How do you get water and food to your chickens? (Share your storys!)

[Trixy]

I actually found the tubes in the scrap bin, so it wasn't as bad as it "could have been" price-wise. Overall, I think I paid $30 for the materials: caps, plugs, 45 degree split, and tubes. I justified it to myself by thinking about how much 4 feeders plus wasted feed at Big R would've cost, but mostly that was just to make myself feel better.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

I'm in the process of building my second coop and I'm looking to re-think my whole food/watering situation. Is anyone using the cup pictured below? I'd like to hook this up to a rain barrel, perhaps 30 gallon, or even 55 (if space permits), but I'm concerned that there won't be enough pressure for it. This cup says it requires a minimum of 10psi, and all I've read for rain barrels is 7psi for a 55-gallon drum.... Thoughts?

Here's the link for the cup, if you're interested.
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Giant-...TF8&colid=2UEZL1X1DETQO&coliid=I2O5ENMYKLXDJN

Neat idea, I hadn't even thought of that. Maybe if you had a pressure valve mounted on the barrel you could get it past 10 psi. I don't know, just an idea.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

I actually found the tubes in the scrap bin, so it wasn't as bad as it "could have been" price-wise. Overall, I think I paid $30 for the materials: caps, plugs, 45 degree split, and tubes. I justified it to myself by thinking about how much 4 feeders plus wasted feed at Big R would've cost, but mostly that was just to make myself feel better.

Nice. 30 bucks ain't a bad price for four awesome feeders that keep the mice out! I think you did a great job at keeping the price down!

 

[Jungleexplorer]

I have about 150 birds and I use the drink cups for water and build my own custom feeders out of 5 gallon buckets.

I made my own low pressure valve by putting a float valve in a 5 gallon bucket and hanging in 5 feet off the ground. This gives me about 2.5 psi of pressure for my system. (see pic below). It is connected to a constant water supply. If I want to add something to the water I can just put it in the bucket and it gets administered to the whole flock. If it is dosage critical, I can just turn the water supply off and fill the bucket with the correct dosage. I tap and tread 1" schedule 40 PVC pipe for the drink cups and thread them directly into the pipe.







For feed I make these five gallon buckets.










For long term automatic feeding I use this more advanced model.

 

[NMEggLady]

We keep 2 gallon sized pans in the coop an fill them 1-3 times a day by hauling jugs or a bucket full of water out to the coop - have been looking to buy something larger but cost is a factor so we will continue to haul water for now. It's good exercise.

We feed our 40 hens and 2 roosters 3 times a day. They get a 5 pound coffee can full of mixed scratch and laying pellets along with a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full of lettuce. The lettuce we get from a local restaurant 3 times a week.

They are all healthy and 'happy'.

 

[chuckyone]

I found some meter long plastic troths on a jumble sale and connected them to a water butt and made them a feed hopper but the hens wont eat out of it, they prefer it out on the floor so I just scatter it all over for them

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

We have all the water in a barrel down by the coop and every month we fill the barrel with hose water. Its an easy way of doing things!

 

[Mehjr10]

I'm in the process of building my second coop and I'm looking to re-think my whole food/watering situation. Is anyone using the cup pictured below? I'd like to hook this up to a rain barrel, perhaps 30 gallon, or even 55 (if space permits), but I'm concerned that there won't be enough pressure for it. This cup says it requires a minimum of 10psi, and all I've read for rain barrels is 7psi for a 55-gallon drum.... Thoughts?

Here's the link for the cup, if you're interested.
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Giant-...TF8&colid=2UEZL1X1DETQO&coliid=I2O5ENMYKLXDJN

You will have to adjust the height of the drum, the higher off above the cup the more pressure you will get.

 

[Scott H]

For those of you who don't like the idea of nipples (I didn't either) you might try this cup deal.

I reviewed it recently. The other guy who reviewed it said it got plugged up but I can't see how it could happen if you installed it on a covered container.






As for the feeder, we splurged a little and had a member here build this one for in the coop.

 

[Rich386]

So here is the question, How do you get food and water to your chickens? Share storys here with this thread.

Lets get this thread rolling!!

Here is how I solved my water problem. I have not had to clean or touch it in over two years. These pictures were taken almost two years after I installed it.