Clean and Eyepleasing Food and Water Devices?

[MaeRain]

We are starting our chicken forey and I am looking for a way to keep my coop and run eyepleaseing and as clean as possible. I have seen several designs that though functional are a not visually what I'm looking for (plastic buckets for example are not what I'm going for). What setup do you all recommend for classy and clean? Thank you.

 

[lynnehd]

We are starting our chicken forey and I am looking for a way to keep my coop and run eyepleaseing and as clean as possible. I have seen several designs that though functional are a not visually what I'm looking for (plastic buckets for example are not what I'm going for). What setup do you all recommend for classy and clean? Thank you.

I use the Chicken Fountain for the water supply (hooked to faucet with autofill). During temps consistently below freezing, I unhook it and have a bird bath heater in it to keep the water from freezing.
http://chickenfountain.com/

The tube feeders using 3-4" PVC look nice, too. I have four. Two shorter ones for grit and oyster shell, and two taller ones for feed.

Sadly, everything does tend to get quite dusty, very quickly. These chickens are constantly busy and scratching!

 

[MaeRain]

I use the Chicken Fountain for the water supply (hooked to faucet with autofill). During temps consistently below freezing, I unhook it and have a bird bath heater in it to keep the water from freezing.
http://chickenfountain.com/

The tube feeders using 3-4" PVC look nice, too. I have four. Two shorter ones for grit and oyster shell, and two taller ones for feed.

Sadly, everything does tend to get quite dusty, very quickly. These chickens are constantly busy and scratching!

Thank you for your imput, I was hoping to avoid PVC, but I will keep it in mind!

 

[lynnehd]

Thank you for your imput, I was hoping to avoid PVC, but I will keep it in mind!

I've seen people paint the outside of PVC feeders.

What kind of material are you hoping to use? You do want something that is easy to clean and doesn't absorb moisture.

 

[Blooie]

We built this one for fermented feed, but I gave up the FF. Just gone too long and too often during the summer months and no place to store it during our long cold winters. So we use it for dry food and we still like it as much as when we first built it. Yours doesn't have to be as long as ours is - I was feeding 32 birds of varying ages. I'm now down to 22 birds and still happy with the look and performance of this feeder.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/fuss-free-fermented-feed-feeder

 

[Free Spirit]

@Blooie Has a nice idea. If you don't like the gutter look you can take her idea and use a window plant box to make it more dressy.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Southern...oly-Window-Box-with-Saucer-NW2412BK/204489711

If you decide to go with a hanging waterer then you could take a regular plant pot large enough to go over it to "hide" the waterer with only the tray holding the water be visible.

You could also do the PVC but run it through one end of a window planter upside down (or build a wooden cover) so the chickens can drink from below but the PVC is out of view.

Here's a pic to you can picture what I'm trying to describe.



Left would be hanging feeder using a pretty window planter box
Right would be the PVC hidden in a wooden box with bottom drinkers exposed for the chickens below.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Maybe you could buy wine barrels to set your feed bins in ... those can be pretty cute. Line them with a plastic garbage can or feed-grade plastic barrel liner bags. Just make sure they can be sealed properly to keep the rodents out, and also the lids should be easy to manage with one hand or you'll find yourself not replacing them.

Or, if you like a slightly more industrial look, galvanized metal garbage cans are pretty cute ... also line them with a plastic garbage can. I've read that the metal bins can sweat inside, which spoils the food, so that's why you'd need to put a plastic bin inside. Likewise, determined rodents can chew through plastic/rubber bins ... so the bin-within-the-bin idea has some utility.

There are a lot of "cute" garbage can hiders ... any of those can be used to disguise your feed bins.

I have found industrial feeders to be disappointing, but also if I change feed sometimes I have to change feeders. Right now, we're using a combination of hanging metal feeders and troughs we made here from PVC pipe that we set in cement blocks ... not the cutest, but are easy to manage and the chickens don't waste feed from this setup. I'd expect any feeder could be painted or decorated to match the rest of your aesthetic.

For waterers, I installed an automatic watering system with little red bowl founts ... they don't take up much visual space.