How do you keep shavings out of feed and water?

[sandy sea]

Broody Hens keep scratching at the chick's feed and spilling it all over. The chick's water is also getting full of shavings. What can I do? I have tried bowls, pans, and even the feeder that they sell for chicks. Should I just remove some of the shavings? I use the deep shavings, but I guess I could remove most of it. Is there another way to keep the food and water available for the chicks?

 

[redhen]

You need to set the bowls on something up off of the shavings. I'll sometimes use a piece of wood... or a tray...an inverted plate. for bigger birds a cinder block...anything really that keeps the food/water up off the shavings. Just make sure that they can reach the food/water.

 

[lorrir]

I put the water and/or feeder in a large shallow pan (I use the oil change kind) and place on cinder blocks. If the coop is low you can hand from a chain.

 

[Mahlzeit]

There really isn't a way to keep the shavings out of the food an water. Doesn't matter if you use deep litter or just a little bit of shavings. I have my waterer on a brick and they still get shavings in the water. It's a pain but I haven't really found much of a solution. When I have chicks without a mother hen I have them on shavings/papertowels for the first week or two and then put them on a wire bottomed brooder. It works amazingly. Good luck.

 

[sandy sea]

I just went down to the coop and again the water is full of shaving and the Hens have scratched out the food. I am going to have to find something to put it on! If I put the food and waterer on a cookie sheet and than place a brick under it and on top of it do you think that it might work. The hen scratches soo hard that I would not want her to toss over the pan on the chicks.

 

[juliect]

The best way to not get shavings in food and water dispensers, is to not get chickens

I've elevated mine & it still happens. Yesterday I saw one of my chicks pick up a piece of shavings, walk over to the feeder, placed shaving in one opening and proceeded to eat out of the next opening. I still haven't figured out the thought process behind that maneuver.

 

[fldiver97]

After having tried shavings, then straw (ended up in water and feeder) despite raising them on bricks off the ground, having tried a variety of feeders

and waiting to see if the girls were a bit more "tidy" after they were grown I recently bought 2 wallfeeders and drilled a hole in my plastic waterer (drilled hole in the top and used washers before I threaded a bolt through) to hang it in the pen things have gotten better. Still not perfect - as mentioned in one of the posts a chicken picked up shavings and put it in the feeder - lol) I have decided that it must be like flavoring or decoration (well, we put sprigs of parsley and stuff on our plates...) for the chickens

But it really more managable now and no chickenpoop in water or food.

 

[chicks4kids]

My feeder and waterer is over a hardware cloth floor right now ( a 4x7 area) and the rest of the coop (8x7) has the deep litter. This is where the roosts and nest boxes are. My feeder mounts on the wall and they seem to keep it pretty clean. The water is hanging from the ceiling and for the most part, they keep that clean-most debris falls through the floor.

 

[juliect]

Quote:

Garnish! Of course! Like the little umbrellas in drinks.

 

[joebryant]

I have cheap chains from Home Depot hanging from the ceiling with double ended hooks (one squeezed tightly on the handle) to hang the waterer and feeder from. They're too high up to get anything in them, but the hens and rooster can reach them.
Chicks?
That's a different story. You just have to change the water much more often until they're a few weeks old and can stretch their necks to get a drink from a waterer hanging from the ceiling.