Feeding & Watering Your Flock: What’s Your Routine?

[BYC Project Manager]

Feeding and watering your flock might seem simple, but once you’ve spent time with chickens, you know there’s a bit more to it. It’s like making sure your family eats healthy and stays hydrated every day. Some folks have their own special routines, and that’s what makes keeping chickens so fun to talk about.

Let’s start with food.
Do you use regular chicken feed, or do you like to mix things up with a little scratch, garden greens, or kitchen scraps? Maybe you’ve tried fermented feed or a sprinkle of herbs for extra nutrients. Everyone has their own way of keeping their birds full and happy.

Now, water.
We all know chickens can be messy drinkers! How do you keep your waterers clean? Do you use a bucket, a bowl, or a fancy automatic system? And how do you handle water during the hot summer months or when it freezes in winter?

Here are a few things I’d love to know from you:

• What does your daily feeding and watering routine look like?
• Do you give your flock any special treats or supplements?
• What tricks have you learned for keeping water fresh and clean?
• Have you ever made a feeding mistake you learned from?

Let’s share our tips, wins, and lessons learned. Whether you’re using a store-bought feeder or a creative DIY setup, your ideas could help someone else make caring for their flock a little easier.

So, how do you keep your chickens fed, watered, and thriving? Let’s chat about it below, and feel free to share pictures of your flock!

 

[Sally PB]

Morning coop open:

Take out:
1 gallon of tap water
Container with with bowl of feed that goes in the coop. It's removed every night. In this container I also have 1-3 pint jars of chicken feed.

Pour water into 5 quart heated dog bowl. In non-freezing months, cord is wrapped around the bowl; in freezing months, it's plugged into a heavy duty construction grade extension cord that runs from the garage.

Left overnight in the run is a sealed plastic container with two nested rubber bowls. Open the container, put the top bowl with the previous day's food in the "out in the run bowl holder." The other bowl is filled with feed from the pint jars.

Open the coop and greet the ladies. Put the container with the coop bowl in its place.

All the while, sing the "Good Morning, Chickens!" song. Take the lid from the coop bowl container, the gallon jug, and the pint jars back to the house.

Lock up at night:

Remember to take the coop bowl container lid.

Count the chickens, yup, they all went to roost. Retrieve the coop bowl container, put on its lid. Shut up the coop.

Dump the water bowl. In the summer months, dump it in the run to give the ladies a cool damp spot the dust bathe in. In the freezing months, dump it outside the run.

Dump the feed in the sealable container bowl into the "out in the run bowl." Nest the bowls together and put them into the sealable container. Seal the container. This is left out in the run, but it's inaccessible to critters.

All the while, sing the "Good Night, Chickens!" song.

Take the coop bowl container back to the house.

 

[DobieLover]

Dry 18% crumble goes in the hanging troughs. I made the troughs from 4" PVC and they permit dining from both sides effectively offering 20' of feeding space.

I keep fermented 22% broiler mash in a heated dog bowl (which is only plugged in during winter to keep the mash from freezing) and spread piles out on the stumps and flat stones I have placed in the rear of the run.

Water is kept in that heated base waterer that is also only plugged in during winter. The base is scrubbed with a scrub brush (hanging from the window hook above it), rinsed and refilled daily. The water reservoir gets scrubbed with the same brush about once a month and bleach cleaned every other month. It is always in full shade so it stays pretty algae free.

Oystershell for the active layers is kept in a hanging dispenser (seen at the end of the troughs on the left below) and a modified nut container screwed to a post at the exit door from the run (seen to the right below).

My flock will get 2-3 small handfuls of deluxe birdseed mix 3:1 with dried mealworms daily to get them out from under my feet while I clean the poop boards. We have a tradition of hand feeding about 3Tbs raisins when chores are done.

They will also get split cherry tomatoes, overgrown green beans and arrowwood and cranberry viburnum berries when in season. During the high heat of summer, they will get frozen watermelon, blueberries and peas.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Wake up when the rooster tells me to.

Wander out to barn. Scoop soy-free non-gmo chick starter into rubber bowl (I think these are normally used for horses).

Wander to coop. Pour some feed in the trough feeders in the run. Drop rubber bowl near water station.

If water is getting low I top it off. I have two waterers—one with legs near the door of the run and one elevated under a lean-to I built out of junk so the waterer doesn’t get full of mud when it rains.

In the afternoon I might mix some fermented chick house reserve into some dry crumble in the rubber bowl. I will also check the oyster shell dish at this point and top off if necessary.

Night routine is put the rubber bowl in the barn, take waterers back to house if they are dirty/empty.

Go to bed when the rooster tells me to

 

[Perris]

What does your daily feeding and watering routine look like?

I supply a home made feed when I open the coops at dawn, and again about tea time. Those who are interested can read my articles on why and how initially here with an update here . It is an all-flock feed for a mixed multi-generational flock, with oyster shell provided separately to satisfy calcium needs on an ad lib basis.

This is the sort of thing they are eating

Do you give your flock any special treats or supplements?

I regularly give mealworms, which I farm, and wrote a thread about it here (still going after 5 years).

What tricks have you learned for keeping water fresh and clean?

Wash the water bowls daily and waterers every time they are refilled. Tap water here is good and fine as it is.

Have you ever made a feeding mistake you learned from?

Lots, during the development of my home made feed, between 2018 and 2019. Some concerned feedstuffs (especially the whys and hows of fermenting a whole grain feed, and the importance of variety), some management (keep an eye on juveniles to make sure they get enough), some economic (buy in 20kg/50lb sacks if possible).

So, how do you keep your chickens fed, watered, and thriving? Let’s chat about it below, and feel free to share pictures of your flock!

Being able to range from dawn till dusk allows the chickens to supplement the food I supply with whatever they can find and catch in the garden. It also satisfies their natural instinct to forage, and it allows them to express their individual and changing preferences for company or solitude, action or relaxation, and contributes a lot, I think, to their general well being.