How To Make
Homemade Deer Feeders

Our first attempts at feeding our local whitetail deer population was with homemade deer feeders. These deer feeders are easy to make and there is no doubt that the deer use them.

To make our homemade deer feeders we used 4” PVC pipe and some plastic containers that were about 6” high and 16” square. Different diameters of pipe could be used with the larger diameters of course able to hold more feed. The plastic containers we used were reject pieces that we had around from a local factory. A 5 gallon plastic bucket would do just as well or anything that could be cut down to a 6” or so height.

All that you need to do cut a slot in the plastic pipe about 1 to 2” wide and about 3” in height in the end of the pipe that is going to be in the container.

Fasten the pipe to one side of the container with the slotted portion towards the center.

Cut some small holes in the bottom of the container so that it will not hold water when it rains.

You can cover the top of the pipe if you would like but it is not necessary, unless you are using feed that deteriorates when it gets wet.

Stabilize your homemade deer feeder by tying or fastening it to a tree or post so that it cannot fall or be knocked over.

These homemade deer feeders worked quite well for us, but the deer emptied them in only a couple of days. They would have run us broke keeping them full. These are cheap feeders to make but could be expensive if you try to keep them full.

We have put our homemade feeder back in use to test it to see how long 50 pounds of corn will last. The first week it was out it looks like it lasted about three days so that is 50 pounds of corn in three days. I also found that the four inch pipe that is about six feet tall holds about 25 pounds of corn and the container holds another 25 pounds so you could just fill the pipe but it would not last as long. We filled it again to see if they empty it faster now that they know to look for it. We'll let you know how it goes.

The deer below were nice enough help us out. One is pointing to the homemade deer feeder while the other is pointing out the tree we have it against.

We eventually moved on to using automatic deer feeders. You can purchase an automatic timer relatively cheap and attach it to a galvanized garbage can or a 30 or 55 gallon drum and hang it from a tree limb. Just make sure that you have a lid to put on it. With the automatic deer feeders you can regulate the amount of feed you provide for the deer. Raccoons and squirrels will do their best to steal the feed as well and it may take some time to outsmart them.

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