I'm Lazy - Low maintenance ideas

[bogielousa]

Quote:
Great idea Steve! First time I've seen this. How come I couldn't think of this? LOL

What about when it rains?

It can come down without warning around here!

I try not to fill my feeder too full.. That way I lose very little, if at all. They will usually eat what gets wet within the same day.

I use something similar to this for my ducks, except for rain protection I put the pan in an old plastic/rubber (whatever it's made out of) dog house I had, that was falling apart (the top no longer snaps tight and the bottom has holes) and is very drafty but it still works fine to keep the rain off. It's a very large dog house, so the ducks can go into the house to eat, plus it repurposes a dog house I was going to throw away.

 

[Nonny]

I have my feeder up on bricks to raise it off the ground a little, and it sits under a canopy I rigged up to give the girls some shade. Even on the stormiest day the feeder itself has only got a few drops of water on it - the food has stayed dry as a bone. You could do that with any sort of feeder to keep the rain out.

 

[SteveBaz]

hat about when it rains? hmm It can come down without warning around here!

I try not to fill my feeder too full.. That way I lose very little, if at all. They will usually eat what gets wet within the same day.

The feeder your looking at is under cover and out of the weather. At night I put a 5 gallon bucket over the entire unit to keep it from any weather or critters.​

 

[steinway]

Quote:
Ole Rooster - I hope you were kidding me - the title was meant to generate interest but I learned a long time ago to work "smart and hard" not just "hard". I would hope my chickens will have a better life if I do my homework before I start and do it right the first time.

 

[Judy]

I've decided the key to little work is lots of space. My metal coop is 11 x 17 and there are at present 11 chickens (not planned that way, but....) It is very well ventilated, in effect a three sided coop. The floor is dirt and the litter is a mix of pine shavings and hay, though if I had a pile of dry leaves or pine straw, or something similar, I would use them. No poop boards, no poop cleaning, no odor. If it gets a little wet or smelly in there, which is rare and usually from rain blowing in, I throw some more litter and / or some pelletized lime around. Every week or two I stir the litter under the roosts and throw a little fresh pine shavings there. I probably use 6 bales of pine shavings a year. My favorite nest box is a plastic bin with a front cutout. Once or twice a year the coop gets raked out and composted. I personally would not have external nest boxes because they can be complicated to weatherproof and predator-proof, and plastic is so easy to clean. There isn't any advantage for me, anyway. I sit in my coop every day and watch the chickens, in my dedicated coop shoes. I rarely even have to scrape poop off the soles. I use inexpensive plastic feeders and waterers. Daily chores take maybe 5 minutes, at most. Most of my time with chickens is just sitting, giving treats, whatever. I have an extra waterer so every day one gets hung upside down on a post to dry; I still have to clean out algae but this controls it to a great extent. I just keep a scrubbie and a jug of bleach at the water spigot just outside the coop. There's a large plastic bin there, too, to periodically soak feeders and waterers in bleach water. There again, if you have an extra or two, just put it in to soak and rinse later. I really don't have the energy for a high maintenance coop any more. If I had to deal with collecting and carrying off poop daily, and cleaning the coop weekly, I'm afraid I would have to give them away. I realize this kind of setup doesn't allow for real sanitizing, but it works; I've never seen lice or mites (I also sprinkle Sevin around) or had a disease. I feel the lime helps control undesirable inhabitants.

 

[steinway]

Thanks canesisters - I have rabbits in the other stall right now and have not seen any signs of any predators. There are tons of predators where I am so I am making sure the run will be very well built with hardware cloth all around and burried. I also will have it on top as I see flying predators. Thanks again.

 

[steinway]

Quote:
1. I simply lay some newspaper on the ground below their roost. Seems chickens will sleep/roost in the same place each night and >80% of the poop falls in the same place (on the newspaper).
2. We have a store bought hanging waterer. The hardest part is deciding if I want to fill it all the way up and lift a heavy waterer once a week or fill it up about half way and lift a lighter waterer twice a week.

The rain barrel idea could be even less labor intensive during the warm months, but would require some effort on the front end.
3. Feeders are simpler than waterers because the feeders don't need to be water tight. As with the waterer, I'd recommend hanging the feeder.
4. For weeks, my chickens didn't have anything in their nesting boxes. One of our birds likes to lay eggs in the sand in the corner of the hen house, so maybe sand would work?
5. I like having a small feeding door so I don't have to walk in to the coop to feed the birds (sorta like the inmates at the state prison

).

Thank you - someone suggested (not sure if it was this thread or another) to have the water and food in the run not in the coop. Where do you have them?

 

[hallerlake]

Quote:
Check out a treadle feeder like the one in my sig below. It wasn't that hard to make, and I fill it with about 20kg of feed and it lasts ages and stays bug and rodent free.


That part is very important.

 

[steinway]

Quote:
Thank you - I really like the extra waterer idea - I do that with my rabbits. Do you use Sevin and DE?

 

[steinway]

This was the rain water post in the forum I referred to earlier. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=585244&p=1 I hope someone else finds it interesting.