Poultry feeder
AssigneeGSI Brasil Industria e Comercio de Equipamentos Agropecuarios Ltda
InventorROBSON PAULETO CAMARGO
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The feed leveler on a poultry feeder has a plurality of feet provided on an inward facing surface of the feed skirt. A feed pan has a pedestal extending up from a pan floor configured to engage with one of the plurality of feet. Each foot is positioned at a different vertical position along a longitudinal axis of the feed leveler. The pan floor has a central core, wherein a lower portion of a drop tube extends through the central core and a retainer is fastened to a bottom end of the drop tube to mount the feed pan and feed leveler on the drop tube such that the feed pan and the feed leveler can slide along a vertical axis of the drop tube so the poultry feeder engages a ground surface on which the feed pan is received in a telespcoping manner.
Claims13
A poultry feeder for use with a feed conveyor in a poultry house, the feed conveyor having a rigid conveyor tube configured to receive a plurality of such poultry feeders at spaced intervals so that feed conveyed by the feed conveyor may be delivered to each of the plurality of poultry feeders upon operation of the feed conveyor, the poultry feeder having a drop tube for receiving feed from the conveyor tube that has an upper attachment portion that mounts the drop tube to the conveyor tube, a feed leveler mounted along the drop tube, the feed leveler having a lower skirt, and a feed pan having a pan floor positioned such that there is a space between the pan floor and the lower skirt of the feed leveler for the passage of feed from the drop tube in order to establish a selected layer amount of feed in the bottom of feed pan, wherein:
- a middle body portion of the drop tube has a diameter that is smaller than a diameter of a feed level tube of the feed leveler such that the middle body portion nests within the feed leveler;
- the feed leveler has a plurality of feet provided on an inward facing surface of the feed skirt, and the feed pan has a pedestal extending up from the pan floor configured to engage with one of the plurality of feet, wherein each foot of the plurality of feet is positioned at a different vertical position along a longitudinal axis of the feed leveler, wherein the feed leveler is rotatable with respect to the feed pan and a magnitude of the space between the pan floor and the lower skirt is determined based on which foot of the plurality of feet is selected to align with and engage the pedestal, wherein the magnitude of the space determines the selected layer amount of feed in the bottom of feed pan;
- and
- the pan floor of the feed pan has a raised central core, with a mounting ring at the top thereof, wherein a lower mounting portion of the drop tube extends through the mounting ring of the feed pan and a retainer is fastened to a bottom end of the lower mounting portion to mount the feed pan and feed leveler on the drop tube such that the feed pan and the feed leveler slide along a vertical axis of the drop tube in a telescoping manner and the central core provides a space for movement of the retainer and the bottom of the drop tube with respect to the feed pan, wherein the telescoping movement of the feed pan and the feed leveler with respect to the drop tube does not affect the selected layer amount of feed in the bottom of feed pan.
(canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.