Final touches...

[Flowerfamily]

I'm finishing up the final touches of our coop, and beginning the run. I am going to be using wooden dowels to hang feeders/waterers. The waterers I want to use are ones I have made from 5 gallon plastic pails with nipples screwed into the bottom. Feeders I have not decided upon yet.

My noob questions for today are:

1. For 6 adult hens in a 4x8 coop attached to a 8x8 run, how many waterers and feeders would you use?
2. Do you provide waterers and feeders both in the coop and in the run or just in the coop?
3. Do you typically put the food away at night, and put it back out during the day, and Do you only fill the feeder with the amount of feed allowed for the day? Does it matter?
4. Which type of material do you use for your waterers/feeders (metal, plastic), and why?
5. How high would you hang your waterers/feeders?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Tookie]

1. Depends on size of feeder, I use 30lb feeder and a 5gal waterer for 7 chickens and it works well.
2. Only outside run.
3. I leave food and water out, I keep my feeder full all the time.
4. I use metal feeders and plastic waterers.
5. I have my waterer on a cinder block and my feeder hanging not to high and not to low but so the chickens can reach it and bedding in run can't get in.

 

[DobieLover]

1. For 6 adult hens in a 4x8 coop attached to a 8x8 run, how many waterers and feeders would you use?

Your run is too small for the number of birds you have. I would try to double it.
I have 10 linear feet of feeder with 20' of room for them to each from either side and a heated dog bowl for their fermented mash. About 5 birds will eat around that with no bickering. I have run as many as 30 birds with this set up and don't see any issues with everyone getting something to eat and drink from this set up.

2. Do you provide waterers and feeders both in the coop and in the run or just in the coop?

Just the run. And having the run with a solid roof will go a long way towards improving their status and your ease at keeping them in a healthy environment.

3. Do you typically put the food away at night, and put it back out during the day, and Do you only fill the feeder with the amount of feed allowed for the day? Does it matter?

The food should be put up at night only if the run is not fully predator proof (with a solid roof to protect it from rain).
How much you put in the feeders depends on what you are feeding. I like to shoot for just enough for the day and a little left over for when they come out in the morning before I get out there to top up.

4. Which type of material do you use for your waterers/feeders (metal, plastic), and why?

I made my own feeders out of 4" PVC pipe and suspend them from chains off the run rafters hung just below chicken chest height. This provides a lot more space for birds to line up on either side of the feeders to eat without any bickering.
The waterer is a dome shaped top and it is kept at chest height on a concrete block.

5. How high would you hang your waterers/feeders?

Chest height.

I am going to be using wooden dowels to hang feeders/waterers. The waterers I want to use are ones I have made from 5 gallon plastic pails

Wooden dowels are not going to be very strong for a 5 gallon waterer. That's a lot of weight. I would suspend from a chain.

 

[3KillerBs]

1. For 6 adult hens in a 4x8 coop attached to a 8x8 run, how many waterers and feeders would you use?

Your run is too small for the number of birds you have.

At 64 square feet 8x8 meets the suggested minimums for 6 hens, but if you *can* provide the extra space Dobbie suggests things are likely to be easier to manage.

With only 6 I'd use only one feeder unless I were integrating new birds at that time. See this setup: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/in-praise-of-the-traditional-hanging-feeder.1452899/

The thing with that feeder was that all the birds could eat at the same time.

2. Do you provide waterers and feeders both in the coop and in the run or just in the coop?

I prefer to have my feed and water in the run -- especially with a small coop since putting them inside sacrifices 2 square feet of valuable floor space.

3. Do you typically put the food away at night, and put it back out during the day, and Do you only fill the feeder with the amount of feed allowed for the day? Does it matter?

Different people do different things.

I *personally* like to keep large feeders full and available to the birds at all times when they're not roosting. I have never had a rodent problem and my electric poultry net keeps pests out of the feed at night.

People who do have issues with rodents or other pests getting the feed do things differently.

One reason I like to keep my feeders full is that I know how my life is and know that sometimes things happen and I might have to leave the birds to get by for a day or two without any attention beyond collecting eggs.

Some people are not subject to that kind of health and/or personal crises and don't need to worry about leaving a margin.

4. Which type of material do you use for your waterers/feeders (metal, plastic), and why?

See the thread above.

That traditional feeder is very low waste because the deep pan and rolled lip prevent spillage (also, when using a different, more easily spilled feeder, if I see feed spilled on the ground I don't feed them again until they've cleaned it up).

I like horizontal nipple waterers because they stay CLEAN.

5. How high would you hang your waterers/feeders?

At the level of the birds' back.

Currently, that means the height of the average hen's back. The roosters have to bend down and I have a couple blocks and overturned buckets that juveniles can stand on.

 

[rosemarythyme]

1. 1 waterer should be fine. I like having a lot of feed stations though, so for 10 birds I have 4 bowls of fermented feed & 1 dry feeder first thing in the morning. By afternoon, the bowls are empty and the birds can share the single dry feeder without issue.

2. I have water in run only in order to ensure the coop stays dry as possible. I have feed both in coop and in run.

3. I remove the dry feeder at night, but it holds enough food for 4-5 days, so no reason to empty it. It just gets put away in a metal trashcan away from the chicken area to discourage rodents (and scavengers) from trying to get into the feed.

4. I use plastic - cheap and easy to clean and lightweight.

5. My waterer is about head height, as it sits up on a overturned bucket. My feeders are actually set lower, like on a brick or upside down plant pot. I don't have good cross supports to suspend things off of so they need to sit on things.