Why all the hacks?

[MiaS]

I'm a total newbie here...working on my first coop so I don't yet have any actual chickens. I have a question for you all. I see so many feed and waterer hacks on youtube and it makes me curious. Is there something inherently wrong with the commercial versions of these items? Is it cost, design or an innate desire to do something different that has people coming up with all forms of PVC, trash can, etc feeders and winter waterers?

I like making stuff but why bother if there is a well designed and tested product already out there? Maybe there isn't...I'd love to know!

 

[danceswithronin]

I use a gravity waterer (like the kind for cats and dogs), a salad bowl full of water as a backup, and I just put my chickens' feed in a large dog bowl.

Easy enough.

 

[blackandtan]

Cynical me says people are too cheap to spend a little on good equipment and would rather “make do” with stuff from home. More charitable me says people enjoy creating stuff.
There’s a ton of perfectly good feeders etc out there and I dont think there’s anything inherently wrong with any of them. IMO

 

[wamtazlady]

No commercial waterers would do what I wanted them to do. I wanted a waterer that would keep the chickens in water for over a week and not have the water freeze when it's -22 degrees F. My solution was a 10 gallon tote with lid, horizontal nipples and a stock tank deicer. None of the commercial waterers I looked into held more than 5 gallons of water.

I'm in my late 60s. I have COPD. I just can't get out when there is 2 feet of snow and ice outside as I am afraid I might fall down and break something. I pay someone to come once a week to tend to the birds. With the large waterer and large feeders the birds do just fine in winter. Have not lost a bird during the winter. I am grateful that they lay very little during the winter months so I do not have to worry about collecting eggs.

 

[Sequel]

I'm a total newbie here...working on my first coop so I don't yet have any actual chickens. I have a question for you all. I see so many feed and waterer hacks on youtube and it makes me curious. Is there something inherently wrong with the commercial versions of these items? Is it cost, design or an innate desire to do something different that has people coming up with all forms of PVC, trash can, etc feeders and winter waterers?

I like making stuff but why bother if there is a well designed and tested product already out there? Maybe there isn't...I'd love to know!

Yeah I know, right? Chicken keeping, like any hobby, interest or avocation, becomes an obsession pretty quickly. The feeders out of pvc are designed to hold lots of feed and not take up so much floor space and you put a cap on the fill end. The old metal hanging feeder I still use works just fine, but they don't come with a top to keep the chickens from perching (pooping) in it, so I bought a funnel at the auto parts store and made a lid for it.

I think lots of ideas also come as ways to make it easier or faster to do the chicken chores with less work or not even having to go in the pen before work. That feeder of mine is probably 60 years old, and the plastic ones they sell now are the same exact design with no top to keep the poop out. Then when you don't have mean cats or rat terriers the rats move in so you need a treadle feeder so you aren't feeding 40,000 rodents. lol!

I could have just said "You'll see!" I hope you have tons of fun when you get yours and I hope you share your own hacks because you WILL end up coming up with some! Good luck! Chickens rule!

 

[rosemarythyme]

For some it's cost savings... like the waterer I use is a little over $50. Someone good at DIY can probably make a similar item for less. Or sometimes you can't find a commercial option that works just as you were hoping for. And others probably enjoy making their own stuff.

 

[Willowspirit]

Waterers are a good example I think of lots of styles for the same basic task. Everyone wants to design the perfect waterer and there is a huge selection of different types.

First chick waterers. We have two styles. One is plastic with a plastic top and bottom. Easy to fill but easy to knock over. The other kind we got was a galvanized steel dish that “fits” a quart canning jar on it until it until it doesn’t and you spill a quart of water into your brooder.

So then how can we make waterers with no mess? Chick nipples! You put drinkers like for rodent cages in bottles of various sizes and chicks push the drinker and water flows. Or you can feel it when you do it and the chicks seem to be poking it correctly. But then after 24 hours of the new style you offer water as above and they drink like they’ve been crawling across the Sahara desert with a camel on their backs. I know the horizontal and vertical nipples work. I saw it on YouTube but maybe my chicks are so dumb they need

Cups! Okay so I ordered the cups but haven’t had the enthusiasm to install them yet especially when I realized they are not simple to clean!

And that brings me back to large “chick” waterers. Same as above. I have one hung up that my chooks hate because it swings. Naturally it stays clean and fresh because they won’t touch it. The ones on the ground that they like need to be cleaned every ten minutes or so because the dish gets filthy as soon as they pass near it.

I think these different designs relate to convenience, less maintenance, less expense and less mess and to some extent aesthetics. Those galvanized things can be bought cheaply in the farm store and dearly at boutiques.

I think my most successful one of all is the top of a two piece concrete bird bath I dragged 1,029 miles here from my old garden. My buff orpingtons love it!

 

[MiaS]

No commercial waterers would do what I wanted them to do. I wanted a waterer that would keep the chickens in water for over a week and not have the water freeze when it's -22 degrees F. My solution was a 10 gallon tote with lid, horizontal nipples and a stock tank deicer. None of the commercial waterers I looked into held more than 5 gallons of water.

I'm in my late 60s. I have COPD. I just can't get out when there is 2 feet of snow and ice outside as I am afraid I might fall down and break something. I pay someone to come once a week to tend to the birds. With the large waterer and large feeders the birds do just fine in winter. Have not lost a bird during the winter. I am grateful that they lay very little during the winter months so I do not have to worry about collecting eggs.

The freezing thing I definitely get as I'm in Canada and that seems like the biggest hurdle as far as equipment goes. I've seen mixed reviews on commercial versions.

 

[Acre4Me]

The freezing thing I definitely get as I'm in Canada and that seems like the biggest hurdle as far as equipment goes. I've seen mixed reviews on commercial versions.

We tried a variety of things, and ended up using the heated dog bowl the previous owners left behind. It worked, whereas the other heaters didn’t. We could likely figure out a bigger homemade solution, but spend our time on other tasks.

In addition to what others mention above, I also think the huge variety of coops, runs, and weather/site issues plays a role. Some need to create their own solutions to conserve space, keep feed dry, keep out rodents, hold lots of feed that lasts several days (but keeps out non-chicken critters), etc.

 

[Henriettamom919]

I use a gravity waterer (like the kind for cats and dogs), a salad bowl full of water as a backup, and I just put my chickens' feed in a large dog bowl.

Easy enough.

This is me, too! That being said I find plenty of other areas of chicken keeping to let my crazy fly in

It's kind of a 'welcome to the dark side' level of obsession at this point