designing a new coop need some help and ideas with feeder

[AHappychick]

I have most of the design in place I have my SO who is a custom builder and an electrician and plumber at my disposal for 2 whole days as well as myself and a few helpers so I am trying to squeeze in the best and most efficient design possible.

So far it is going to be a 10 X 16 shed with several dividing pens, automatic water and electricity, storage area, and a few different pop doors to outside runs for those that are not in breeding pens. I also intend to have an adolescent brooder with heat lamp for those chicks that are too big for the house and to small to deal with cold temps (if its winter)

I am trying to come up with an automatic feeder design or some way I could add food to all of the breeder pens without having to open a bunch of doors. Also something that could hold at least 2-3 days worth of feed so that if I had to go away for the weekend I could with out completely putting my friends and family out.
Am I lazy YES!!!! but I would need this coop to be as easy as possible and as maintenance free as possible since I already spread myself very thin and being addicted to BYC has not been good to my time management.

I saw one with PVC drain piping that looked really cool. and was thinking of smaller versions of those....

Anyway any unique feeding designs pics would be very appreciated as well as any other super helpful tips or input.

 

[BrackenFarms]

what is an "SO"

 

[CityClucks]

My guess is that SO is Significant Other...

 

[patandchickens]

It is super, super, super easy to make feeders that will hold about as much food as you want (just depends on the size of your container)... so by far the easiest thing would be to just make a large-capacity feeder for each pen. Rather than trying to fool around with something to supply all pens from a single bin.

There are a bunch of threads/pix of peoples' homemade feeders on here, use 'search' or just scroll back through the Coop and Run Design archives for likely-sounding threads.

If you are planning to use an auto waterer system, bear in mind that a) essentially all of them will cause big floods on occasion, and b) they are near-impossible to winterize if you live somewhere that gets genuinely cold. Not trying to talk you out of it, just make sure you're ready for those things

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[AHappychick]

MayorB.85 :

what is an "SO"

yes significant other/boy friend​

 

[AHappychick]

Quote:
I did a few searches but maybe it was not the right wording it seems to pick up any post that talks about feeding I will keep looking....

I am concerned about freezing pipes I am going to try to figure a way around it. for the spring and summer I will just have it hooked to the hose, but I would like to put in a well of sorts that would be at least 6 feet deep, there the water does not freeze and somehow harvest their drinking water as well as fresh water when needed to my pond. There is a company called Invisible structures and they have a system that I think is very interesting I would love to install it all over my land is specific places for water collection and drainage at the same time... Anyway haven't figured it all out yet but getting there slowly

 

[zigzag3337]

I am in the process of making a larger waterer and feeder than I have right now (both are 5 gallons each). I am converting my deer feeder into my chicken feeder. It's a 35 gallon gravity feeder that I made a couple of years ago. I took a plastic 35 gal. drum (with a removable lid) and installed a shower drain in the center of the bottom, then 45'd to the ground. I am planning on using this same method and have it piped into my coop. That way I can fill it up from the out side and maybe only once a month.

I bought a automatic waterer from a hunting supply store and instead of piping it to my house water. I am going to use another 35 gal. drum for the holding tank. That way if it hangs up, it will only flood the 35 gallons of water and run all day or weekend if I am out of town.

 

[zigzag3337]

I forgot to mention, But I am planning to make another feeder for the oyster shells by using 3" PVC. My thought is: Take a piece of PVC about 4' long and glue a 45 on one end of it then take another piece of PVC about 6" long and glue it to the other side of the 45. Cap the small end of the PVC and between the cap and 45, cut the top half of the PVC out so the birds can get to the oyster shells. Secure the feeder against a wall stud and cap the top after filling it up.

Maybe someone else can use the idea