Chicken raising is one of the productive and healthy ways that you can spend your free time. At the same time, it is yet another sustainable income project. This is because chickens keep us healthy by providing fresh eggs, and they are a source of proteins to the human body. Another essential function of chickens is to keep away insects from the compound as well as weed clearing.
One way of improving chickens’ productivity and their living conditions is by investing in improved methods of raising the chickens. As a farmer, you ought to incorporate the new ways of feeding the chickens by buying new devices that focus on maximizing the production capacity. However, this can be made possible by the use of DIY chicken feeders.
1. Tips For a DIY Chicken Feeder
If poultry is all you are after, you must ensure that you build your coop with all the crucial parts. Then you must learn how to make chicken feeders in the most inexpensive ways.
You should ensure your chicken eats enough food and balanced-diet daily. When feeding your chickens on vegetables, bugs, or scraps, you may just let them eat from the ground or opt to use a swallow pan dish. This cannot be ideal when giving them dry feeds. They require to have a chicken feeder, which will keep the meals dry and clean always.
Most farmers find good ways to feed their chickens without letting the feeds go to waste. Commercial feeders provide efficient services, but the problem is that they are costly. You are therefore left with the option of using the readily available materials to make your feeder.
If you intend to make your DIY chicken feeder, here are some of the best DIY chicken feeder ideas that will enable you to have an excellent DIY chicken feeder free of charge. This is because you will only use locally available materials, recycle the old ones, and use those deleted ones.
The commonly used homemade feeders are the PVC pipe feeders and the bucket feeders. Modified PVC pipes make up the PVC feeders. These pipes prevent the chickens from scratching out the feeds.
Consequently, bucket feeders are easy to make because buckets readily available. Hence, you will only need to buy a few parts for it to be complete. Buckets can hold enough food, and this saves you the energy of constantly refilling the food. Below are the DIY chicken feeders that you should use for keeping feeds.
2. How To Make a Chicken Feeder At Home
No-Spill DIY Feeder
No-spill DIY chicken feeder is the ideal PVC chicken feeder that will save you the agony of always going back to your coop many times to add feeds to your chicken. The materials you require are;
- Big PVC pipes
- Y shaped PVC connector
- Gum
Big PVC pipes are designed in that there is an opening that passes through the PVC Y connector. This is where your chicken will be obtaining feeds from—the gum helps hold the pipes together. To prevent rain and vermin, you will pour the chicken feeds through the top, and the chickens will get them at the connector opening.
Automatic Chicken Feeder
This is another cost-effective homemade feeder. Most of the materials you will use will be from your home, which includes
- Bucket
- 3- inch PVC
- Aluminum rivets
- Masking tape.
The process of developing an automatic chicken feeder is straightforward. You will drill holes in the bucket’s sides and fit the PVC to enable the chicken’s access grains.
Wooden DIY Chicken Feeder
With wood, you are good to make a simple DIY chicken feeder. All you need is enough cutting skills as well as assembling skills. Here, plywood is ideal due to its ability to resist bacteria and fungus.
3. The Simplest PVC DIY Chicken Feeder
This is the simplest and cost-effective that should not miss in your wish list. Materials you required include;
- A 90-degree elbow
- PVC pipes
With those few materials, you can easily make this chicken feeder. It has a “T” shape system that helps in feeding and watering chicken. Here are a few instructions that should guide you when making this DIY chicken feeder
Cut two long pieces of a 5’ pipe, on one of the side holes with the “T, ” Pour the PVC cement and fit the Elbows to the 3′ pipe. With the help of glue, fix the pipe with the “T” top hole. At this stage, you are set to go. You need to turn the cap upside down and cut four slots in the sides.
4. Bucket Feeder And DIY Chicken Feeder
This is another budget-friendly DIY chicken feeder. The idea is an excellent one to have. Materials you require include the following;
- A bucket
- Oil pan
- Screws
You will only drill holes on the sides of the bucket from the bottom level and insert it to form the upward down position.
5. The Best Two Systems
This is the idea that best suits you if you want an efficient and cost-effective homemade chicken feeder. Materials required include;
- A funnel
- PVC
This idea will cost you less because you only need to assemble a funnel correctly, and you are set to pour in your chicken feeds.
6. “L” Shape PVC DIY Chicken Feeder.
This is an easy to attach feeder. It fits your coop/chicken house perfectly with its two ends. One end is closed while the open-ended side is left open to make it easy when pouring feeds. This is, therefore, another plan that might not be costly. Ensure you have all the required materials set and you will never regret.
7. Less-Waste DIY Chicken Feeder
Nobody wants to see feeds go to waste after purchasing. This plan is best in combating wastage and can equally give you enough time to do other things instead of going back every time to refill the feeds. Materials needed include;
- A five-gallon bucket
- 90-degree PVC
- A gasket and other few tools.
The less chicken waste feeder can also help prevent the feeds from rain, and they are preferred because they can be easily cleaned. It is recommended that you use a bucket with a lid.
8. Treadle DIY Chicken Feeder
Unlike other chicken feeders made with aluminum and steel, the treadle DIY chicken feeder is made with wood. Hence, making it less expensive. This plan does not require complicated material, materials used here can be obtained cheaply from your home or farm. These are great for babies born just after processing into the chicken egg incubator operations and good to go.
The feeder does not allow any wastage of feeds, and it carries a lot of meals at once. Its top is cupboard-shaped, and it has a lid that connects it to the lower area of feeding. This design works best because food flows downwards from the top of the cupboard whenever the feeder runs less.
Materials you will be required to assemble are;
- Cedar wood board
- Plywood
- Bolts
- Sandpaper
- Woodscrews
This is an easy to build feeder once the plan is followed keenly.
9. Five-Gallon Bucket DIY Chicken Feeder
Another great but cost-effective DIY chicken feeder that you should make. The materials you will require are simple, and they include;
- 5-gallon bucket
- PVC elbow
- Cutting tools
The bucket holds feeds and has holes on its sides where the chickens access the food from. The design reduces food wastage of any kind and can carry a large amount of food at once, you don’t have to worry about constant refilling.
10. Trough Feeder Using Gutter
Trough feeder is ideal for you because it carries more than enough feeds, unlike other feeders. This is a PVC chicken feeder that is designed to service many chickens. Materials that you will require include;
- Vinyl gutters
- End-cap of gutters
- Cinder blocks
The open long feeder has two Vinyl gutters, which are placed at the top and bottom to allow chickens have easy access to the feeds at the same time. So, you dont need a bigger automatic chicken coop door for accessing this feeder.
11. Homemade Chick Feeder
This plan is meant to see you use an empty Cd container and make a homemade chicken feeder. Don’t just throw away that empty CD container in your backyard if you have this idea make use of it. It serves fewer chickens but is very easy to construct.
You are supposed to create a hole on the container side where the chickens can access the food from. It is completely free to make and will barely take you 10 minutes.
Conclusion
At times people tend to believe that the only chicken feeders that work efficiently should be expensive or purchased from the stores. Nevertheless, we have clearly seen how beautiful and cost-effective this homemade DIY chicken feeders are from the description above. Moreover, they are effective hence you should not spend a penny on what you can make yourself with the help of locally available materials.
Consequently, we can also say that it is important to feed your chickens on a balanced diet. Ensure you give them basic feeds that conform with their age and purpose. This will increase the chickens’ productivity levels. Go for these inexpensive feeders and your chickens will always get access to fresh feeds.