Ensuring that your chickens have quality and accessible feed is important. By their nature, chickens are often hungry and constantly search for food. Whether you give them feed or not they will always scratch the ground and roam around your yard or coop to find anything they can swallow. In so doing, they are always at risk of contracting diseases. Thus it is important to provide adequate chicken feeders to your birds. This article will guide you into selecting the best chicken feeder.
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When it comes to chicken feeders, there are several suppliers on Amazon. It becomes challenging to select the best chicken feeder, especially when you have no experience. We have solved this problem for you. Go through this poultry chicken feeder buying guide, and select the best chicken feeder that suits your requirements and preferences. After reading this guide, you will know the best chicken feeder for your poultry, and the most affordable budget chicken feeders.
Table of Contents
Best Chicken Feeder Comparison Chart
| Best Chicken Feeder | Best Automatic Chicken Feeder | Best Budget Chicken Feeder | Best Chick Feeder |
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| 20 POUNDS CHICKEN FEEDER | GRANDPA’S FEEDERS AUTOMATIC CHICKEN FEEDER | HARRIS FARMS PLASTIC HANGING POULTRY FEEDER | LITTLE GIANT BABY CHICK FEEDER |
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| MILLER 9112 12LB. GALVANIZED HANGING POULTRY FEEDER | HARRIS FARMS HANGING POULTRY FEEDER | ROYAL ROOSTER CHICKEN FEEDER |
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| WARE MANUFACTURING LITTLE RED HEN FEEDER | HANGING POULTRY & GAMEBIRD FEEDER | RAINPROOF OUTDOOR METALLIC CHICKEN FEEDER |
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Reviews of The Best Chicken Feeders
1. 20 Pounds Chicken Feeder
Review
If you are worried about preventing wastage of your chicken feed, this is the best chicken feeder you can get for your poultry. Its dimension are 10 X 14 X 10 inches. With a holding capacity of 20lb, the feeder has an ingenious design featuring 2 feeding ports meant to minimize feed loss. Your birds will access the feed inside the container through the ports. In all, the feeder caters for 6 birds at once, you will need more of these if you have a bigger flock.
With this chicken feeder you do not need to worry about where to place it as the design is well suited for the feeder to be placed inside the coop or in the middle of your yard. This is a budget type of a feeder designed for a zero feed loss by ensuring that feed is always enclosed inside the bucket. With this design you don`t even have to worry about rodents or the possibility that the feed will be spoiled by your chickens. We give this chicken feeder a rating of 4.6 out of 5. This is the best chicken feeder for 2020.
2. Grandpa’s Feeders Automatic Chicken Feeder
Review
This is an automated chicken feeder with a holding capacity of 20lbs which feeds at most 6 birds for 10 days. Its dimensions are 17 X 15 X 12 inches. If you constantly travel this is the sure feeder to buy because when your birds are not feeding, your precious feed is always nicely closed up inside the feeder. Worrying about rodents and pests spoiling your feed will be a thing of the past with this feeder. This feeder is designed to feed chickens on demand and your birds need at most 2 weeks to learn how to open the feeder when they are hungry.
The whole unit uses a gravity feeding mechanism and the top part of the feeder is covered with an anti-flick grill to ensure that your birds are prevented from flicking the feed out. The feeder tray has side guards to make sure that all birds feed whilst on the same side and all standing on the stepping plate. You are guaranteed that no chicken will have its heads stuck under the feeder lid. Chickens being chickens, they have a tendency of standing on top of the feeder and spoil the feed with their droppings on rare occasions. Made of galvanized steel, the model is built to last while protecting your precious feed safe from such things as rodents and other pests. We give this chicken feeder a rating of 4.4 out of 5. This is the best automatic chicken feeder.
3. Harris Farms Plastic Hanging Poultry Feeder
Review
This feeder is made of high quality plastic which makes the whole unit simple and easy to carry. It has a carrying capacity of 10lb which is enough to perfectly feed 10-25 birds. The chicken feeder has a simple twist lock functionality for easy assembling especially when refilling your feed or when you are washing it. This feeder is easy to keep clean because of the plastic material used to make it. Refilling your feeder has never been any simple with this feeder, the top is open for fast filling. The plastic is translucent which makes it easy to monitor your feed level and know when it’s time to refill. With this feeder problems of rust are also minimal so you are guaranteed of a longer life span of the feeder. The design is such that it can be perfectly hanged to avoid feed messing and flickering. However, the bottom tray has a tendency of falling off such that it needs careful handling when lifting the feeder whilst it contains feed inside. We give this chicken feeder a rating of 4.6 out of 5. This is the best budget chicken feeder. It’s cheap and highly rated.
4. Little Giant Baby Chick Feeder
Review
This is a well suited feeder for chicks as a low maintenance and low cost solution for feeding chicks. Its dimensions are 6 X 6 X 2.5 inches. The chicks feeder is made up of heavy gauge galvanize steel and has a rounded embossed edge to reduce chafing and chance of injury. It has 8 feeding holes that allow multiple chicks to feed at once and your chicks can feed off it for days without needing to refill. The good thing about this feeder is that it has a screw on top which allows for a jar to be fitted on top to make a gravity feeder. We give this chicken feeder a rating of 4.3 out of 5. This is the best chick feeder.
5. Miller 9112 12lb. Galvanized Hanging Poultry Feeder
Review
This is an easy to use 12lb feeder with the capacity to feed up to 12 birds for 12 days. Its dimensions are 12 X 10.1 X 12 inches. The design has a feeding trough crafted to minimize feed loss and spoilage when your birds are feeding. It also allows for easy feed access for both young chicks and fully-grown birds. Monitoring is recommended so as to ensure that feed evenly flows into the feeding trough. This moderately priced feeder uses gravity feeding mechanism which ensures that feed is always trickling down to the feeding trough as your birds are feeding.
There are occasions were birds stand on the uprising cylinder to access feed from the top and they end up spoiling the feed by their droppings. However, the feeder is made of galvanized steel and the edges are perfectly embossed to guard against birds getting cut. The feeder comes with no lid to cover the top and it is highly recommended that you hang it high enough to keep rodents away. This feeder is a perfect bargain for anyone with a small flock usually kept in coops. It’s among the best chicken feeders on the market. We give this chicken feeder a rating of 4.3 out of 5.
6. Harris Farms Hanging Poultry Feeder
Review
This 15lb adjustable chicken feeder is the best deal for anyone with a flock ranging between 15-30 birds. Its dimensions are 11.6 X 11.6 X 11 inches. Fitted with a 3 point height adjustment utility, this feeder allows you to adjust and control how much food comes out into the feeding trough. With this affordable feeder you are assured of the best way of managing your feed. Some birds tend have their beaks stuck in these adjustment holes hence it is encouraged that you cover these adjustment holes. The feeding trough is perfectly embossed so as to prevent feed loss when your birds are feeding. The top of the feeder also comes with no cover which exposes your feed to dirt, you can thus use a makeshift lid to cover the top and prevent dirt from getting into the feed. I find this feeder easy to use. When refilling, feed is poured at the top. We give this chicken feeder a rating of 4.4 out of 5. It’s one of the best poultry feeders.
7. Royal Rooster Chicken Feeder
Review
If you want a rust free feeder, the royal rooster chicken feeder and drinker is perhaps the best equipment you can get for your coop. This feeder is made from durable PVC and ABS plastic which makes it quite light to carry and there are no fears of it getting rusty in the long run. Its dimensions are 9 X 10 X 20 inches. This high end chicken feeder is designed with unique divisions that discourage chickens from swiping the feed on to the ground. Each unit of the set measures 20 inches tall, 5 inches wide and 5 inches deep and the feeder holds 6.5lbs of feed.
This feeder comes with a drinker which holds up to 1 gal. of water and in total these quantities are sufficient to cater for a flock of 6 birds up to a week. The drinker is valve operated and activates when the chickens drink and this ensures that the rest of the water is kept clean and fresh. However, you might want to constantly check on the quality of your water which might need to be changed to ensure that your birds are fed with fresh water. What I liked the most is that this unit is designed with a feeder tray and rain cover which keeps feed protected from spoilage and loss due to weather and pests. To use the feeder you have to mount it on the walls of your coop at a height conducive for your flock. Mounting it on your coop`s walls makes the feeder out of reach for rodents which might waste chicken feed. This is one of the best chicken feeders. We give this chicken feeder a rating of 4.1 out of 5.
8. Ware Manufacturing Little Red Hen Feeder
Reviews
This chicken feeder is an all-weather feeder with a carrying capacity of 2.5lbs which is enough to cater for a few birds. Its dimensions are 3 X 1 X 2 inches. It has a rain shield meant to keep feed dry during rainy seasons especially when you place your poultry feeder in the open. The rain shield can be a bit flimsy such that water can pass through especially when there are heavy rains. The poultry feeder is also fitted with collapsible legs in the event that you want to feed younger chicks. The whole unit is light and easy to carry but this proves to be a disadvantage when your birds get older as they tend to tip it off. This might need constant monitoring such that you will constantly have to set it up nicely all the time. We give this chicken feeder a rating of 3.9 out of 5.
9. Hanging Poultry & Gamebird Feeder
Reviews
This 30lbs chicken feeder comes with a 14” feeder pan well suited for both poultry and game bird feeding. This feeder has the perfect carrying capacity which should last close to 1 week feeding a flock of 12 birds. Its dimensions are 6 X 6 X 2.5 inches. The feeder pan is designed in minimize feed loss due to spillage. You will need to hang it high enough for your birds yet beyond the access of rodents which can end up spoiling your feed. The feeder is made of durable galvanized metal to reduce risk of rusting. It has perfectly embossed edges to guard against birds getting cut. The whole unit can be a little heavy to carry but I can assure that this is a worthy purchase. We give this chicken feeder a rating of 4.4 out of 5. It’s one of the best chicken feeders.
10. Rainproof Outdoor Metallic Chicken Feeder
Review
This 25lb chicken feeder is designed to suite outdoor use and is weather proof. Its dimensions are 9.5 X 12 X 20 inches. This is the best poultry feeder to use during the rainy seasons because its metal body makes it water proof. It has a large storage capacity to store enough to feed four birds in one go with the feed lasting up to 1 week. The unit is designed with an anti flick grill to ensure that your feed will not be spilled over by your birds. It is also easy to set up with options to either mount it on the wall or put it on a stand. You will have no difficulties in training your chickens to find their feed in the new feeder, just place the feeder where your birds can see it and in less than a week they would have figured out how to use it. It is thus advised that you inspect the whole unit first before setting it up in the open. This feeder is among the best poultry feeders on the market. We give this chicken feeder a rating of 4.3 out of 5.
The best budget Chicken Feeder
The best budget chicken feeder is the HARRIS FARMS PLASTIC HANGING POULTRY FEEDER. Despite its being one of cheapest chicken feeder, it is also highly rated amongst consumers.
Overall Best Chicken Feeder FOR 2020
From out list we have picked the 20 POUNDS CHICKEN FEEDER as the best chicken feeder for 2020. This is a budget type of a feeder designed for zero feed loss by ensuring that feed is always enclosed inside. With this design you don`t even have to worry about rodents or the possibility that the feed will be spoiled by your chickens. It also has a large feed storage capacity. Your feed will be always protected from rain.
What is a Chicken Feeder?
A chicken feeder is a container or storage space which contains chickens, from where the chickens feed from. By their nature chickens love to eat and would really care less where they find their feed. Some would freely roam around scratching for whatever they can get their beaks and often times they end up consuming bacteria and contract diseases in the process. Thus why t is important to find the best chicken feeder for your poultry.
A chicken feeder, therefore, comes in as that equipment used to provide feed to chickens in a controlled and easy to monitor way. Chicken feeders also play the role of safeguarding chicken feed from wastage. If we were to heap our feed without the use of chicken feeders, chickens would have the feed scattered everywhere in the process wasting and contaminating a lot of feed. The issue of rodents feasting on your precious feed also makes the need for chicken feeders quite apparent. Hence, chicken feeders become important in as far as there is the need to preserve chicken feed.
Types of poultry feeders
Chicken feeders come in different shapes and sizes designed to tackle specific problems encountered in feeding chickens. The types of chicken feeders can be categorized as follows: gravity feeders, automated feeders, free range feeders, pest proof feeders and chick feeders. Put simply, the type of a feeder is largely related to how it is used and each has its advantages and disadvantages.
Gravity feeders
These feeders usually take advantage of the force of gravity in distributing the feed into the feeding trough. These can be placed in such a way that the feed is poured from the top and chickens feed from the bottom feeding tray. These poultry feeders sometimes pose a challenge of keeping the bottom tray perfectly attached to the main unit. Some gravity feeders have the bottom tray attached the whole unit by the use of clippers and continued use may loosen the grip of these clippers. With these chicken feeders, there is a need to constantly check if the feed is easily trickling down to the bottom tray so as to replace the portions removed while chickens are feeding. Gravity poultry feeders usually come with a handle which allows one to either suspend them in air or place them nicely in such a way that the feed is poured from the top and accessed by chickens from the bottom. The major setback with these types of chicken feeders is that they usually come with no lid to cover the top inlet area and often times chickens always want to stand on the edges of the uprising part and usually spoil the feed with their pooh. Gravity feeders are among the best chicken feeders.
Automated Chicken Feeders
Usually designed to provide chicken feed on demand and prevent such things as feed spillage and loss due to rodents finding their way into the feed while chickens are not feeding. These poultry feeders are slightly technical both in assembling them and in their use. Some require that chickens be trained to use them and this might take some time before your birds can fully understand how to use these feeders. Automated chicken feeders work well in environments where there is minimal supervision and the poultry owner can rest assured that feeding the chickens is already catered for by a simple set up process. Automated poultry feeders are also called on demand feeders in that the design is such that when the chickens are not eating, the unit will be closed. Most of these feeders are heavy to the point that there are few to none cases of birds tripping the unit and spilling your precious feed. Automated feeders are one of the best chicken feeders available.
Free range poultry feeders
These poultry feeders can best be described as troughs and usually accommodate both big and small chickens. These can either be made of plastic or metal and their design is simply to provide easy access to your birds. This feeder type is less complicated in setting up but will not completely protect your chicken feed. These feeder types expose chicken feed to rodents and contagious pests and will need constant monitoring and supervision. This can, however, be easily solved by ensuring that the feeder is placed high enough for your birds to access their food while keeping rodents away. With these feeders you can feed a good number of birds but it will be important that you constantly check on your feed.
Pest proof Chicken Feeders
These are chicken feeders designed to prevent pests and rodents from feasting on your precious chicken feed. The emphases in these poultry feeders are the features which make sure that pests and rodents have a difficult time trying to access the chicken feed. Pests always pose a problem for poultry keepers and usually transmit diseases to your birds. Not to mention, you would not want to give free feed to pests especially rats. Having a feeder designed specifically for that becomes the best and sure way to preserve your feed and protect your flock. So the best chicken feeder for your birds should be pest proof.
Uses Of Chicken Feeder
Chicken feeders provide an easy means of providing adequate food to your birds. However, chicken feeders go beyond being mere containers of feed for chickens as they save quite a number of roles.
Monitoring feed consumption
A chicken feeder can be used as a tool to monitor how much feed is being consumed by your birds. If you are new to poultry, it is always wise to have some form of monitoring mechanism to ensure that birds are not left hungry. It is also important that you ensure that you are not losing your feed to such things as rats and wild birds. In the absence of chicken feeders, it becomes difficult to trace the amount of food your birds are having . A poultry feeder can therefore act as a monitoring tool, if you constantly find it empty, it would suggest that your birds are hungry most of the times. Inversely, you can monitor your birds` health by keeping a close eye to their food consumption pattern.
Preventing chicken feed wastage
Chickens can be clumsy often times. You know how much they like to scratch and search for food. No matter where the food is, they will find it and flick it up but when you have a definite feeding routine you can easily control what they eat and if possible influence how they eat their food. Chicken Feeders then come in handy in as far as you want to give your birds selected type of feed. Pouring that feed on the ground would not deter your birds from eating but they will be accompanied by such things as wild birds and rodents. These will not only waste your feed but will also spoil it and possibly contaminate the feed thus putting your flock at a danger of contracting diseases. It thus becomes important for your chicken feed to be kept safe and chicken feeders become handy. Chickens can also waste your feed due to their flickering habit and chicken feeders always place an emphasis on the attempts to reduce feed wastage due to flickering. Thus a good chicken feeder should minimise feed wastage.
Control chicken diseases
Because chickens are always hungry and sure they can eat just about anything, they are always at a high risk of contracting diseases if the feeding is not monitored. Feeders become handy in so far as there is the need to ensure that feed your birds are eating is of the best quality.
Ensuring feed availability while you are away
Often times you will find yourself away from home and you need not to worry about what your birds are eating. Feeders act as a means of ensuring that your birds have feed supply while you are away. Thus the best poultry feeders should be able to provide feed to chickens in your absence.
Factors To Consider When Buying Poultry Feeders
There are quite a number of considerations to be made when one is deciding on the best chicken feeder to buy.
Material used in making the chicken feeder
Quite often it is important to consider the type of material used to make a chicken feeder. Some feeders are made of galvanized metal and this can be prone to rusting. Rusting by its nature reduces the life span of any poultry feeder and in some cases can cause contamination of feed. On the other hand, some chicken feeders are made of plastic which eliminates the idea of rusting and feed contamination. However, poultry feeders made of plastic are usually light and present a number of incidents where they get tipped over by chickens while they are feeding.
Constant supply of food
By nature, chickens would spend the whole day eating such that you would want to have a chicken feeder that ensures a constant supply of food. The physiology of chickens is such that they have a tiny intestinal tack and food quickly passes through their body. You can then opt to have more feeders to cater for the different ages of your birds or you would want big chicken feeders with a greater holding capacity. Thus the best poultry feeder should ensure constant supply of feed.
Holding capacity of the poultry feeder
Most users of chicken feeders point to the idea that they would want a feeder that would contain feed to last as long as 1 week without refilling. The holding capacity of any poultry feeder thus becomes important to a degree that you would want to have a feeder that can still supply feed to your birds while you are away. This is however, largely dependent on the size of your flock. A good chicken feeder should be able to store adequate feed for your birds.
Size of your flock
The type and number of your chicken feeders should be enough for the size of your flock. Naturally, chickens would free range in search of food and considering the size of your flock in relation to the area available for them to free range, a chicken feeder can be used as a complimentary food source or a substitute for free ranging. The best chicken feeder to choose should be appropriate for the size of your flock.
Environment
In an area where the environment is usually muddy while containing a lot of dirt, a chicken feeder is a must. The same goes with the environment in your chicken coop. You would want your chickens to have feed without constantly cleaning poop out of the feed.
Pest Control features
Some environments present a challenge of pests and rodents to poultry farmers. These not only feast on your expensive chicken feed but can also bring diseases. Hence, it becomes important to buy a pest proof chicken feeder. The best poultry feeder for your flock should pest proof.
What kind of Chicken Feeder should I get?
The kind of chicken feeder you should get largely depends on the characteristics of your flock, the space in which you keep them and how often you would want to be giving feed to your birds.
Size of your flock
Chicken feeders come with specifications of what number of birds can eat from it in one go. Some poultry feeders would cater for 6 birds at once while other feeders can cater for 2 birds at a time. One should then consider how big is the flock in order to determine the best chicken feeder to buy.
Age of your birds
At times you will have a flock that is made of both young chicks and fully grown birds. On the other hand, some chicken feeders are only made for fully grown birds which would make it difficult for younger chicks to access feed. This means the best poultry feed to buy depends on the size of your chickens.
What is the price of Chicken Feeders
Prices of chicken feeders can be divided into 3 categories, lowly priced, medium and highly priced. Ranges are listed below.
Lowly priced: $9 – $25
These are mainly meant for small flocks and have a holding capacity enough to cater for a flock of at most 10 birds. From this category you can get a chicken feeder from as low as $9.
Averagely priced: $30 – $40
These are mainly meant for a flock of 10 birds and above. The feeders are made of either metal or PVC plastic and offer extra-functional features. From this category you can get a feeder from as low as $30
Highly priced: $50 – $150
These are feeders with special designs and are usually heavy. They usually cater for fully grown birds and feature some cool functionality which can be viewed as offering value for money. From this category you can get a feeder from as low as $50.
