Chicken feeders and waterers enable you to provide the food and water that your flock of chickens needs as well as minimize the number of times you have to fill bowls and provide food. They should be easy to use and safe and easy for the chicks to eat and drink from.
DIY waterers and feeders tend to be made from PVC pipes because these enable the free flow of seed and water. Other products are made from PVC buckets or a combination of these items to give effective feeders.
Below are the best DIY plans that enable you to provide food and water for your chickens without having to shell out a fortune on commercial products.
The 15 DIY Chicken Waterer & Feeders
1. DIY PVC Chicken Watering System by Fabart Diy
This PVC chicken waterer has four water outlets and is made from resistant and durable PVC. It is designed to prevent water from spilling all over the coop.
The plans also include a wooden shelf that will make it easier to access the pipe, in case of cleaning and for any repairs that might be needed.
PVC is a popular material because it connects easily, can be combined with wooden shelves and other wooden elements, and is robust despite being lightweight. It is also inexpensive and easy to work with.
2. Homemade Chick Waterer by the Prairie Homestead
Chicks need waterers, too, and rather than a giant 5-gallon bucket with drippers, they will benefit from a tray or bowl-style design.
The waterer uses reused plastic materials like plastic bottles and suggests the use of yogurt tubs. Ensure that everything is washed properly before putting it together.
The waterer has a hole at the bottom of the jug. It will fill the tray with water until it reaches the hole and then stops. As the chicks drink, more water is passed from the bottle into the bowl and the chicks have constant access to a fresh water supply.
3. Chicknic Table by Creative Green Living
The brilliantly named Chicknic Table is made from wood and is a simple design. Food is simply placed on top of the table, where your chickens can eat it at will. This type of design is best for more reserved eaters because it encourages the firing of food on the floor otherwise.
4. Chicken and Duck Feeder by Tenn Hens
One 5-gallon bucket and three PVC elbows are used to make this chicken and duck feeder. It is larger than the typical automatic feeder, which means that you can fill it with more seed and won’t need to fill it as often.
There are some fiddly elements to this design. For example, the holes for the PVC elbows are heated using a torch, so that the elbows fit snugly. However, once made, the chicken and duck feeder is very easy to use. Remove the lid, fill with seed, and your birds can eat as much as they want.
5. DIY Chicken Feeder From 5-Gallon Bucket by Bless This Mess Please
For this design, you need two 5-gallon buckets. You can either clean and use existing buckets or buy all-purpose buckets. The plan also uses foil roasting tins, which cost a few dollars from your local store. You can save yourself $50 using this design, and the feeders are easy to make.
6. Waste Free Chicken Feeder and Waterer by Top Gardening Tools
This pipe feeder has a single downpipe but two separate feeding troughs. Because it prevents food from being thrown on the floor, it not only saves you money buying food that goes to waste, but it also means that your chickens will never go hungry.
7. PVC Chicken Feeder by Instructables
This PVC chicken feeder looks like a pipe organ, with four downpipes, each with its own feeder chute. It is a simple design, attaches to a wooden fence or building exteriors and it costs very little to make and install.
8. Automatic Chicken Feeder by Lumnah Acres
This chicken feeder should cost less than $40 to make using completely new materials. It’s made from stuff that you probably already have laying around the house, and the design is very similar to many commercial chicken feeders. You’ll need to do some basic DIY work, like drill holes into the bucket. However, overall, it’s straightforward and also holds up to 25 pounds of feed.
9. Wooden Chicken Feeder by Backyard Chickens
Here’s another straightforward plan, though it does require some carpentry skills. If you’ve already made things out of wood in the past, this plan is probably pretty simple. It looks very nice when you get done—not like some other DIY projects out there.
However, you’ll need to be very careful with your cuts. This plan also takes a bit longer and will probably cost more, as you’ll need to purchase wood.
10. Glass Chicken Waterer by Natural Chicken Keeping
This chicken waterer is very simple. It uses a glass jar that’s turned into a nifty watering device. It doesn’t hold as much as some others, but it also doesn’t take up as much space. Therefore, it works well for smaller flocks and rooms.
While it is glass, the idea is that you’re using a solid canning jar, so the odds of it breaking are low.
11. PVC automatic Waterer by Backyard Chickens
This chicken waterer is slightly more complicated than the others. You’ll need to set up quite a few PVC pipes and purchase some specially-made nipples. However, in the end, you’ll be left with a true automatic waterer that works very well.
The pipes are all connected to a toilet fill valve, which sends water through the pipes when they start to run empty. It works great for a large number of chickens, as you won’t have to refill it regularly.
12. Easy-Fill Chicken Waterer by Bitmaps Misc
Are you tired of having to deconstruct your waterer whenever you need to refill it? This bucket waterer is very similar to the others on this list. However, it’s designed to make it very easy to fill. A pipe is extended out from the cage to the outside, where you can easily refill it with water. The plans are very detailed and straightforward, and you don’t need any fancy equipment.
13. Less-Waste Chicken Feeder by Open Coop
If your chickens tend to spill a lot of food, you might like this DIY chicken feeder. It’s built with a bucket that then allows chickens to feed through the holes. However, there is a “catcher” under each hole that catches any food that falls down.
This feeder protects the food from the rain and prevents your chickens from spilling it everywhere.
14. Pressurized Waterer by An Outdoor Life
This waterer works differently than others on this list. It utilizes pressure to help the water flow, so you’ll need a container that won’t collapse under vacuum pressure. Luckily, these aren’t terribly expensive, though it does mean you’ll have to spend a bit more time looking for the proper materials.
Besides that, this pressurized waterer is pretty straightforward. The plans are simple and shouldn’t take long for you to build.
15. Automatic Chicken Feeder by Instructables
For those that tend to have trouble with other animals getting in their chicken food, this interesting feeder may work wonders. It’s designed so that only your chickens can get the food inside it. The plan contains all the details that you need to build the feeder, and they’re pretty straightforward.
The project does require some experience with DIY projects.
Final Thoughts
Chickens are messy eaters and they create a lot of waste in the food and seed that they flick onto the ground around their bowl. Shop-bought solutions can cost $30 and more, but with a few basic tools and provisions like a plastic bucket or PVC pipes, you can create your own at a fraction of the cost. Plus, you can customize the design so that it better fits the size of your flock and the design of their coop.
Keep your creativity going with these other DIY chicken projects:
- DIY Chicken Run Plans You Can Make Today (With Pictures)
- DIY Chicken Brooders You Can Make Today (With Pictures)
- DIY Chicken Tractor Plans You Can Make Today (With Pictures)
Featured Image Credit: Alan Goodwin Photo, Shutterstock