Designing and 3D printing feeders & accessories

[DonyaQuick]

Seems like this weird adaptation of some of my feeder stand parts is working. Two legs to hold most of weight that sits out from the wall and two slots in the back to zip-tie it on so it can't be pushed around. The lid snaps on and holds pretty well so I'm working on a version now that has hooks on the back to help make it more resistant to being tipped.

Mr Tengu wouldn't use the feeder while I was in his partition since he just wanted hugs, but he went to have a snack as soon as I was in the other half of the enclosure.

 

[BantyChooks]

Seems like this weird adaptation of some of my feeder stand parts is working. Two legs to hold most of weight that sits out from the wall and two slots in the back to zip-tie it on so it can't be pushed around. The lid snaps on and holds pretty well so I'm working on a version now that has hooks on the back to help make it more resistant to being tipped.

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Mr Tengu wouldn't use the feeder while I was in his partition since he just wanted hugs, but he went to have a snack as soon as I was in the other half of the enclosure.

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Neat update, thanks.

 

[The Good Grumble]

My husband made me this to keep the chickens from pooping in their waterers, it works awesome.

 

[DonyaQuick]

My husband made me this to keep the chickens from pooping in their waterers, it works awesome.


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What's it made out of? The black part looks like a corrugated plastic of some kind but I don't know what the cone part would come from - or were these also printed parts?

 

[DonyaQuick]

Second port feeder is now built and in use with another flock, this time using silicone mat gaskets. This is not the long-term location for that feeder...too much invitation to rodents at night with that wide-spaced mesh. I put it out there at first because I didn't want to stop this particular flock from going past it into their coop if they found the port feeder spooky. Oh yes, so spooked...they were shoulders-deep into it as soon as I brought it in and the whole time I was trying to lift it up onto the bricks lol.

 

[The Good Grumble]

What's it made out of? The black part looks like a corrugated plastic of some kind but I don't know what the cone part would come from - or were these also printed parts?

All printed. He designed, the cone comes off to grab the handle.

 

[DonyaQuick]

All printed. He designed, the cone comes off to grab the handle.

Very cool!

 

[The Good Grumble]

Very cool!

It’s working! No poop in 4 months lol! Wooohooo!

 

[DonyaQuick]

Interesting PETG vs PLA development to update on here. So although I couldn't get all four parts of the power-cord-thu-HWC to be usable with PETG, I did get the two square plate parts to print reasonably well exactly once with that material before I fully gave up with it. Those two parts then fit with two spare PLA screw inserts parts I had, so I used PETG plates with a PLA screw on one setup. That's been in place for about 1.5months. I realize it may be hard to see in the picture, but hopefully you can see the subtle tone and opacity difference between the two materials. Both materials are clear (no pigment) so they started out being nearly indistinguishable and with somewhat visible infill patterns. Unfortunately, I don't have a "before" picture of the PETG parts to show that, only the one from today after they've been sitting in the sun for over a month when I notcied they were starting to look different. The PETG is just starting to go a bit yellow and turn more opaque. The PLA screw insert in front still looks like a fresh print. I don't yet know whether the discoloration on the PETG has any bearing on its strength or supposedly superior outdoor resilience relative to the PLA. However, from everything I'd read, I expected the reverse to happen with discoloration/yellowing and these two materials.

 

[D13]

I just got a PLA filament printer and have started designing and making things I've wished I had for my chickens - specifically feeder-related things where I've found a distinct lack of simultaneous weather protection and compatibility with mature, standard-size roosters. I realize a lot of people do covered feeding stations to protect from weather but I haven't had a lot of luck with that (it turns into a roosting and pooping station). I thought I'd start a thread to share how things go as I try different designs with my various chickens.

This is my first design in action: a rooster-friendly grit holder with some weather protection to help keep out the torrential rains my area gets. Although you can't see it from the photo of the actual print, there are also small drainage holes in case something like snow/sleet manages to float around the edges and get in anyway and melt later. The only thing I wished I'd done differently with this one is to print it in white or clear since the solid gray PLA makes the contents dark. Fortunately Mr. Tengu here doesn't care about it being dark, but I have other chickens that would, so any subsequent prints I do of this design will be white/clear. Despite being dark, this grit holder has so far been a big improvement from just tossing the grit on the ground, in a bowl, or in the feed to be scattered and largly disappear and leave me not knowing if any is left. This should work well for my hens' oyster shell too.

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Next thing I'm working on is roo-friendly port feeders to pop onto an existing bin of some sort. I loved using port feeders for my hens way back before I had any roos, but the abundantly available ones are too small for my roos. DIY PVC pipe options I've looked into didn't really do what I wanted either. My first prototype is printing right now so I'll get to see soon if I can actually get the balance of features I'm after or if I'll just have another thing that enables my birds to make a huge mess LOL.

Dude that's so cool! I never thought somebody would manage to put 3D printers and chickens together!