We started our first chicks with the typical feed setup: dry conventional feed in a basic plastic chick feeder. Within weeks, though, we knew the basic setup wasn’t ideal. We quickly switched to organic feed, and currently get our feed from Countryside Organics. In the near future we plan on making our own custom feed mixes from the bulk products Countryside sells.
Our next big change was fermenting our chicken feed, much like described on this blog. Fermenting chicken feed should make the nutrients in the feed more accessible, and we liked that it also ensured the chickens were getting hydrated as they ate. The challenges with fermented feed were that feeders aren’t made for wet feed, and as the weather warmed up the wetness of the feed attracted flies. We decided that for the warm months we would use dry feed. When it gets cooler and flies aren’t an issue, we will return to fermenting feed.
With the decision to use dry feed for now, we started making feeders that would be large enough to hold several days’ worth of feed. This would make both daily chores and going on vacation easier. There are many plans for pvc pipe feeders out there, and below you can see what we set up:
Hungry chickens using their new feeders
The tops screw off for easy refilling. The chickens reach in to eat, and a few chickens can eat from each feeder at a time. We setup chains and eyebolts to hold the pipes up. Overall the feeders were pretty easy to make, I think finding all the correct sizes of pvc pieces at the store was the most time-consuming part. Then it was cutting the pipe to length, and gluing everything together.
Another picture of the feeders in use.
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