Do it Yourself Chicken Feeder

Chickens eat mostly grains and pellets, and should be fed every day. The easiest way to feed chickens is to scatter the food in the area where they commonly spend their time. They will peck at the food, and eat it as they search for it. This most commonly mimics the way that chickens eat in the wild. Making your own automatic chicken feeder can save you time and can feed your chickens while they are cooped up if you are away.

  1. Purchase a Feeder

    • Purchase a metal or plastic feeding trough from a pet or farm supply store. It should be the kind that has the feed dish inside of the chicken pen, and the drop-in section, where the feed is put, on the outside of the pen. This type of feeder is meant to be refilled each day, but you can turn it into an automatic feeder that the chickens can eat from for several days if you need to be away from your barnyard.

    Attach the Feeder Correctly and Add Feed

    • Attach the feeder correctly to the chicken pen. The feeder should be level with the ground on the inside of the pen. The inside portion should rest on the ground and should be accessible to the chickens. It should be far enough away from the water dispenser that it will not spread food into the water and so that chickens drinking water will be out of the way of those eating food. The outside portion of the feeder should be at ground level but will stick up a few inches to allow you to put feed in it. Take the top of the feeder, which usually closes after feed has been added, and use zip ties or bungie ties to hold it open, against the side of the cage itself. Fill the feeder full of food.

    Suspend the Feed Bag

    • Cut a hole in the bottom corner of your bag of chicken feed. Lift the bag so that it is sitting directly on top of the now open chicken feeder. The cut corner of the bag should be resting in the mound of feed already in the feeder. Tie or harness the bag at that level to the side of the chicken cage or coop, on the outside. Use bungie cords, rope or wire to secure the bag of feed. Make sure that the sliced open corner of the feed bag rests directly in the pile of feed. As the chickens eat feed from the other side, the pile of feed in the feeder will diminish. As the corner no longer rests on feed, feed will start to fall from it. Gravity will provide you with a homemade chicken feeder.