feeder getting wet

[Florida_girl]

Everytime it rains I have to replace all the food in the feeder cause it gets wet. I need ideas on how to keep the feeder dry. the feeder is hanging in the run, the run does have a wood cover/top on it.
Anyone have pictures or ideas for me?

 

[MissPrissy]

If you have the hanging style feeders you can get the deflectors that go over the top. It is not a lid, it keeps chickens off the rim and they can't poop in the food but it also keeps other things out. If that doesn't help you should move all of the feed inside the hen house.

 

[bigzio]

Yep, I agree with the option to place the feeder inside the coop. It allows the flock to feed during bad weather, wether it is windy, or raining or whatever, when the flock would rather be inside. They will stay inside and starve before they go out in terrible weather. Mine would anyway.

bigzio

 

[Florida_girl]

My coop is small. click on my website and you can see the chicken coop/pen in the back by the fence. I can try to fit it in there. My hens still want out in wet weather then they run to hide under the slide.

 

[Poison Ivy]

I you extended their run to include the space under your coop you could just hang them under there. That's were I hang mine in several of my runs.

 

[Florida_girl]

Quote:
If I were to hang the food under where the coop is.. would I put up some wood around the sides so the rain won't come in the sides. or use plastic ... probably plywood would work better?

 

[s6bee]

How many hens do you have? I have a tractor and we saw a feeder made out of PVC piping. I'll try and attach a photo of the one we made. We only have 5 hens and they go through it in 2 days. We live up North so I expect that when the snow leaves they won't eat as much.

The feeder in the photo we used a 2" diameter pipe, we bumped it up recently to a 4" pipe ( and approx. 2 ft. high ) which gives them 2 days of feed.
It takes up no space at all. I fill it with a gallon sz. pitcher or you can get a funnel to prevent spilling.

Steph

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh17/s6bee/PVCchickenfeeder.jpg

 

[Poison Ivy]

Quote:
If I were to hang the food under where the coop is.. would I put up some wood around the sides so the rain won't come in the sides. or use plastic ... probably plywood would work better?

You could use wood on the sides to make a barrier so the rain can't get in. Plus you could make a door out of one so you don't have to go inside run to fill feeder but do it from the outside of the coop. I have hardware cloth around mine and they hang under it but with in easy reach.

 

[sheps4her]

s6bee , that is a great Idea! I have been racking my brain trying to come up with something for my small coop and I think this would work well. Thanks for the idea!

 

[s6bee]

Quote:
Let me know how yours works out. I love it. Seems to work very well, and there is not a lot of feed loss.

Steph