My use of waterers and feeders have evolved over time, with one of the primary criteria is to have a small enough footprint to fit in whever the hens are. When the original hen owners were chicks, they were kept in a cardboard box. Gradually, the box got replaced by a larger box. Then it was off to a "starter coop" in the garage, until finally, to their condo. Below takes us through the evolution.
A. Feeder, ramekin; Waterer, ramekin
Age: About 3-10 days.
They were relatively easy to feed as they mostly slept. But they were in the house and in a small box. If we had them in a bigger space, they'd have the bigger feeder already as they were pretty good about not overeating.
B. Feeder: repurposed take out containers; Waterer, ramekin
Age: About 10-28 days
They were kicking shavings in their food. The feeder needed to get higher but the 7 lb feeder was too big for the box.
C. Feeder: plastic container cut to a trough; Waterer, chicken water cups and used water bottles
Age: 4-5 weeks
Floor containeres were getting knocked over and they were eating a lot. The trough helped greatly with their growth spurts. The water cups were great, it just took a couple of water bottles to get a knack for drilling holes into plastic.
D. Feeder: empty granolar bar box cut to a trough and empty yogurt cups; Waterer, chicken water cups and used water bottles
Age: 5-6 weeks
The trough needed to get bigger and as they got wider, they needed the additional yogurt cups for the ones on the end to get food before they were all gone.
E. & F. Feeder: an empty yogurt cup per hen; Waterer, chicken water cups and used water bottles
Age: 6-7 weeks
Wide loads and their own cups for food and water.
G. Feeder: plastic storage container; Waterer, 5 quart drinker
Age: 8 weeks
The feeder and waterer needed to go back and forth between the outdoor pen and the starter coop in the garage.
H. Feeder: plastic file box; Waterer, 5 quart drinker
Age: 9 weeks
I wanted some capacity and a way to deter other critters (chipmunks and yard bunnies from eating their feed). It did take a couple of hours for them to be hungry enough to get over being afraid of the new box to eat, and it did keep from making a mess... when I realized that the plastic isn't BPA free, I dropped this idea.
I. Feeder: 7 lb hanging feeder; Waterer, 5 quart drinker
Age: 2.5 months
Finally using the Harris Farms plastic feeders. When the feeder filled, it can feed the 6 hens for about 5 days, and a little less on very cold nights (around 20s F). The waterer lasts about a week and with the weather being so cold recently, the waterer heater has been a great asset to keep the water from freezing in the coop. The heater only works when it is around 32F and is sitting on a custom-built platform.
Current: 7lb hanging feeder; Waterer, 5 quart drinker on a waterer heater.
Future:
- Feeder: PVC tubes
- I still bring in the feeder from the run at night, to keep critters from getting at it. I do believe there would also be a higher volume capacity with 3" or 4" PVC tubing. But, will look into run design changes in warmer weather.
- Waterer: 2 gallon double wall steel drinker with a heater
- This looks fantastic. You don't have to fill the waterer upside-down, screw on the base (you have to make sure it's on properly or it'll leak), then flip it upside-down.
- My current waterer is working fine, but when it's time to replace it, I'll be looking at the 2 gallon double-walled steel version.
- I also want to look into using filter rain water. We chose to go with plastic panels for the roof instead of asphalt tiles, specifically so that we can consider rain catchment for their waterer.
In the end, I've become a big fan of Harris Farms poultry feeder and waterer products. Easy to use, refill, clean, hang, etc. While I still want to consider additonal tweaks to our operations, this has been pretty good for our needs so far.
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