Working people, yes, again… always have a bit of a puzzle to solve during the winter months. Dark days with light coming later in the morning and darkness falling early in the evening.
Either you have to go to the lofts with a headlamp to feed and water the birds, or you can use timers on the lofts and turn the lights on for a while, but that doesn’t seem ideal for the racing pigeons if the lights are turned on and off too much in the fall and spring.
I have been a fan of the Aidi feeders since they were released, but to be honest… I can’t spend the money to buy a new one if I don’t have to. They do cost a considerable amount. As I heard someone say: “Aidi feeders cost a bit, just like the Hermes breeding boxes, but they are top quality and made from top-quality materials.”
If I have to install all my pigeon lofts with such a box, then I will have to work some days to afford it.
But if you want something, you’ll always find a way. Keeping my eyes and ears open and seeing if any second-hand opportunities came along was the message for me. Even though some people think that these would not be offered second-hand. Nevertheless, in May 2025, a first opportunity and I was able to get hold of two, one of which was new, never used…
Later, another opportunity to pick up another one.
In November, during and after my hospital stay with my back, things shifted into high gear because it was/is so convenient with those first two Aidi food bowls. I had to have more, and after a call on Facebook, I was able to purchase more feeders, bringing the total to eight 1.20 m feeders, and we’ll have to pick up number nine when we’re better.
Now a little more about the feeders themselves.
Aidi feeders are available in four sizes.
Small 90 cm
Medium 120 cm
Large 160 cm
XLarge 190 cm
You have to allow for a loss of approximately 10-12 cm of feeding space because that is where the feeder’s electronics and motor are located.
According to the Aidi website, they are suitable for 20-30-45-60 pigeons respectively.
Feed capacity in the feeder 7.5kg – 10kg – 15kg – 20kg.
When the first feeders were collected, we took a good look at them.
These were still the old version, so no removable feed tray, which is now the case, a flap that opens, the bin itself is made with two strips that resemble a draft strip for under a door, with a metal shaft in the middle with bolts that rotates when the timer is activated.
The test with the first two feeders went smoothly in the aviaries. You can connect the feeders either with an adapter, in which case you don’t need to recharge them, or, if you use them twice a day, they recommend recharging the feeder once every 14 days.
I first recharged the feeder and then plugged it in for a day every 14 days.
In the future, I will consider leaving the adapter plugged in constantly and using a timer to charge it for a certain number of hours so that the battery remains full and food is provided via mains power.
You can set different feeding programs by setting the timer.
In my case, the first meal is at 9:00 a.m. and the pigeons get a second meal at 3:00 p.m. You can set this with a timer to the hour, minute, and second as you wish.
Now that I have back and pelvic problems, extra feeders have been added so that my family (wife and children) are not burdened even more with caring for the pigeons, now that I am less mobile myself. There are currently six feeders in the lofts (number seven is on its way).
This is ideal in my current situation, but also ideal for people who are often away from home for work, or if you go on vacation, you don’t have to bother anyone to feed and water the pigeons.
You put an Aidi feeding tray in the loft, a large drinking bowl, and they can continue during your absence.
Where I think it can be an added value for everyone is in the breeding loft.
If you breed in a classic breeding loft, you can feed the pigeons up to 8 times a day when they have youngsters. It’s ideal, and the pigeons spill less food.
What I did for myself was to test each feeder.
How much food does the feeder dispense exactly?
This in 10-20-30-40-60 seconds. Each time from start to the specified seconds.
I listed the results in an Excel document to see how many seconds you need to set per feeding to give the right amount of food.
Because let’s be honest. It remains a combination of electronics and a mechanism, and this can never be 100% exact because it is handmade and not a machine installation.
So I did find a few differences and you can respond to these by setting the timer longer or shorter.
I definitely recommend it and I am happy with my second-hand food dispenser.
If you have any questions, you can always send me a message or take a look at the Aidi website.
https://www.aidi.be/nl/equipment/165090/aidi-automatische-voederbakken