Feeder Hacks

 These little feeders are rather nifty. 

• Cost-effective
• Any mason jar fits on the base, a 1 quart mason jar is shown with the magenta base
• small footprint

However, they do have their downsides

• Difficult to keep up and off the ground (subject to shavings going in)
• how the heck do you hang them?
• for minimal food waste, I wait until the top is empty before I refill (except when I want to top it off because of my upcoming schedule)
• after it's been refilled, there's a lot of empty space at the top (see mason jar pic)

Here's what I did with one of the plastic tops.

• Purchased 2 long screws with a nut and eye loops. I used 1/4" screws knowing that I have 1/4" drill bits.
• Drilled a 1 1/4" hole with my spade bit.
• drill the small holes first
• mark your holes with a sharpie first so your center hole isn't too close to a small hole like mine
• I still need a better dowel rod to hang the feeder. In the meantime, I'm using a popsicle stick. I like popsicles.

This gets us another cup of food in the feeder, and we can just pour in more food with a funnel. As for the glass mason jar, I just took some twine laying around and macramamed a hanger for it. I used a similar pattern common for hanging plants. The glass one goes in the Cuckoo Condo, in this case, the clear and enclosed glass is preferred. Also, it's a supplemental feeder and doesn't need to get refilled as often.

I also happen to like orange juice and found the empty containers to look like they could be a handy feed scooper. I measured and marked lines for 1, 2, and 3 dry measuring cups. Noted that 1 dry cup weighs about 6 ounces. Hopefully, I can get the feed subscription on a better schedule now.

#chickenfeedhacks #feederhacks