Home-Built Chicken Feeder Holds 150 Pounds Of Feed

Home-Built Chicken Feeder Holds 150 Pounds Of Feed LIVESTOCK Feeding Equipment Caleb Howerton owner of Green Thicket Farm in Springfield Mo is always looking for ways to make farm chores more efficient When he had an upcoming vacation planned he decided to make a bulk chicken feeder for the farm’s flock of 100 laying hens to make chores easier on the farm sitter The finished feeder holds 150 lbs of feed enough for several days The materials Caleb used to build the feeder were all things he had handy in the farm scrap pile: an aluminum shelving unit corrugated barn tin and some 1 by 6 boards He disassembled the shelving unit and restructured it to create the main hopper Using the 1 by 6’s he made a base that was 6 in wider than the feed box to create a tray for the feed He added a 2-in lip onto the tray to prevent feed from spilling out onto the ground Next he took the uprights from the shelving unit and bent them into semi-circles and attached tin to the uprights with self-tapping screws to create a cover for the feed hopper The feed hopper was then screwed to the base Using a large hinge the cover was attached to the top of the box and two spring latches were attached to the front and the back of the cover – one latch is used to keep the feeder closed and the other latch is to keep the cover open when refilling or cleaning the feeder Finally Caleb drilled three 1-in holes into each side of the base to allow the feed to trickle out for the chickens Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Caleb Howerton Green Thicket Farm 1008 E Farm Rd 54 Springfield Mo 65803

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