Feeder (and waterer) question

[Mr.Dad]

I'd like to get something that holds enough so if we are away for a few days the birds (up to 18 or so) have food...

I was going to get the big Polyethylene feeder from McMurray....but I'm now looking at this wall hanging unit because I can put the grit and oyster in one neat/clean looking unit......

Here's the link:

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/product/free_choice_wall_feeder.html

My question is (bear with me I'm a new chicken addict) how much feed does this hold?...think it would work for what I'm looking to do?

While I'm at it.....the galvanized waterers I can heat in the Winter but can't put cider vinegar in right?....do some people have two waterers...and use the galvanized one in the Winter (below freezing) ?......

 

[lively Bee's]

the acid in the vinegar I would make it rust I think.

I use 2 gal waters 1 3 gal and 1 2gal so that all I have to do is carry out 5 gal of water every other day.

Now that my chicks are 4 - 5 weeks old I just made up feeders that at 8" wide 20" long and 4" deep this allows me to fill them once a day and they can eat all they wont.
and work out great so far.

 

[4H kids and mom]

Our local Farm and Fleet has a trough type feeder with an attached bin to hold several days worth of feed. It works like the automatic feeders you can use for dogs and cats. How old are your chicks/chickens? That will give us an idea how much they will eat/drink a day. My chicks are over a week old and drink a full gallon of water per day. So, for me a 5 gallon waterer should water them for 5 days. I would post a pic of the feeder at F&F but they dont really have a website. I beleive the feeder is actually made for larger animals, but I had asked if it would work for chickens and they said yup.

 

[Mr.Dad]

I only have two right now....I'm building a coop for our future flock and while I was planning an order of things from McMurray I figured I'd look for feeders/waterers....

The chicks we'll be here for....but when the birds are adults I'd like to have them set up to be self sufficent if we're camping etc for a couple days.......

 

[BeckyLa]

We took a 5 gal bucket, cut big holes all around the sides at the bottom, and then dh took a few pieces of wood and made a pan with about 2" sides that he then attached to the bottom of the bucket. We suspended that in the coop like any other hanging feeder and filled it with feed. That's about 4.5gal of feed. The wood was scrap from building projects and the bucket was free. For 18 birds I think I would use something like this because it would take a really big feeder like the one you show to hold as much feed.

Another idea would be to get some big, like 5-6", pvc pipe and mount it, or several, in the coop with a pan, maybe a kitty litter pan, underneath. These will hold a lot of feed.

 

[4H kids and mom]

I suppose if you were going to be gone a long while (18 days) you could use BeckyLas idea and make it even bigger using a round kitchen-type size garbage can (new of course!) and doing the same thing. Cut holes in the bottom for feed to fall through and put it in or on some sort of pan or catch tray. Those could hold up to 13 gallons of food, or water to last quite some time. Just a thought.

 

[jmofaustin]

For water, I use a livestock water trough and an automatic float valve hooked to a hose. I just empty it every other week to make sure the water stays fresh.

http://www.petvetsupply.com/gensym-9.html

 

[Mr.Dad]

Great ideas thanks

...

That pvc pipe idea sounds great...this way I can have a few and use two for the grit and oyster....

I love the homemade stuff...the coop hasn't been cheap so far and it would feel good to make the feeders to save a little money and get that "We made it ourselves" feeling....

 

[SandraChick]

Well- this wonderful BYC webpage has instructions on how to build waterer and feeders from 5gallon buckets which you can often get for free from restaurants.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-waterer.html

using the same principle, you can use large garbage cans to make them bigger, or PVC pipes, or coffee cans etc...to make them smaller.

Good Luck
Sandra

 

[sweetmama65000]

o.k., i'm afraid i have not learned some much needed information. why would you need to put cider vinegar in the waterer? do the chickens need this or does it have some other purpose? i'll be waiting to hear, so i can run to the store and get the vinegar if my birdies have been needing it (and beating myself up for not providing it!).