What are some of your ideas on how to keep the "feeding station" clean? I have sand in one section of their coop witch i LOVE but i cant find anything i like in their feeding area.. I have tried river rock under the waterer but found that cleaning all the rocks was quite difficult and sand was STILL getting in their water. Now i have paving stones under the waterer and im hoping that will work good! Any ideas will help!
I use hanging feeders and hanging waterers with nipples in my brooder right now, it's a little more sanitary that way. I keep the feeders shoulder height, and the waterers about head height, so they don't have to duck so much. My birds figured out the nipples in about 30 seconds or less. They saw something new, pecked at it, got water, went crazy, end of story. I had the old waterers in there for the first day, but they much preferred the cleaner water from the hanging waterers, and wouldn't even touch the other stuff. I just took 2 gallon buckets with lids, drilled holes in them and threaded in the poultry nipples. You can probably find the nipples at your local feed store or online. The hanging feeders are nice because if they land on the open part for food, it rocks enough to discourage roosting and the unsanitary results. Although, a little bit of bedding still gets in to the feeders, because of their dust baths. It's still a good set up for me. Just ideas to try to help you out. I'll attach pictures to give you a general idea:
And, a close up of the waterer with poultry nipples:
I hope my set-up helps give you some ideas. Good luck!
My feeder is a 5 gallon bucket with two 90 degree elbows, they have to stick their heads inside and can't fling the food out absolutely no wasted food, for my waterer I use an old cat food bucket with horrizontal nipples they don't hold the water like the vertical ones and are far less likely to freeze, it worked great this winter with a stock tank heater.
