Completely Self sufficient systems

[ro ro]

i quess i misunderstood the question-----i thought it was about setting up coup to not have to do daily feed n watering ----- what i did i got 2 55 gal soda concentrate plastic barrels and set them on their side and ran plasic pipe to coup and installed 8 chicken water cups --- also got a 55gal plastic screw top barrel and put 3in 90degree elbows in it to set about 1/2 to 1 inch from bottom----this will hold about 8 bags of feed i have yet too fill completely but i use layering to fill it i put in laying pellets 3-4 bags 1 bag of scratch 1 bag of corn and 1/2 bag of black oil sunflower seeds ----- this last months and is sealed by elbow being so close to bottom & the feed to stop animals from crawling into the barrel --and the water feeds the cups for 3-4 months [must be hight than cups for total capacity to be available even tho pipe is buried to coup the barrels are high enough to empty and only lower pipe will not flow to cups once barrels are empty ------- i do still soak about a half scoop of laying pellets and feed it to chickens the next day to make feed last longer as the soaked feed has swollen and takes les to fill the birds but there are days i do not do this and they just feed out of the feeder and what ever they scratch in the run [i do give them about a third of a scoop on occasion of scratch with some sunflower seed in it] usually when i coolect eggs to get them to other end of run because i have a couple that insist on laying under the coup [its about 3ft 6in of the groun 8x8ft]and run is about 25ftx 8ft plus the size of inside of coup ----- i have 33 hens and 2 roosters ----- they are very sexually active ---- recieveved chicks april 1st of 2021 ------ loosing a couple eggs a day by peckers so next project is roll-a-way nesting boxes fun fun fun

 

[Tired old Rooster]

It is spring here now and I decided that I would trty my hand at "square foot gardening." So far things look promising. Out of thirty square foot pots of stuff I am growing, I suspect there will be plenty tidbits over for chickens to enjoy once I'm fed. Will avoid giving them any habanero chilli peppers though, in case they start laying hand grenades instead of eggs.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Will avoid giving them any habanero chilli peppers though, in case they start laying hand grenades instead of eggs.

Birds can safely eat pretty hot peppers, so don't be afraid of letting them try them if they're inclined to eat them. They can't taste capsacin.

 

[RooStar Chicken Gang]

Some more water on the land as mentioned.

 

[saysfaa]

Does that creek feed your ponds? Or flow through them? The ponds in the picture look likely to be seepage fed rather than spring or creek fed. In which case, you probably need to pay a lot more attention to a buffer zone of filtering vegetation around them. Especially if you fertilize the surrounding fields. And to fencing out herds of livestock.

 

[RooStar Chicken Gang]

No the river doesn't feed the dams, that I'm aware of, thanks for sharing, yea cows an sheep walk in the dams ect.. that's where they get drink from.

 

[Grandmas Coop]

interesting read

 

[Grandmas Coop]

And so how's it going??