How To: This Cheap & Simple Automatic Chicken Feeder Saves Us $10 Every Day!

Take that, starlings!

It’s been about a month since we nailed our automatic feeder setup. Instead of filling daily, it’s now a weekly chore. Even better, we’re saving $10 every day on lost feed. Starlings can be brutal, especially through the winter when there is a lack of food available in nature.

Through the years we tried several different standard commercial feeders, only to be disappointed and resort to making simple troughs. These worked and were easy to clean, but required filling daily and keeping under cover away from the elements. Eventually, the starlings acquired a taste for our special formula and began raiding every time we turned our backs. This got expensive! We had to do something, and searching led us to Drew and his DIY feeders. Grateful for his share, we purchased his plans and got to work.

Our gals are spoiled, and we found the 3" PVC ports were too much work for them... Consequently, their production dropped. With a few tweaks, we had the perfect feeders for our operation.

Materials

• A container.
  For the backyard flock, a 5 gallon bucket works great. We took Drew’s suggestion and used 20 gallon Brute trash cans for the farm. Each have a 100 pound capacity.
• 3 - 4" 45-Degree Spigot x Hub Street PVC Elbow
• Tape
  I used small squares of Flex Tape.

Tools

• Jig Saw
• Drill
• Sharpie
• Ruler
• Scissors

Construction

One of the best parts about these feeders are just how simple they are to build.

1. Measure 4" from the bottom of your container.
2. With your sharpie, make a circle from the 4" mark with the narrow end of your PVC elbow.
3. Drill a hole on the edge of the inside of the circle for your jigsaw blade.
4. Cut out the circle, staying on the inside edge of the circle (to keep things snug).
5. Cut the slugs leftover from making the circles in half.
6. Push the elbows into the holes, wider end on the outside, and the angle downward on the inside.
7. Tape the half cutout on the bottom of the opening of the PVC elbow (this is a guard to keep your chickens from making a mess).

Additional Considerations

There will be some feed at the bottom that your chooks can’t reach. I have three feeders, and when refilling I consolidate them into one on a rotation.

While these are remarkably weather-resistant, some feed around the seams of the elbows will absorb moisture and stick together. To prevent mold issues, when refilling I brush this debris off into the compost pile.

Initially, the guards that I made with the cutouts covered a third of the opening. It worked great until I switched to a smaller pelleted version of our ration, something about the different size had the girls pulling the feed out all over the place. Increasing the size of the guard has stopped the mess, without preventing access.

I’ve also put the feeders on top of bricks, the additional height seems more comfortable for them.

Basically, observe your flock and adjust accordingly. This is an incredibly flexible and affordable format to use on your farmstead. Have fun!