Feed and Water Shelters With home made fedder/waters in them

I keep food in the coop out of the weather and keep water in the run. If the water spills or splashes in the run, it soaks into the ground without a mess. The chickens don't eat or drink at night so the water being outside won't be a problem.

Chris

 

I read on BYC (somewhere) a guy's good neat 'n tidy feeder made of, if I remember the size right, a 5" wide pvc pipe of whatever length he chose (guessing 5 feet?) with a fitting on the bottom end of it that is more or less a "y" shaped connector. The bottom of this Y connector was then capped to keep the feed from falling through to the ground, and the "arm" of the Y was where a chicken would stick it's birdy head down into to get to the feed. The hole being deep enough that the chicken wouldn't be very able to throw feed all over the ground. The TOP of the length of pipe, then, also had a cap (but a removable one for filling ease) to keep moisture/debri/bugs out. This pipe feeder with its Y base was then wired, or tie wrapped, or hose clamped on to the side of the coop run walls. The y was positioned high enough off the ground to help keep it out of easy reach of smaller rodents.
THEN I just saw a picture of a waterer made TOO from a PVC pipe, similar to the first one, capped at bottom and top, but with no y connector, and using a "cup waterer" (similar to a nipple waterer, but water flows upon pecking into a little orange cup, not dripping out through a nipple to make a drippy mess on the ground). I am going to try to use the cup idea but with a bucket, which I can set upon another DIY device I found directions for here on BYC, the "shortbread cookie tin with christmas light string" water heater.
I love reusing and/or repurposing stuff I already have around the house, especially when it saves me money. Then, at least if it doesn't work as well as I had hoped, I am not out much. If it works SUPER.
I also read somewhere that since chickens like shiny things, and bored chickens peck at one another more than occupied chickens, that it is good to dangle a used CD/DVD disk in their coop. I also found a chicken toy you stuff with greens and dangle in the coop as well--but daughter found a CAT toy, similarly shaped from the dollar store, which for a buck, is worth a try to see if it will work as well as the pet store's chicken treat ball toy.

 

Do a Search on this forum, the search box is near the top of every page, for the items you are looking for and you will find many topics on exactly what you are asking about. All the stuff you want to see has already been posted and I doubt that most of the people will post the same thing more than one or two times. It would take forever to repost all the pictures that have already been posted but it will only take you a couple hours to read all about it.