Homemade Poultry Feeders

Poultry feeders can be made from recycled materials that are already in use or being stored somewhere around your house. Pie pans, buckets, scrap pieces of wood, tin or plastic can all be made into poultry feeders. It is only important that you understand how poultry feed and what kind of features are necessary to build into the feeder. Keeping the food away from the water is important to prevent rotting and mold, and making the feeder difficult for the chickens to get into keeps them from scratching and throwing the feed all over the yard.

  1. Wooden Poultry Feeders

    • Wooden feeders can be made by simply making a long, thin box with an open top. If the box is made wide enough, you can attach a pole or 1-by-1-inch board along the top of it to prevent the chickens from jumping into the box. Make the sides about 3-inches tall and set it 2 inches off of the ground to keep moisture or rain from getting into it. The box should be made long enough to accommodate one chicken per inch. This will ensure that each chicken gets enough feed.

    PVC Pipe Feeder

    • Using some 4--inch PVC pipe, an elbow and two end caps, make an L-shaped feeder with approximately 12 inches of pipe exposed on the bottom portion of the "L". Put the end caps onto each end. Cut a piece out of this bottom "L" with a lengthwise cut to form the feeding area. This feeder can be attached to a wall anywhere in the yard, preferably in an area that is protected from rain. Remove the top end cap to fill the feeder with chicken feed.

    Bucket or Barrel Poultry Feeders

    • Using an inverted bucket that is placed into a shallow dish has been the preferred method of feeding chickens for years. Cut a few large knotches in the top of the bucket to allow for the feed to flow through when inverted and set the tin on top of the bucket after it has been filled with feed. The shallow tin should be between 2 and 4 inches larger than the bucket to allow enough room for the chickens to get their heads into the tin when the bucket is sitting in it. Invert the entire feeder--bucket and tin--and allow the feed to flow out of the holes. Sit this on the ground and let the chickens feed.