There's a misconception that chickens attract mice and rats. Chickens don't - but their spilled feed does. Make a no spill chicken feeder with PVC pipe and a few connectors to reduce your risk of rats. And therefore the need to self medicate.
It's 7 o'clock, or close to it, on a warm summer morning. I'm still in bed, awake, but trying to fall back asleep again. Everything is quiet and motionless, with just the faintest sounds of the neighbourhood coming to life. A car door closing as someone gets ready to drive to work, sparrows chirping from a tree in the distance.
Just as the heaviness of sleep presses my body deeper into the bed, there is an earth shattering shriek that comes screaming out of the backyard.
Scream.
SCREAM
S C R E A M
Table of Contents
SCREAM
BUCKOCK!
I'm not sure if you speak chicken or not but loosely translated that means, "Hey! Stupid!". Chickens are quite ignorant. And pushy.
So I hop out of bed and pad down the stairs and out the back door to let the chickens out into their run for the day. My guess is they were bored and wanted to shake their tail feathers around a bit. You know. Have a little fun. Scratch at some straw, roll around in some dirt, maybe poop a little. A real party.
But when I got down to the coop I realized the chickens had no food. In their feeder. There was plenty thrown on the ground, but nothing left in their feeder.
That's because chickens are pigs.
My chickens have had this problem from day one. They THROW their food everywhere. They stick their pecky little beaks into the grain and just start flinging and chucking everything out of the feeder.
I used to give them organic grain but for some reason that particular food REALLY threw them into a food throwing frenzy. So I switched back to organic pellet chicken feed hoping it would slow down the daily food fights.
It did not. Exhibit "A".
This is a classic chicken feeder which I love based only and entirely on the look of it.
I even put a pan under their feeder to catch a lot of what they flung. Sometimes they'd eat out of that pan, but once it hit the floor of the coop they wanted nothing to do with their food. So it was a HUGE waste. I was having to go up to the feed store twice as often as I should have.
PLUS - rats. I don't want rats because I simply don't have enough time in my day to devote the hours of therapy I'd need to undergo if I got them. I didn't have any yet but with feed around like this I was likely to attract not only rats, but mice, raccoons, skunks, deer, swans, geese, birds, and possibly lawn bowlers. I don't know that lawn bowlers like chicken feed but I have heard they're a bit odd.
So I made myself a homemade PVC feeder. A girl needs her beauty rest and it wasn't going to happen until this food situation was figured out.
Basically I made a long tube that gets filled with feed. That runs to another small, upward facing tube. The angle and length of the feeding tube prevents the chickens from being able to partake in the food fling.
Wanna do it too? Here's how ...
Making a DIY Chicken Feeder
You can make this no spill feeder in no time at all with supplies from your local hardware store. You don't need to glue it or anything. Just put it together like Lego and within minutes you're done.
Materials
3' of 3" PVC pipe
1, "Y" connector
1 end cap
Putting it Together
- Cut a 26" - 27" length of PVC pipe.
- Cut the remaining pipe into a 6" and a 3" length
- Attach the long piece of pipe to one end of the "Y" connector and the 6" length of pipe to the opposite end.
- Attach the 3" piece of pipe to the portion of the "Y" connector that is sticking out at an angle.
- Add the cap to the very bottom of the feeder.
- Fill with feed.
How it Works
Gravity and the weight of the feed allow it to drop to the bottom of the feeder where the chickens peck at it from the opening.
It's big enough for them to feed from but not so big that they can whip their little heads around throwing feed everywhere.
This feeder forces the chickens to be civilized in their table manners.
If you keep your feeder outside you have to cap the top opening and the feeding tube opening so rain doesn't get in. If it does, the feed will go mouldy.
I keep one feeder outside the coop during the day and one inside. At night I bring the outside feeder into the coop to prevent raccoons and other critters from getting into it. One day when I'm at Home Depot, I'll remember to buy 2 extra caps for the outside feeder. I'll just put a cap on the top and one on the mouth of the feeder at night and leave it outside.
The caps will keep both rain and vermin out. Unless that vermin has hands and opposable thumbs. Like a leprechaun. If a leprechaun finds my feeder I'm shit outta luck.
(Second Update: To stop the feed from dropping down to the bottom of the feeder use this little hack I came up with last summer. Just add a mason jar sealer in between the bottom piece and the feeding tube. For years I used a flimsy yogurt container lid because ... well I have no idea why. Because I was stupid I guess.)
Making it Even Better
Remove the bottom 6" piece of pipe from the PVC elbow.
Just take the bottom piece of the tube off (the part that sits on the ground).
Find an old seal from a mason jar.
Put it on the top of tube. A standard (not wide mouth) sealer fits the top of a 3" plastic pipe PERFECTLY.
See?
Now just reassemble the feeder again.
Ready to roll. Or feed the chickens. And squirrels and chipmunks and birds ... and of course leprechauns.
I switched out this DIY feeder a few years ago with a treadle feeder. The chickens step on it and that opens up door to allow the chickens to feed. That means the feed is closed off entirely unless a chicken is stepping on it.
It's worked fantastic but something has figured out how to push itself into the flap, eat all the food and then exit. So I'll be dragging out my original DIY feeder today hoping that whatever figured out how to outsmart the treadle feeder won't figure out the PVC feeder.
At least not for a while. Not until I get some beauty rest.
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Michelle
Automatic Chicken Feeder
http://www.peckomatic.com/automatic-chicken-feeder.html
will
Very funny! I love your writing style.
Just got some chickens and thinking about a spill free feeder. Thanks for the simple diy info.
Roger
I made a PVC pipe feeder using 4" pipe, for our chickens. However, the feed will not move down the pipe. What did I do wrong?
Karen
Hi Roger. If you did everything like I said I can't imagine you did anything wrong. Don't forget you don't want the feed to come right out to the end of the tube sticking out. You want it in far enough so the chicken has to stick his/her head in there to get the feed. That's what prevents them from flinging it. ~ karen!
Carrie
My well mannered BEAUTIFUL Cochin just started flinging food out of their feeder. Allll the way to the bottom. Every last pellet. This occurred just as we introduced 6 Buff Orps and 6 RIR to the flock. Brat!
I have been racking my brain on how to fix this and came across your post. Thank you!! I am making 4 of these this weekend. 3 for outside under their awning and 1 for indoors for winter.
Great idea!
Karen
Thanks Carrie! It's amazing what chickens will do when new ones are introduced. I had a very gentle, timid, hen at the absolute bottom of the flock who became the meanest, most aggressive bird in the land when I introduced 2 new pullets. You'll like the new feeders, they work great. Just check them every so often for moisture if they're outside because if the feed gets wet and you don't notice it and get rid of it it can get mouldy. ~ karen!
ingrid
I have 7 quails get about 8 eggs per days so nice and cute I can use the feeder to only have to buy a smaller in diameter size pvc pipe right??
Martha
Hi,
Love the design but have a question. Is PVC a safe plastic for food for the chickens. I hear a lot about plastics leaching into the food/water causing cancer. Want my family and the chickens safe.
Martha
Megan
My husband and I made these today, and I wanted to pass on how we made it so the feed doesn't sink into the bottom: before assembling the 45* piece to the base pipe, we traces the pipe onto a piece of plywood and used a jigsaw to cut "biscuits" out. We then inserted the plywood wafers in between the base and the feeder piece. I'm sure this could be done with plastic or cardboard as well, but we used what we had on hand that seemed to be the sturdiest!
Karen
Thanks Megan. I've been using a yogurt lid cut to size, lol. I've been meaning to cut something sturdier and never get around to it! ~ karen
Corina Gilbert
Wow! this is so cool and interesting idea! My best friend lives in a farm and I am absolutely sure that this post will help her a lot with the chicken's food. I will send it to her. Thanks for sharing!
Karen
Thanks for sharing as well Corina! ~ karen!
Antonio
Antonio
Antonio
Star M Farm
About how much would you say making one of these feeders costs? Also, I have 11 chicks right now, about how many feeders do you think would be adequate?
Karen
Hi there! You know, I actually can't remember the cost. At all! I'm going to say probably $20 - $25. Now if you're making two, you might be able to do it a bit cheaper because you may be able to get a longer piece of pipe and cut it in two. That's usually the cheaper way to go. I think with 11 birds you'd be looking at 2 feeders. 3 max. Hope that helps. ~ karen!
ROYSFARM
Very nice! That's really wonderful and very helpful for preventing food wastage. But it's only suitable for a few number of birds. Because it's almost not possible to maintain such feeders in commercial farms. It's perfect for backyard poultry keepers. Thank you!
Mike Craghead
Hi Karen,
"...a reader (I can’t remember who exactly but I DO thank her) suggested I try this homemade PVC feeder..."
Just a guess, but I'm wondering if the reader in question may have referred you to this?
http://www.instructables.com/id/PVC-Chicken-Feeder/
It doesn't have much detail (because there isn't much to tell!), but I thought some of the comments I received might be helpful to your readers.
Cheers!
Mike
Karen
That's it! LOL. Holy crap, after all this time. :) Well I'm glad you're finally getting credit. I'll link to your Intractable and comments in the post right now. Thanks! ~ karen!
Erin
Hi Karen,
How many pounds of food does this feeder hold? I'm trying to figure out if I should size up.
Thank you!
Erin
Anna
Thanks for a wonderful idea. The nice folks at homedepot did all the cutting for me... 2 new feeders, easy peasy! I'm just getting my coop up and running - can't wait to get my girl and have then try this out!
Karen
Thanks for letting me know Anna! I love it when people take the time to tell me they've tried out things I've made. I just brought a new hen home today! She's beautiful and friendly. Love her already. :) ~ karen!
gabe
I made two of these feeders and they work great. However, I believe they have bloodied my roosters comb. There are no sharp edges but they are causing chafing of some sort. The top inside portion of the feeder looks like it was painted with a red paint brush. Any suggestions?
tom
PVC once cut tends to be a bit sharp. Did you sand down the edges? I went over the 3 inch extension a few times with 80 grade sand paper, and that produced a nice, soft, rounded edge that I was reasonably convinced wouldn't harm the chickens.
Karen
Hi Gabe! Sorry for not replying. I forgot until Tom here was nice enough to help you out! And he's right. Sand down the edges. If your roos have HUGE combs, one thing you might want to think of is seeing if you can go with 4". I have no idea if your hardware store would carry a 3 to 4" adapter but it may be worth looking into. And sand, sand, sand. ~ karen!
Gabe
Thank you for your reply! I had not sanded the edge because it was not a "cut" edge. It was the factory edge of the "y". My roo is a Bresse and has a very large comb. To solve the problem I added an extension and then cut out the top side of the feeding tube to make it more of a trough to accommodate his comb. I sanded the edges smooth and have had no more issues. Thank you for a cheap, easy, and wonderful feeder idea!
Karen
Phew. Glad it worked out! When a chicken's comb bleeds it's a mess! ~ karen
hipnosis
I tend not to create many remarks, but I
looked through some comments here The best chicken feeder
in the world. | The Art of Doing Stuff. I actually do have
2 questions for you if you do not mind. Is it
simply me or do some of these responses
appear like they are coming from brain dead individuals?
:-P And, if you are posting on additional online sites, I'd like to keep up with anything new you have
to post. Could you list of the complete urls of all your social
community pages like your linkedin profile, Facebook page or
twitter feed?
MK Mills
If this works by dimensions and certain heights, I'm confused about how it would work for really small chicken breeds like Silkies and Seramas? Also, I don't want the main upright to be 26", that's way to much for my group. Can I make that shorter?
Thanks,
Mary Kay
Kietha Fulton
I recently made your PVC feeder. I made mine in the same way, except instead of using a tee shirt, I used a 3" test cap. Also, used a 4" PVC ABOUT 6" LONG.I BURIED THE 4" IN THE GROUND TO THE TOP, THEN PLACED THE FEEDER INTO THAT. THAT WILL GIVE YOU A FREE STANDING FEEDER. ALSO, I USE A LARGE PLASTIC FUNNEL WITH THE TIP CUT OFF TO ACCOMMODATE THE FEED AND PUT MY FEED INTO THE TOP. I WOULD SUGGEST NOT PLACING THE TOP CAP ON TIGHT, THEY ARE HARD TO REMOVE. MY QUESTION IS " HOW DO YOU GET THE FEED TO THE OUTSIDE OUTLET (45 DEGREES, IT DOESN'T FLOW UP
OOPS didn't realize caps were on