Chickens aren’t eating from my feeder!?

[JB44]

I recently made one of those feeders with a 5 gallon bucket and pvc elbows to try and keep my goats out of my feed. I’ve had it for a couple of days and i they still aren’t using it! I’ve grabbed a few of them and put their heads in so they can see that there’s food in there but once they pull their heads back out they dont put them back in on their own. I thought maybe they were just eating when I wasn’t watching but I sprinkled some food on the ground for them today and they gobbled it down like they were starving.
Would it have something to do with the way it was constructed? Like maybe the way the pipes are angled or the bucket is too low or something? Or do they just need to be taught?
I’m new to chickens so any advice would be great!

 

[Katanahamon]

I recently made one of those feeders with a 5 gallon bucket and pvc elbows to try and keep my goats out of my feed. I’ve had it for a couple of days and i they still aren’t using it! I’ve grabbed a few of them and put their heads in so they can see that there’s food in there but once they pull their heads back out they dont put them back in on their own. I thought maybe they were just eating when I wasn’t watching but I sprinkled some food on the ground for them today and they gobbled it down like they were starving.
Would it have something to do with the way it was constructed? Like maybe the way the pipes are angled or the bucket is too low or something? Or do they just need to be taught?
I’m new to chickens so any advice would be great!

Can you modify it somehow so they don’t have to put their heads so far in? They’re pretty leery of not being able to see if a predator is going to get them..even their eyelids are transparent if you’ve caught them blinking in a picture..

 

[3KillerBs]

The tubes are too deep.

I tried to make something of the sort and that was the problem I couldn't overcome with the design I was trying to use.

 

[RojoMarz]

@JB44 Looks like the angles are wrong... are they 45 or 90 degree?

 

[australorpia]

I'm also a beginner, but I can look at that and say that the angle of the tubes is way wrong. Shouldn't them have at least a pitch towards the bucket, and not downwards? It goes against the chicken biomechanics.

 

[blackdog043]

The elbows need to be straight out. You have them angled down, coming out of the bucket. They can't get their heads in correctly.

To help them get used to using the feeder after you correct that, fill the elbow from the outside, so they can see the feed. You might have to do this a few times, but after that they will understand what to do.

With the elbows straight out, the goats still can't stick their heads inside the elbow, to reach the feed. The best they will be able to do is get some of the feed at the edge or at the base if the chickens drop it. I have goats with my chickens and use the same feeders.
I know goats shouldn't eat chicken feed, but the amount of chicken feed they might be able to eat will not bother them.

This is my new set up, since I moved. A goat inside the chicken coop, during the day. They have their own stall for night time.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Your goats are way better behaved than the ones I used to have. They would be knocking that bucket around and spilling the feed.

As for the design, those are very poor feeders, having a prey animal stick its head in a container in order to eat goes against their nature. Prey animals have eyes on the side of their head, predators have both eyes pointed forward for binocular vision and depth perception. The prey animals are always skittish and quick moving as far as their head scoping out predators. Then the mice just gorge on the feed, day, night, doesn't matter once they find it.

 

[BecaHawaii]

Ours doesn't have a tube in front. Only inside. If you change that part it'll probably work great.

 

[Compost Queen]

regrdless of the chook ergonics and grain flow dynamics it totally looks like a rat feeder to me..