Using what we have - part 2



We seem to have chickens everywhere at the moment! This has involved multiple pens and brooders as some are still too young to go in with the older age groups. Of course multiple groups means multiple drinkers and feeders.

The commercial drinkers and feeders are great, but after a while it can be expensive to buy them, particularly when you need quite a few of all different sizes to suit different aged chicks. I have tried just putting the feed into pans and dishes, but this way there is a lot of wastage.  The chicks stand in the feed and scratch it out into the bedding. I was going through a lot of feed this way, forever topping up the dishes.  That can be expensive too. I needed a better solution.

After searching around on the internet for a while I decided I would try and make my own. Well, I can tell you it was so easy and I am so pleased with the results! I now have much less food wastage, the chicks are happy and it cost me nothing to make.

I used an empty yoghurt container and cut four holes about 2cm square each around the sides at the bottom. The red arrows in the picture on the right are pointing to where the holes are. I then cut down a plastic container we had (about the size of an ice cream container) so that the sides were low enough for the chicks to eat from.  This was to be the base. I positioned the holes so that they empty out into the bigger corners of the base. The two are then held together with a screw which goes up through the base and into the bottom of the yoghurt container (it is inside so nothing can get hurt on it).  Fill it up, and you are ready to go.

Now to look around and see what I can find to make into bigger feeders.