How to Make a DIY Chicken Feeder

Making a DIY chicken feeder that is low waste from a five-gallon bucket and pvc pipe takes five minutes and saves you so many poultry related headaches. We tried many different store bought and home made versions over the years but this one is a clear winner.

There are plenty of five gallon bucket feeders and pvc pipe feeder plans you can find online. But good news, now you can combine those two things together into the last feeder you ever need.

The reason this feeder works is that chickens need to go in and get the food and they can’t scatter it, jump in it, poop in it, sleep in it or do all of the other terrible things they do with every other feeder.

Tools and materials needed for a DIY chicken feeder

• 4″ PVC 90 pipe elbow
• 4″ hole saw
• 5 gallon bucket (preferably with some store’s logo on it so you can remind your chickens of the importance of branding)
• Drill

Steps to make a DIY chicken feeder

You cut a hole guys. With a hole saw.

Okay, there are actually a few more steps. First you need to cut the female connecter end off of one half of the elbow. The bell end will stick out and the cut end will go inside the bucket.

You want to cut your hole so that there is at least 3″ between the inside end of the pipe and the bottom of the bucket. This is where the food that they will actually be able to get to is.

However the beauty of this design is that you can fill the rest of the five gallon bucket and the chickens can only access a small portion at a time.

Obviously the lid stays on when we are not filling it up to keep all of the following from happening.

It won’t get wet in the rain.
It won’t get scattered all over the coop or run.
It won’t get full of poop or wood chips.
It won’t call you names and hurt your feelings.

Really it’s pretty great.

It also matches our heated chicken waterer and that dirty bucket aesthetic is super important to us.

Drawbacks to this DIY chicken feeder

The feeder is the best we’ve ever had but it does have two drawbacks to be aware of. They are pretty easy to overcome but worth mentioning.

The pipe can get twisted so that it points to the side.

Sometimes chickens get frantic and twist the pipe and then end up not being able to get to food even though there is food in the feeder. It’s easy to just twist it back though. If you want a more permanent fix you can caulk the pipe in place and it should stay put.

Only one chicken can eat at a time.

Unless you have two very hungry and willing to share chickens, only one will use this feeder at a time. With our flock ranging anywhere between 5 to 15 birds we’ve found it just easier to add another feeder. It’s only a problem if the birds are starting to not allow one of the other chickens access, but again the solution is the same: add another feeder.