Coupled with some decent-sized nipple waterers (more than one, for redundancy), you could leave your chooks for many days with that kind of setup. Of course they'd probably be contentedly sitting on the eggs when you returned :-).

You guessed it! They actually turned one of our do it yourself kits into two bucket waterers for that very reason.

I went on the Tour de Coops here in Portland, OR recently. I saw a feeder like this for 3 chickens. Instead of the trough, the pipe was finished with an open-ended U-joint, just high enough for chickens to eat from. The other end had a removable cap for pouring in the feed.

Everett and Missy actually had one like that too, I believe. But they liked the trough approach because it let more chickens eat at once --- less chance for the flock leader to hog dinner.

Bladerunner, we use that U-shaped setup for our turkeys since their long necks can easily dip in there. As Anna said, I like the longer trough type of setup so several chickens can eat at once.

And thanks to the 5-gallon bucket automatic chicken waterers we put in with Anna and Marks' product, we can leave for weekend trips without having to worry about our spoiled little flock. They'll be mad at us when we return, but that's nothing some leftover cornbread won't take care of.

Ok we built a similar feeder to this but our's constantly jams up in the elbow and the feed won't flow down into the trough. I have a 5 gallon bucket that has the vertical pipe coming off of the bottom, then the 90 turn to the trough pipe. The bucket is full of feed and will last a week. However, the feed never flows past the elbow. I have to go and bump it to get the feed to slide over. I used 1 1/2 inch PVC. Maybe I should have gone much bigger. Any ideas where I went wrong?

Jessica --- Hmm, I'd guess that maybe your pipe is too small, but I'm not sure. I think that hardware stores often have gentler turns --- maybe try two 45 degree angles rather than one 90 degree one?

I have purchased 23 chickens i build a coop out of industrail cage, made coop 8 feet by 5 feet the bottom and sides all cage going put sideing on it before winter. also made run 25 feet by 90 feet completly netted. i noticed chicken poop in food and water. every day clean and feed. so i made a feeder thats poopless,rainless,and only feeds them the portion of food i whant to give them in a day,i made it out of pvc, took 4 inch about 36 inch long and drilled 12 2 inch holes down one side than same on other side 24 holes. then took 3 inch pvc and monted it on top of 4 inch pvc. than made an auger out of pvc and put inside 3 inch pvc than put dc motor on augar, then made a pvc shoot into 3 inch pvc to load feed on top of auger. timer turns motor on, auger moves feed down 3 inch pvc and fills 4 inch pvc with 23 2 inch holes once feed gets to the end of 3 inch pvc, the auger motor turns off by a photo eye. then motor does not come back on until next day. its a true automatied feeder. next going to do a watering system. (poopless)

Curious-what is the waste of food like? To clarify are they able to flick the grain out? We made a home made treadle feeder and like the look and that it is hard for them to poop into, but found that they can scoop a lot of the feed out. Before I try another option, just want to double check about the down side of it. What do you think can be improved upon? Thx so much.

How long can chickens be left on their own with this system? My family just got a cottage and I'm considering trying to convince them to keep chickens in the big crawlspace underneath (it's in Ontario so that's the only place that might stay warm enough in the winter). We're planning on going up there most weekends, maybe every weekend. We live in a city where chickens are banned else I'd try keep them at home. Is there any automatic chicken feeder that would work for longer periods of time? Are there any problems you've encountered with this system?