Chicken Chow: An Easy DIY Feeder Story

My daughter had always wanted chickens. Me, not so much. So imagine my excitement when she came home from school with a "free" chicken in her coat pocket. Thank you science lab.

We found a cardboard box for a temporary home, then went to North 40 Outfitters for supplies and advice. Not wanting birds didn't seem like a good enough reason to make one live a life of solitude and loneliness, so we bought a couple fowl friends.

I grabbed a chick from each bin. I'm the type of person that would much rather have a bouquet of wild flowers than a vase of roses. So began our small herd of birds, which I learned later is a "flock." We left with a feeder, waterer, heat lamp and chick feed.  If you'd rather order your chicken supplies online, and have them delivered to your door--here's what you need. 

As the chicks got bigger, it was time to move outside. I cleaned out a shed by relocating the Christmas supplies to the barn, donating old suitcases to second hand stores and giving away other treasures to family and friends in lieu of payment to help build a proper roost and nesting boxes.

The seasons rolled easily from one to another.  Winter became imminent, so back to North 40 for more advice and supplies. Winter came and went pretty easily. After all, you can do anything with the right equipment, and the right feed. I fed our chickens on a variety of foods, but the majority of what I fed, you can find online here.

Why not buy some more birds?

In the spring, back I went to check out the supply of "ohhhh sooo" cute baby chicks. This time I grabbed a couple chicks from each bin. Duck babies are super-duper cute. I got couple. (As an aside, two ducks can quickly become nine ducks).

Also I could raise a turkey for Thanksgiving (that turkey is now five years old and has a turkey friend of the same male persuasion so as to avoid the duck incident).

With 30 hens, two turkeys and duck (mom and babies found a new home at a ranch with a lake), I wanted a better way to feed a lot of birds and take up minimal space. North 40 did a lot of work with chicken feeds, and I watched and read everything I could. You can check out an interview exclusively about chicken feed here, but no matter what type of feed you choose, there still is the problem of administering said feed. And now I come to it:

I went online and searched for chicken feeders.  There are so many designs. It became overwhelming and intimidating. However, by this time I was a committed bird owner, so I picked a simple setup that I could make myself.

Armed with a picture and no instructions, I went to North 40 for advice and supplies.

The sales associate helped me pick out a 4" x 10' piece of tubing. Since it would be too tall for me to reach to fill it, he cut it in half giving me two 5' lengths. He then helped me get two 90 degree elbows and showed me how to put them together with PVC cement. He suggested a cap to keep rodents out and galvanized plumbers' tape to secure the feeder to the hen house wall.

My tube is about 5' and holds about a five gallon bucket of feed. All birds get along well with this new feeder.

Now that I have a good knowledge base and all the tools a chicken needs to flourish, they take a minimal amount of time each day for care. Which is lucky for me, as I have recently acquired two new pot belly pigs. I couldn't resist. After all, they were free