My Coop, Feeder & Waterer for under $10

[yellowchickensmomma]

I love the waterer. I am looking for a new one. We had a metal on but can not put the ACV in it and the plastic one I bought is $25 piece of crap. The seal doesnt hold good and my coop floor gets soaked. I'm going to show my husband. Thanks for the idea.

 

[Maryallison]

Hey there and I just had to say I loved the way you saved money on the coop. My DH and I have recycled all of our coop so far. We own a rabbitry and all the coops are recycled rabbit hutches. After DH made customs built rabbit cages in our barn we had all these hutches sitting around. The we decided to buy chickens and wehad the idea to recycle the hutches. So far so good with it too. We have 3 seperate coops and haven't spend too much on materials.

Your chicks are adorable too!

 

[SurprisingWoman]

I think that is awesome. I have a small tractor and would love to make that feeder but I can't imagine how I would keep the feed dry since I can't keep it in house.

My concern is for digging predators. Is that going to be an issue since there is no floor? Just a thought for you.

 

[Rillion]

Hi HEChicken!

I was born and raised in Wichita and my parents still live there. I didn't know keeping chickens was legal there, though.....what an opportunity I missed growing up!

Your hand-made feeder is very similar to one featured in an article in the most recent issue of Backwoods Home magazine. Thought you might be interested to see it.

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
I've read a lot on the Predators sub-forum and its not that I don't worry about predators but feel safer than most. I live in the city in a newer subdivision that is close to downtown (redeveloped area that used to be a Catholic convent and boarding school). We just don't have a lot of the usual predators around here. I've seen the occasional opossum but no raccoons. My back fence is a 7' high brick/stone wall. The neighbors each put up wood privacy fences and in the front we put up wrought-iron style fencing, 5' high with 4" spacing between bars. Before we let the chooks out to free-range, we reinforced the front fencing by putting 4' poultry netting on the inside of the bars. This was to keep the still small chicks in and keep potential predators out.

I am actually more concerned about domestic dogs and cats than wild animals. My own two dogs killed one of our cats 7 months after we got them so I don't trust them with the chooks at all. Luckily they are wusses who don't like the great outdoors much. We no longer let them out unaccompanied and that seems to work just fine. They go out, we stand on the deck to watch them, they do their thing and then we all go in again. Our cat is also Mr. Hunter - he has brought in rabbits before. He's a 22lb cat and I think has it in him to kill the chooks if he wants to - and I'm sure he does. So the routine now is that he only goes out at night. This seems to work for him since cats are essentially nocturnal anyway. Once the coop has been shut up for the night, he goes out to do his rounds, spends the night in the house and then goes out again in the morning before we open the coop. Surprisingly, he seems happy enough with this arrangement and has not made a fuss about not being allowed out at other times (he used to be a purely indoor cat until about a year ago and when he did start going out, has limited himself to our backyard anyway). Having him actually seems to be an advantage. Since his territory seems to coincide with our fences, we NEVER see other cats in our yard so in essence, he is protecting our chooks from neighborhood cats even though he would like them himself!

I worry a little about hawks but we do have a good-sized deck for them to shelter under and I'm hoping that the shadow of a hawk would send them scurrying for cover.

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
Wow, that is similar - thanks! I think I got lucky that I found one in a thrift store, but the way he used it is the same as I did, using the bolts on the "ribs" that made contact with the bucket.

I'm not sure if chickens have always been allowed here or not, but when I looked up the ordinances we can have 5 hens without a permit or 12 with a permit. No roosters (although I occasionally hear one crowing in the early morning. Its not in our immediate neighborhood as it sounds some distance off, but as close as we are to downtown, there's no way its outside city limits so I guess as long as the neighbors don't complain....) So maybe your parents can get some. I'd love to know other people near me that are doing this.

 

[canada-goose]

Mrs. Barn Builder (MBB) :

Hi Out of the brooder,

Your post was quite interesting and your work - ingenious! You obviously think 'out of the box', which always seems to make life easier and a bunch more fun, don't you think?

Do you have pictures of your peeps? Are they named yet?

We have 4 year old hens - good layers. The queen is a light Brahma - a big girl, quite talkative and friendly. Her crew includes 2 Americana crosses and 3 Wyandottes.

Thank you for sharing! Take care.

MBB

I think he's called HEChicken, not Out Of The Brooder. Just wanted to mention it.
And welcome!​