The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[maidenwolfx80]

I feed a couple times a day and have no problem with that. I love spending time with them so it is a good excuse to get out there. I always keep the feeders well stocked but take out treats ans such to them throughout the day. They are what keeps me sane so being out there with them is what I enjoy.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Thanks for all the coop and bird photos! Really enjoying them. Now to answer Maiden's waterer question:

Does anyone care to share any homemade feeders or waterers?

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out a waterer that would accomplish several purposes:

-Didn't want dirty water setting in a pan or bowl at the base of the waterer
-Wanted a waterer that fills from the top; not one that you have to turn upside down to fill
-Wanted it to last for several days before needing to refill
-Wanted it to, with the aid of a small heating device, be useable most of the winter - and hopefully all winter long

I had originally planned on doing the "chicken water nipples" and purchased a couple different kinds to test them. One of the types dropped too much water resulting in wet stinky litter below. It did not leak, just let too much water out when the chickens drank from them. The second nipple I tried didn't let enough water out (!) and the birds got discouraged and didn't like drinking from them. In the end, in my opinion and experience with them, they were an "unnatural" way for a chicken to drink, and they never really liked using them. Not to mention that I couldn't use them inside the coop without having come kind of a "catch pan" below them to keep from having a mess in the litter.

Then...I found the mini cup waterers. These waterers were designed to be used on pvc pipe with a low pressure water hose connected to deliver constant fresh water. I DID NOT want to use them that way as I wanted to be able to use my waterers for winter as well as summer. Obviously a pvc pipe system would freeze up so that was out of the question.

After gathering some information, talking with distributors, and thinking it through a little bit, I decided to try an experiment to see if the waterers could be used on buckets (similar to the nipples - just attached to the side instead of the bottom). [FYI - when I spoke to the owner of Cornerstone where I purchased the cups, he told me he didn't think they'd work on a bucket. He was wrong!] I have been using these on the bucket since late summer and they're working wonderfully! Now, for some photos, videos, and winter assessment:


They have 2 different cup types. I originally bought a couple of each type to compare them.





Cup type A. (So far I like this one best. It is the less expensive at $1.70 ea.) This one PASSED THE FIRST FREEZE TEST.
I purchased these at http://www.cornerstone-farm.com/equipment/poultry-float-valve-226





Cup type B ($3.00 ea. Mechanism is replaceable inside when the internal sealing ring goes bad.) This one DID NOT PASS the first freeze test.
http://www.cornerstone-farm.com/equipment/poultry-float-valve-363



These cups have stems with threads on them. I used trial and error to figure out what drill size I'd need. (Have to apologize that I can't find the size marked down anywhere. I plan to do some more and I can update with the size then.) then I visually marked where to drill the hole in the side of the bucket so that if the bucket was sitting on the ground, the cup would be above the ground. I wrapped the threads with plumbing tape and screwed them into the bucket. Bucket was free from the local supermarket's bakery department.

Note: if you look closely at these, you'll see a rubber ring that's between the bucket and the waterer. I went down to Lowes and bought some O rings that would fit the neck as I thought that might keep them from leaking. Not sure I needed them but I put them on anyway.

On both of these: As the chicken puts their beak in, it moves the nipple and releases more water down. The cups stay mostly empty - it's tripped when they beak in the cup.

Easy to clean out. When stuff gets in the bottom of the cups from their beaks, I either take a wadded up paper towel or an absorbent rag and sop up any water and wipe out the cup. You can also just turn them upside down to dump the water then wipe out. I've found that the amount of water in the bottom of the cup is so little that it doesn't hurt to turn it into the litter at all.




Here's what the bucket looks like. BE SURE NOT TO PUT A TIGHT FITTING LID ON TOP. Same for nipple waterers. If a lid is closed, it creates a vacuum and no water will be let down. KEEP YOUR LID AJAR.




You can see a strange chain up there. The only reason I have it is to keep the birds from jumping on top of the bucket and roosting. I was concerned that they'd jump up there and end up IN the bucket of water since the lid is always ajar.





WINTER TRIAL
For winter, I put a bird bath heater into the bucket. These are thermostatically controlled to come on near 35 degrees and shut off around 40 or so. Here's the bird bather heater looking down into the bucket. You can see a glass pyrex in there. I have since turned the glass upside down and sit the bird bath heater on top of the upside-down glass. This gets it closer to the waterer mechanisms and, I think, gives me a better shot at keeping them from freezing. I like the Pyrex either way so that the heater isn't sitting directly on the plastic.





Current Winter Use Assessment:
-So far I've only had a few nights in the 20's. I had problems with the mechanism inside Cup B freezing; No freezing with Cup A. Cup A wins the freezing test and I've since removed Cup B and replaced it with a second Cup A.

-If there is water pooled in the bottom of the cups it will, of course, freeze. Most the time the cups are almost empty but occasionally they have a little water sitting in the bottom of them. This problem is easily solved if you are out at the coop in the evening after the chickens go to the roost. You can simply twist the cup to turn it upside down to drain the water out. The amount of water is so small that it is not an issue in the bedding.

-My biggest concern was that the mechanisms inside the stem would freeze. So far this has not happened on Cup A with the bird bath heater installed. We have not had SUSTAINED cold weather - only 2-3 days at a time in the 20's. I'll reevaluate after seeing how they do if the temps remain in the 20s or below for longer periods of time.




Here are a couple videos so you can see how they're really designed to be used and get a better idea of how they work:

 

[galefrances]

In all opening coops, feeding twice, collecting eggs and lockup is an hour out of my day. Roughly.
If you have chickens you are attracting mice and rats anyway, without even trying. Reminds me, I need to set a rat trap tonight

. Personally, if I had such a feeder, I would be using it.

Thanks stony. I have some problems walking and I try to organize everything I have to do for the birds into once a day. The coops only 150ft from the house, but trust me, sometimes it feels like a mile.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

wonderful waterer idea thank you

 

[galefrances]

I feed a couple times a day and have no problem with that. I love spending time with them so it is a good excuse to get out there. I always keep the feeders well stocked but take out treats ans such to them throughout the day. They are what keeps me sane so being out there with them is what I enjoy.

I love spending time with mine too.....just once a day though.

 

[Leahs Mom]

And now....I'm off to take down the electronet before the predicted snow storm and high winds come in tomorrow!

 

[galefrances]

I made this too. Leah's directions are very easy to follow and it's a cinch to make. ( Thanks Leah) I'm waiting to see what happens when the temp drops again. I have mine on a dog bowl heater.

I also have an automatic pvc feeder that I made. It holds enough feed for one week for 12 birds.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

I love spending time with mine too.....just once a day though.

Lol alot of mine are pets and I like to be outdoors more than inside so I spend 50%of my day with them.

 

[Crafty-Duck]

Lol alot of mine are pets and I like to be outdoors more than inside so I spend 50%of my day with them.

Same here!

 

[Rachel'sFlock]

Have completely lost track of who said what, so I am not going to try to quote~

As to coop shoes, I 'fell into' exclusive coop shoes when a friend gave me a hideous pair of pink crocs. They are abhorrent for fashion, thus perfect for coop-only shoes. I call 'em my farm crocs. I would never wear them off property, and my world is very muddy, so I never wear 'world shoes' out there. Apparently we are very biosecure for this accidental reason. No one else goes into my coop and I don't visit/handle other chickens.
As one example, a woman brought a barred rock to my Dad's radio station for his retirement broadcast (I sincerely have no idea why she felt this was appropriate

). It looked to me, from a safe distance, to have something wrong with its legs although it may have been stray feathering. I felt it could be scaly mites or something, so I avoided it like the plague, despite my natural tendency to want to hug a chicken, whenever possible (mine don't find it funny, so I leave them alone, but necessary handling). I was just instinctively leery of handling a strange bird whose condition I already questioned.

Someone recently asked if it wouldn't be easier to just fill the dry feed bin every few days than to feed the FF one or 2 times per day, or to have less chickens rather than more. YES! It is easier. I have 20, almost all fully grown, living in a too-small-to-be-locked-in coop for those numbers. Since the babies have been on their own, I have been setting an alarm to let them out to be either in their plenty big pen, or free range from daylight to dusk. Because I don't have a powered pop-door or an LGD, I have to be home to both let them out and shut them up.
They have more than enough roost room, and they get on very well because of their breed.
5 are on the bubble for culling the beginning of next month, and that will relax numbers in the coop. A couple of others are under observation until Spring when I do the final annual cull. I have to hatch more than I need, because there are always roos for the eating.

It would be great to be able to just pour feed in a bin and call it good, like I used to. The FF is more work, but I am pleased with the results. I think fondly of the easy old days all the time, as I go about my chores, but I am not willing to give up the positive results (and frankly, the tremendous savings I have experienced from using it).
In this way, having 5 would be no easier than having 20. FF is just a bit more work. But it is worth it. Financially and condition-wise.

I am loving everyone's pics and finding the thread very useful. Thanks for everyone's participation!!!

edited to add a missing word