Finishing Touches on my Coop - I think I'm almost done!

[Airilith]

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I've finally came up with a waterer and feeder for inside the coop, that I really like. My problem was that I don't have alot of floor space, so I wanted to be able to use as little space as possible. Also my coop isn't the easiest thing to get into, so I need to have fairly easy access to both of them for refills. I think I met both of my major requirements. Here they are ...

Waterer:

It took me a while to firgure out how to make this nipplie waterer stable enough that they couldn't knock it over. The holes that you see holding the metal bracket are actually two holes in one. The first is the one you can see which goes straight through the board, and there is another you can't see that is inside the first and goes down to hold the hook very securely. The top half is held by a string which wraps around it and then is tied off using those two screw on the side like a boat cleat. I absolutely love this water setup because I don't have to worry about shaving or anything in their water, and leaks are very minimal.

Oh yea, and that's the bottle conversion kit from TSC. I think it was like $4, and totally worth it. Though I don't suggest using it with a 2 liter bottle because it seems to leak a bit with that much water.

Feeder:

This feeder has worked out great. The stand pipe goes up about 10 inches. It's raised off the floor of the coop on the end with a piece of wood, and attached to the 2x4 of the coop by string, using the same cleat idea as the waterer. It's right in the front of the coop, so access is extremely easy.

Let me know what you think

Now all I have left to do is put up the hardware cloth around the bottom of my coop, which I think the DH and I are going to do this afternoon. And I'm considering putting a small 60 watt light bulb in the coop to help the chicks transition smoothly, but I haven't decided fully on that yet. They're going out next week, and I'm starting to get nervous. Haha!

 

[backdoorchicken]

how easy is it to change/add water to your water feeder? i think you may be adding water everyday given it's size. it may become tiresome. just my 2¢

on another note: VIRGINIA NATIVE YAY!!!

 

[Airilith]

Yay! Newport News? You're not terribly far ... just a few hours. LOL!

I actually have another waterer just like that, which is in the brooder right now. Once they go out for good, it will too. At the rate they're drinking I can get about 1.5-2 days worth of water from one bottle. So with two I'll be refilling every 3-4 days. Sounds alright. I know that'll change as they get older, but changing water once a day is no biggy. And it's not that hard to get to. That cleat setup is real handy. Just undo that and it pops right off. Refill and replace. Not something I'd like to do every hour, but handy enough for once a day (if need be).

I have considered a waterer for outside, but with it being cold and all it'll just freeze. So I'm saving that plan for spring.

Thanks for point that out though.

I'll have to keep an eye on water consumption.

 

[gsim]

Neat ideas and neat work too.

I moved my watering to outside. Had a great water and feed troughs I made from pvc house guttering and end caps. They were on removable wall mounts in the coop. No spillage of water or food. But always had litter getting up into the water from the chooks scuffling and flapping around like they always do. Had to clean it twice a week on top of daily removal of debris. It got old and I made both into food troughs and now do all water outside. In really cold temps, I just bring a gallon of really warm water from the house. What I like about it now besides not having to mess with the water trough cleaning is this. When I go out in AM to do morning chook chores, they want out for a drink so I immediately close pop doors after they exit and that way they are not underfoot as I do my work in the coop. You may want to do that when yours are older. No way mine could find their way to a water trough after dark in my coop as it is 8 x 16. So when they go in for the night, they have had their last drink of water until AM when I come out. They seem fine with that and are producing well especially for wintertime.

If we were out of town and someone else was watching the chooks, I would restore the indoor watering trough just to cover the possibility of that person being tardy for AM chores.

 

[SoJoChickens]

I like your feeder design. I'll save it for future reference! Thanks for sharing.