Share your history of feeder/waterer setups pros and cons?

[Smokerbill]

@LifeSimpleAndSweet
What you use for feeders and waterers depends upon your needs. How many chickens? Feeder in the coop or just the run? Climate? Not being able to fill the feeders and waterers daily?

View attachment 3487398

and a 5 gallon bucket with self-filling cups for water:
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(Rent-a-Coop is the brand I used)

I also have two simple waterer bottles that clip on the side of my run.
View attachment 3487402In two months I haven't had any issues

Eight chickens, totally dry coop and run area.

 

[Dough Hill]

I think food available 24/7 draws rodents.

I think your on to something here 2 years ago I stopped filling my hanging feeder to the top and just put 2 scoops of Feed in it enough for 2 days I see very little mice now if any and with help from the neighbors down the road Cat every evening I think I have this in check. Thanks for sharing. Oh BTW I make sure my neighbor gets plenty of eggs.

 

[RubelliteRose]

I think food available 24/7 draws rodents.

Absolutely! We take our feeders out of the run every night, but still had mice eating the spilled food. We put the feeders in rubber bowls during the day and set snap traps every night for a couple of weeks. I think we finally got rid of all the mice - important now that snake season is upon us

I have that same food and water set up. I love the ports. But I don't like the watering cups... I didn't get the rent-a-coop ones, so maybe that's my fault. They're just some non brand kind. Maybe I'll try the branded ones. But these ones leak like crazy.

We had the rent-a-coop cups. We were using 3 and had 2 as backups. All but one broke within a few months

 

[Dough Hill]

We put the feeders in rubber bowls

I like your idea of feeding with the rubber bowels. I’ve never set traps in my coop or Barn but if I get Mice again I will. Yes snake season is here already here in the Ozark Foothills lots of people saying they have see them.

 

[mcdze]

i free range them and theyre free to come and go, so i just dont keep food and water in the coop itself, i feed them a set amt in the coop daily and water is setup outside .. if its in the coop somebody always poops in the water bowl .. every time .. im like ok who did it lol ..

 

[BarnyardChaos]

i free range them and theyre free to come and go, so i just dont keep food and water in the coop itself, i feed them a set amt in the coop daily and water is setup outside .. if its in the coop somebody always poops in the water bowl .. every time .. im like ok who did it lol ..

Bowls will always get pooped in, I think. I keep one small waterer in the coop, too - just for the mornings I want to sleep in a bit. Had to place it where I could fix a small scrap of plywood above it, so no one can get on or above it, and no one poops in it - and I set it on a slightly raised platform so they don't scratch bedding into it, either. Still gets a little messy, but not so bad now!

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I have a 30 lb galvanized hanging feeder in the coop (someone posted a pic already) and a DIY 5 gal bucket horizontal nipple waterer. No leaks. In summer I fill a XL dog water bowl (holds 1 gal - belonged to my sweet Bella [RIP] the St Bernard) and put it near the chickies favorite shady hangout near the garage.

 

[drangle]

I also have a large tub of water available outside the run. they get most of their water there. I dump it at night and refill it in the morning so it will be fresh and night time predators wont have a water source near my hens.

 

[Smokerbill]

USPS delivered my feeder orifices today. Need to decide on the container I'll mount them on. Something with flat sides would be better than a 5 gallon bucket, I think. Maybe a storage container of some kind.

 

[kiwibum]

I use old plastic toilet cisterns for water troughs (thing at the top that stores the water in case I have the wrong name for them). I think I got the idea from this site, don't remember, I've been using them for over 8 years now.

I take out the flush valve and replace it with a bath plug so I can easily pull the plug out to clean trough when required. Cut out part of the front where the flush button was to give animals access to the water. I retain the fill valve and use an old washing machine inlet hose to attach to nearby tap or plumb into a water line directly.

This gives a fully automated water trough from stuff people are throwing away! As you can see via the photos I have lots of these, I originally had a couple on wheels I could move between areas as I moved the ducks round, but now I have enough to have them everywhere. The one with the round holes is for my chickens.

Only problems I have is the ducks fill them up with mud and I have to pull the plug and flush them out periodically. Not a problem for the one the chickens used. I do test the fill valve on the newer versions as the floats sometimes stick on the fill tube they slide on. The best ones are the old ballcock type with long float arms, less to go wrong and easy to bend the arm to set the water level.

I use treadle feeders for both ducks and chickens. Ducks and chickens are in separate areas otherwise the pirate ducks would eat all the chicken food and spit in chickens water when done!