Why 'hang' food or water?

[polychickens]

What is the purpose in hanging a food or water container? To raise it off the floor? To make it move when a bird tries to sit/s*it on it? Just wondering.
Polychickens

 

[barg]

Just put my girls out in their coop this week and have been wondering the same thing.
At this point I have their food and water on a board thats weged under the coop frame on the ground in the run portion, then inside, I have another food and waterer on a shelf thing I built, in about 5 minutes, to set them on.

Went to the feed store to look at things to hang and nothing seemed better then what I had.

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

After a couple of days of cleaning the poo and wood chips/straw out 5 times a day you should start to see the benifits of hanging them

it also helps keep vermin out of them.

 

[Dawn419]

Quote:
AMEN!!!!

I had my waterer on a pedestal of bricks, same with my trough feeder. Once they started doing their scratching thing in the shavings, they had built up the shavings over the bricks and all in both water and feed. Now, they are well on their way to be 4 weeks old and dust bathing makes an even bigger mess.

I got thrifty today and made them a seperate "dining" area off of their original brooder. They are kinda miffed because they can't scratch around in it but you should see all of them enjoying the open floor space in the original "house" and I've laughed 'til I cried watching them all dusting at the same time.

 

[4H kids and mom]

Chicken coops are bound to attract mice, and bugs of all sorts. Hanging the feeder and waterer is the only way to keep rodents and bugs out of their feed. Placing them on a pedestal makes it easy for things to eventually find their way to the "free food" and then you'll have a REAL problem on your hands.

Hanging them also keeps the chickens from sitting and yes, pooing, in their food and water, and prevents bedding and other things from making their water unsanitary.

 

[BirdBrain]

Quote:
Dawn, We called that "Chick-o-vision" at our house.

My son brought in a tape recorder one day and recorded the Cornish rocks talking. He conducted a sort of interview with them. It was hysterical!! what was even funnier was when he played it back to the chickens. The got quiet and just listened. Another time there was a movie on in the house and I had the door open to the garage. The sound of cats meowing really got the birds attention.

 

[fowlweatherfriends]

Hanging will most likely be the best method for anyone in the long run. My active chickens keep knocking the waterer over and I am REALLY tired of mucking out the soaked and nasty bedding!

I am going to purchase some hanging items from our feedstore asap!

 

[polychickens]

Thanks for responding. The rodent-proofing seems to be the only angle I don't have covered by not hanging the feeders.

When I tried a large hanging feeder from the farm store, the chickens would sit on top of it and poop down the storage cylinder into their feed because it had no top/lid. I placed a board on top of it and that just allowed MORE birds to sit on top of it and they pooped down the outside of the cylinder into the trough where the food is dispensed.

My solution to this was to ditch the food storage cylinder top part and use only the bottom tray. On top of the tray, I place a cylindircal shaped vertical 'jail bar' setup with a witch-hat top that the chickens cannot sit on. If I knew how to post a pic, I would. These gems were left over from Pop's pigeon hobby in the 60's/70's. No more poop problem, but I cannot hang this setup so I wonder about rodent proofing it???

Thanks for the help!
Polychickens

 

[akyramoto]

I've recently discovered mice that live under my shed that is next to my coop. it actually might be a rat. i'm not sure.

has anyone tried this type of waterer? I was thinking if i got two or 3 sets it might work out well to keep the chickens 'quenched'
http://www.enasco.com/ProductDetail.do?sku=C26360N

 

[FamilyOfChickens]

Just a question...If you hang the water, wouldn't they just jostle it and slosh water all over the place? Mine did when I tried it. We have the food hanging an inch or two off the ground, but the water is just raised up a few inches.