It has been raining the past 2 days and in my down time I decided to build a gravity feeder. The deer in my area seem to like gravity feeders over automatic feeders for some reason. It's been 3 years and the deer still haven't got extremely comfortable to the automatic feeder yet. So the misses and I ran to lowes yesterday. After staring at the PVC pipe section for 30 minutes, I had the perfect plan. Here's the result. Simple and only $25 bucks but hopefully effective! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Cant really make it out. How did you attach the bucket to the tube? I like the idea as I know exactly what you are talking about. The deer in Chatham county are very wary of the feeders. Tubes they walk right up to. Anything motorized and they are skiddish.. Let me know how it work for ya!!
They use to do the same to me when I would pour the corn on the ground. I have a couple DP coon traps for any curious coons coming around this feeder :D
I'll keep you updated Craig. Right now, there isn't a connection between the bucket and tube. But i've been thinking about what I can do, to seal and hold it in place. In the PVC pipe section there are a couple screw on adapters (which are little wider than the hole I cut in the bucket). I'm thinking this piece will be all I need. Only thing I can't figure out is how to make something to funnel the corn into the tube, so the corn will fall into the tube rather than lay. The corn should funnel down the tube just fine when its full and until it gets even with the tube in the bucket. After that, i'll have to figure something else out.
What about a making a funnel that sits in the bottom of the pail? I'm thinking either buy a foam ring (hobby shop) and carve it with a slope toward the tube. The alternative would be make it...thinking about a shape like 1/3 of an old car inner tube, but draw the ends together. Key would be a) finding the right material pliable yet somewhat rigid and b) securing the ends together (pop rivet or a heavy duty adhesive maybe
You could used a piece of sheet metal to make a funnel inside. You are going to lose a little area but that might be ok. You could put it outside like wl704 said but it would have to be able to support the weight of the bucket filled with feed. At that point you could remove the whole bottom of the bucket. Also if you have not remember to drill a few small holes in the bottom of the tube to let water out.
We used to use these. In the bottom we would put a drain like you see in a shower and put polyester filling above that and another plastic drain cover on top. That allowed any water that got in to drain out. We also tied the tubes to trees so they were not on the ground.
Ya, I put a drain in bottom so the the rain runs right through and the corn doesn't get soggy. And I keep them high off the ground too
