What to feed and how to water older hens?

[SarahBethsMommy]

I'm getting my first chickens this week. I have the coop set up now (very generally) and I was wondering about how you guys feed and what you'd feed to older chickens. I'm getting 6 from a woman who is tired of taking care of them. 2 are older and have been laying a while. The other 4 are about 4-5 months old but she said have not started to lay yet.

I would like to make or use stuff I already have to create a feeder and waterer, but I also want to keep it fairly clean for them, so just setting something on the ground doesn't seem right to me. I've seen it numerous ways in my research, but wanted to hear your ideas and what you think is best.

For the feed, should I do layer with all them? What else is recommended? I've seen articles talking about a ton of different things to buy and feed them. They will be able to be in the yard which is about a 20ft square area or so in addition to the coop. I can't let them just free range as our neighbor's dogs tend to eat the chickens as quickly as they can. So they have a large area to be in, but I don't know if I should still supplement?

 

[Den in Penn]

At 4-5 months the younger ones can handle the calcium in the layer, as they are near enough to laying. Most either hang the feeder and waters or raise them some other way, both to keep the dirt out and keep the chickens from spilling the feed out. Whats best is what works in your coop. I prefer to place my waterers on cinder block and the feed trough has legs.