hold the pedal. Two medium-length bars are prepared to fix the tray lid. And the last two shortest bars will be used to connect the long and medium blanks that form the lifting mechanism. The dimensions of all elements of the pedal mechanism are calculated individually according to the dimensions of the automatic feeder.
When the automatic feeder is ready, begin installing the pedal mechanism:
- Two medium-length bars are fixed with self-tapping screws to the tray lid. At the other end of the bars, 2 holes are drilled. The mechanism will be fixed using bolts. To do this, the outer holes located closer to the end of the bars are drilled with a larger diameter than the bolt itself. The same holes are also drilled in the side shelves of the automatic feeder hopper.Next, a bolted connection is made so that the bars move freely along the axis of the bolts and lift the cover.
- Using a similar method, fix the pedal with the longest bars. The same holes are drilled, only those into which the bolts will be inserted to connect to the hopper are placed at 1/5 of the length of the block.
- Two short bars connect the entire mechanism. On these blanks, holes are drilled along the edges. They already exist at the ends of long and medium bars. Now all that remains is to connect them with bolts only firmly, otherwise the lid will not rise when you press the pedal.
The functionality of the mechanism is checked by pressing the pedal. If the cover does not lift, the rigid connection bolts need to be tightened further.
Video of an automatic feeder:
Conclusion
As you can see, if you wish, you can make an automatic feeder yourself. This will save your home budget and arrange the chicken coop at your own discretion.
