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

[NinetreesMom]

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.

These are awesome! I made a nipple bucket a few weeks ago and I LOVE it. So clean and easy! I need a feeder next, and I love your design...looks easy to build and easy to use. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Here is a guide to build them. I use the same design to build little brooder feeders, I just use 1 gallon buckets an 1" PVC pipe instead of 2".

 

[Rich386]

Great job! Has everything I like easy, cheap and it works!

 

[NinetreesMom]

Thanks for the guide! I pretty much had it figured out, but cutting the threads shorter so you don't have so much unusable space/stagnant feed in the bottom is a great idea. I might cut a piece of stiff plastic to make a shallow funnel in the bottom to make it empty completely, but we will see if I get that ambitious or not.

 

[appps]

I use a PVC feeder so I can put lids on at night

and a $5 automatic water cup system off eBay that's hooked up to a 15L drum.

While we kept it simple for a while I found I was also keeping mice and attracting native rats so now I don't put food where it might lay around at night and attract them.
The kids do throw the occasional handful of scratch mix though.

We've also lost pet guinea pigs because the water got missed because a kid got sidetracked mid job. So I like the peace of mind of an automatic one with a spare bowl too just in case it fails

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Wow, everyone has some great ideas!!

 

[CGinJCMO]

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

Yes, I use two of them actually...one per pen hooked up to one 18 gal. bucket. I just put them back in today after winter (the water in the bowl would freeze so I had to go to heated waterers for the winter).
I don't remember the 10 psi requirement. That may be why I had to do a lot of fiddling. One would get debris caught in the screen filter and wouldn't fill. Otherwise, I loved them when they were new.
My first wish was to have the little cups like jungleexplorer shows but they were back ordered when I tried to get some and decided to go for these with the refunded money.

CG

 

[jenrysdam]

We made a nipple bucket with an aquarium heater in it. It worked great until winter came and the nipples froze and the plastic stretched. After that they leaked like crazy and made a big frozen mess It was great for the summer though.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

We made a nipple bucket with an aquarium heater in it. It worked great until winter came and the nipples froze and the plastic stretched. After that they leaked like crazy and made a big frozen mess It was great for the summer though.

if you have freezing problems try putting a ball in the water. Then it can't really freeze over.

 

[el pollo rey]

C

I love the water cooler creation.

cool