Raising all these meat chickens quickly used up our feeders and waterers... and those items are not cheap. Typically, a large waterer is about $60, and a feeder is similar.So... lets make some! We had pieces of plywood around from the construction of the Garden Shed - just the right sizes to so we didn't have to cut much.
A very basic design, with 2x4s and plywood. Leaving a 1.5" gap for food to come out into the bin. We didn't have any hinges for the top, so we constructed a simple "slide down and in" top to cover the openning.
Pretty straight-forward in the design and work. Took about 1 hour to setup and make the first one.Here is one happy guy - he's going to have much less feeding to do!
You can see, this first one is quite large.
We also took some black plastic and lined the inside - to help keep feed sliding down-n-out, and also to act as a moisture barrier from the ground.The birds love it, too! Notice how we stapled a piece of 2x4" wire mesh across the feeding area to keep the birds off the food. Works great!
We had plenty of materials, and setup was already done so we made a 2nd, smaller feeder - in case we raise more birds in the future.This second unit only took 20 minutes or so to assemble and screw together.
Total cost for both units was free - we had all the scrap laying around.
"Not cheap, just ingenuitive"
