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Raising chickens is not very cheap for a poultry farmer. Most of the costs are related to the purchase of feed. To reduce its losses, you need to choose the right feeders. It is their design that determines how much grain the chicken will transfer. The best option is considered chicken feeder factory-made, but if you know how to do it, you can assemble it yourself.
Varieties of chicken feeders
Before you make chicken feeders with your own hands, you need to understand their varieties. This will help you decide which design you need.
Differences in materials
Chicken feeders are made of wood, metal or plastic. The choice of material depends on what kind of feed the structure is designed for. So, the difference in material:
- The most common are wooden structures. They are designed for feeding chickens dry food. Wood is a natural material, and it is best suited for grain, dry feed, and various mineral supplements.Advice! It is not advisable to use wooden feeders for raw food. Residues of food will stick in hard-to-reach areas of the structure. Over time, they will begin to rot, contaminating fresh food with pathogenic bacteria.
- Chickens must include mash in their diet. Plastic containers are ideal for wet food as they are easier to clean of food residues. Steel containers are also suitable for these purposes, but ferrous metal tends to rust from exposure to moisture, and stainless steel is very expensive.
- Metal is appropriate to use in the manufacture of grass bunkers. Usually a V-shaped structure is made with a blank back wall made of tin. The front side is covered with rods or mesh.
Properly selected material for the feeder helps preserve food, and, therefore, save it.
Difference in feeding method
The convenience of feeding the bird depends on how the food is supplied to the feeder. After all, it is much more convenient to pour feed to the chickens once a day than to run to the barn at short intervals.
According to the method of feeding feed, feeders are divided into the following types:
- The simplest tray model is more suitable for feeding young animals. The design is a regular container with sides that prevent food from spilling out. Most often, such feeders are given an elongated shape.
- Grooved models are equipped with a spinner or a removable demarcation grid. The internal part of the structure may have dividing partitions that form separate compartments for different feeds. Such feeders are usually placed outside cages for adult chickensso that they reach food only with their heads.
- Bunker-type models are very good in terms of maintenance. They are designed for pouring dry feed and grain.Typically, the size of the bunker is calculated on a daily supply of feed. The bottom of the structure is equipped with a tray into which food is poured from the hopper as the chickens eat it.
The photo shows a clear example of several types of chicken feeders. Automatic models are the same bunker feeders. They are simply called that because of the way they feed.
Differences in location in the poultry house
And the last way in which chicken feeders can differ is in their location. There are two types of structures used in a chicken coop or cage:
- The floor type is convenient due to its mobility. The container can be moved to any location in the chicken coop if necessary.
- The hanging type is fixed to the wall of the poultry house or cage. Such feeders are convenient in terms of stability. In any case, the chicken will not be able to knock over the food container.
Sometimes poultry farmers practice using both types of feeders simultaneously. The convenience of feeding chickens is determined experimentally, which depends on the breed of bird, age, as well as the characteristics of the room for keeping them.
What are the requirements for chicken feeders?
There are few requirements for chicken feeders, and all of them are aimed at economical use of feed and ease of maintenance. Let's take a look at three important points:
- The container for feeding chickens must have a protective device that allows rational use of feed. If a chicken has free access to food, it quickly scoops it up and throws it out of the container, plus droppings get into the food. All kinds of turntables, nets, sides, jumpers and other devices prevent the bird from carelessly handling the grain.
- A good feeder is one that is easy to maintain.The container needs to be filled with food every day; when it gets dirty, it is cleaned and even washed. The material of the feeder and its design should facilitate ease of maintenance. It’s good if the container is collapsible, easy to clean and light in weight.
- The volume of the container should be enough for at least one feeding of the livestock, and the dimensions are selected so that all chickens have free access to food. To calculate the length of the tray, a minimum of 10 cm is allocated for each adult chicken. 5 cm of space in the feeder is enough for chickens. In circular trays, each chicken is given 2.5 cm of free space.
Whatever the design of the feeders, there should be enough of them to feed all the chickens at the same time. If these conditions are not met, a strong bird will repel weak individuals from food.
Options for homemade chicken feeders
Now we will look at several common options for making a chicken feeder from materials lying around in almost every yard.
Vertical hopper made of PET bottles
The simplest version of a bunker made from plastic bottles is shown in the photo. For one design you will need one container with a volume of 1.5, 2 and 5 liters. The manufacturing procedure is as follows:
- A 1.5 liter bottle is used to make a feed bunker. To do this, cut off the bottom, and drill holes in a circle near the neck with a diameter of approximately 20 mm.
- The bottom of a two-liter bottle is cut off, leaving a side of about 10 cm on it. This will be the lid of the hopper.
- The bottom of a 5 liter bottle is also cut off, leaving a side about 15 cm high on it. We have a container into which the feed will be poured from the bunker. Now a hole is drilled in the center of the cut bottom, the diameter of which is equal to the size of the threaded neck of a 1.5 liter bottle. The exact same hole needs to be made in a piece of plywood.It is needed for the stability of the feeder.
- Now all the parts are put together. The bottom of a 5 liter container is placed on the neck of a 1.5 liter bottle, then a piece of plywood, and the whole thing is sealed with a cork. The feeder is ready.
We turn the structure over so that the cork of the 1.5 liter bottle is on the bottom. So, we have a vertical bunker. Pour the grains inside and cover the reconciliation with a lid from the bottom of a 2 liter bottle. Through the holes near the neck, the food is poured into a container made from the bottom of a 5 liter bottle.
Two feeder options from a 5 liter bottle
A simple version of homemade chicken feeders is shown in the photo from a 5 liter bottle. Near the bottom, holes of arbitrary diameter are cut in a circle with a knife so that the food can spill out. Place the bottle in any bowl of larger diameter. Using copper wire, place spacers by piercing the side walls of the bottle and bowl. Food is poured into the bottle through the neck using a watering can. It pours into the bowl through the holes made.
In the second design option, the bowl does not need to be used. Holes are cut 15 cm above the bottom of the bottle. The window is made so large that a chicken's head can fit in. The feed is poured through the neck, as in the previous design.
Hopper feeder for chickens
To make bunker feeder for chickens You will need plywood or sheet steel with your own hands. First, design drawings are drawn up. On a sheet of selected material, draw the front wall of the bunker measuring 40x50 cm, and the back wall measuring 40x40 cm.Additionally, two identical cone-shaped parts are drawn from which the side walls will be made. For the lid, draw a rectangle larger than the top of the hopper.
All parts are cut out with a jigsaw. The plywood bin is connected using hardware and slats. Steel fragments are welded using gas or electric welding. A gap is left at the bottom of the bunker for spilling feed. An oblong tray is attached to the same part. For easy filling of food, the lid is hinged.
The video shows the bunker model of the feeder:
Automatic feeder made of PVC pipe
Excellent DIY chicken feeders are made from PVC pipes used for sewer construction. The photo shows the horizontal and vertical version. In the first case, elbows are placed on both edges of a pipe with a diameter of 100–150 mm. The food will be poured here. Elongated windows are cut out in the side wall of the pipe through which the chickens will peck food. The structure is attached horizontally to the wall with clamps.
For a vertical feeder, PVC pipes are used to make a riser for filling grain. A tee and two elbows are put on the bottom. This design is designed for two chickens. For one individual, instead of a tee, you can immediately put an elbow on the pipe. In this case, you will have to assemble a whole battery of such feeders according to the number of heads.
In the video there is a feeder and drinking bowl for chickens:
Grass hopper
To make such a bunker you will need a welding machine and rods 6–8 mm thick. The photo shows an example of a grass feeder. To make it, a V-shaped hopper is welded from rods. In a barn, it is simply attached to the wall or first fixed on plywood or a sheet of tin, and then hooked to a permanent place. You can make a tray underneath the bunker to prevent fine grass from spilling onto the floor.
Conclusion
All self-made feeders are convenient to use, since food is supplied to them automatically. You can pour the grain in the morning while going to work, and add a new portion in the evening.
