![]() Here are our choices of best automatic chicken feeder and why we recommend them.ġ. Let's get into the automatic feeders now so you can have happy chickens and save time in your daily chicken chores! Treadle feeders offer some thought on the chickens' part to access the food, and we will talk more about this kind of feeder below. Also, I look for ones that will keep rats and other rodents away from my coop, and if I can, I like to find ones that the chickens have to think about to get at for some enrichment. When it comes to automatic feeders, I personally look for ones that will keep the food fresh and dry. ![]() Here's what we look for in an automatic feeder This applies to most things in life I find. Saving daily time for you may cost more money, and spending more money can buy you time. So we will give you a few that we recommend at different price points, but keep in mind that you can pay for something with either time or money. Open feeders definitely won't keep the rodents at bay.Īs with anything, there is a price range when it comes to automation in the chicken coop. So, not only does an automatic chicken feeder save you time and energy, but it can also keep your chickens and feed safe and reduce waste from unwanted pests and possibly save you from having to search on Google for "how to get rats out of my chicken coop". Some automatic feeders even come equipped with additional features that can make your life as a chicken keeper even easier.įor instance, they can be designed in a way that prevents rodents like rats and mice from accessing the feed, which can be a major problem in traditional chicken feeders.įeeders with the rodent deterring feature keep your chickens safe and protects their feed from contamination, keeping it fresh for longer periods of time. They also ensure that your chickens always have access to fresh, clean food, without the risk of overfeeding or wastage. These ingenious devices make the process of feeding your chickens effortless, freeing up your time and reducing your work level. Today, we are going to talk specifically about the automatic chicken feeder options and share our top choices, depending on your needs. Other time savers include adding a timer to your light bulb in the darker winter months so you don't have to go out and turn lights on and off, but when it comes to the daily tasks, there are automatic chicken waterers (some are even heated for winter) as well as automatic chicken feeders. These include additions like an automatic chicken coop door that opens and closes with the sunrise and sunset (this saves me a TON of time). Luckily, there are some really amazing devices you can add to your chicken coop care to make it a little easier on you, as the chicken keeper! Or: run a long carriage bolt through the base cap (or plug), letting the end stick out and hit the ground, like the spike that sticks out of the bottom of a stand-up bass or cello.When it comes to taking care of your chickens, there are a few chores that take top priority, and those include feeding your chickens and making sure they have enough water. Easy to fix: just mount the feeder higher. Most of the plugs I see out there would work, but you'd be back to the height problem (if you're concerned about chicken ergonomics). Of course, it's best to use plastic or something else that can be thoroughly cleaned. It will take you more than 3 minutes to assemble, but it would be more efficient. Another way to go (and in response to some reader comments): if you add some kind of plug right at the bottom of the Y, the birds would be able to reach all the food. At first the bottom part connected to the "Y" was only three inches long and the birds didn't like that much, so we set it up on a brick and the chickens seemed to like the altitude better, so the final version uses a six-inch length of pipe to place the food where the chickens can easily reach it. We considered quite a few other variations, but they all had drawbacks mostly related to spillage and security. But I haven't seen the extra three-inch piece added to the Y connector: without that small extension the chickens managed to spill quite a lot of food, but that three-inch piece cut spillage to almost zero! We tried a 180-degree elbow with the edge cut off: the birds were able to eat just fine but they spilled quite a lot, and closing the pipe for waterproofing and rodent-proofing would have required additional engineering. There are lots of PVC chicken feeders out there, and several folks have gone with a design very similar to this one.
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