Automatic Chicken Waterer and Feeder
When my wife and I were thinking about getting chickens one of our concerns was how difficult it would be to care for them. I’ve got friends who completely “baby” their chickens (e.g. chicken diapers, baths, cleaning their watering dishes daily with bleach, etc.). I’ve also got friends who barely even deal with their chickens other than to make sure they’ve got some food and some water (no matter how dirty). I wanted to find a good balance between these two extremes, between fanatical and neglect.
One of the big “chicken care” questions was regarding food and water. I wanted to automate this process as much as possible.
WATER:
I looked into quite a few different solutions for getting water for my girls. One of those was to setup a nipple watering system. The pro’s of this system were:
1) They wasted less water.
2) They took up less floor space.
3) They didn’t fill up with dirt, feathers, leaves, shavings, etc.
The biggest cons of this system were going to be setting it up and training my girls how to use it. After buying a few of these nipples and testing them I decided I’d try something else.
I saw some automatic poultry watering systems at the feed store but they were pretty expensive. I found something at Wal-Mart that works just as well and have been VERY happy with it. It is a “Never Dry Auto-Wata” system for dogs. It was only $12.78.
FOOD:
NOTE: This feeder (dubbed Frankenfeeder) is the perfect example of function over form. It worked great in all of it’s hideous glory! Below is an update with the new homemade chicken feeder I’m currently using (a bit better looking, more functional, larger capacity).
I saw a lot of different feeding systems and couldn’t decide what to do. I had a few extra mason jar feeders and thought I’d attempt a modification to one of them. If it didn’t work then I’d go out and buy something.
I took the mason jar feeding attachment and a small plastic peanut butter jar that was the same size as a mason jar. I cut the bottom off of the jar and attached a bigger peanut butter jar to the smaller one. I cut out the bottom of that one and took a long piece of A/C conduit and funneled the end a little to fit into the larger peanut butter jar. I then cut out the bottom of a big plastic container and attached it to the top of the conduit. Finally I cut some holes into the conduit and plastic container and threaded through some wire. This wire would support the majority of the weight of the feeder and take pressure off of the jars. I really like this feeder because it was cheap, takes up very little floor space, is easy to refill, holds a lot of feed, and oh yeah… it was cheap! I haven’t kept excellent track, but it seems that I only need to refill this feeder about 1-2 times a month. To the right is the finished product. It isn’t pretty, but is works GREAT!!!
Another idea I had was to add a tin pie plate nailed to a piece of wood that would catch the food as it is “billed out” by the girls. This keeps a substantial amount of food off the ground and from being wasted. The wood and the nails also help keep the feeder in place and from falling off of the cement block it is resting on. Below is a closer look
Additional Notes:
- My chickens spend most of their day free ranging in a large section of the back yard.
- The automated water system is outside of the coop / run.
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I’ve got the feeder in the chicken run with a gallon waterer. I need to refill this waterer about every two weeks.
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I feed my chickens old wheat from food storage and day old bread I get for free from the local supermarket. I also give them piles of worms and bugs from my compost bin. I haven’t noticed any decrease in egg size, frequency, or quality, but I have noticed a HUGE drop in the amount of feed I have to supply. This is wonderful since chicken feed in the city is about $14 for a 50 lb. bag.
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I decided to do a test and didn’t give my girls any bread, wheat, worms and they weren’t let out of the run as much. They went through the whole feeder full of layer pellets in about a week!
UPDATE 9/15/07
I finally upgraded my “temporary” feeder so something a lot bigger and hopefully a bit nicer looking. You can read all the details here: HomeMade Chicken Feeder
UPDATE 12/2/09
My system has been working great for years. There were only two problems I’ve had:
- Waterer: The white supply hose going to the auto chicken waterer split open and gave our yard a good soak. I’m not sure if it was a weak spot because of a kink or if maybe a thirsty rat wanted a drink. A $2.75 hose mender and 10 minutes later everything was fine.
- Feeder: During a really bad storm some sideways rain got into my wood feeder… what a mess! I took the whole thing apart, scrubbed it out with bleach, let it dry really well and painted it all over an put it back together. Of course I also made sure that there would be no way water could get at the feeder again!
Please visit my site http://www.backyardchickens.com/ for a ton of great info on raising chickens.
Also, register with our 5,000 member community of chicken addicts: www.backyardchickens.com/forum/
To Mo Hillbilly
You must remember chickens eat and scratch things on the ground, people use pesticides on their grass, fertilizers, and weed killers, These items are toxic to chickens if eaten. Also the perfumed kitty litter is also toxic if eaten. Lime if highly deadly so becareful what you put under your roosts. Chickens do not do well with modern pesticides and etc. Keep them healthy go natural. The grass is a good idea if you know what has or has not been put on it.
Judi in Wyoming
Again I say, please listen to Judi.
I have to add expound on my agreement. Our chickens are free to come an go outside. The chicken hole was cut just large enough for them. Sometimes I wish it were larger. NOTE: their outside area is fenced against predators, otherwise we would have to close the door each night. That means there is not much to clean up inside.
Outside they eat the grass that grows, but we try to put grass clippings in there. They are our clippings and we don’t use any of that junk. The fact that we are eating the meat and eggs should be sufficient, but I am amazed at people who put toxic pesticides and herbicides on their vegetable gardens–Amazing.
I disagree with a lot of what environmentalists say, but one thing I agree with is that we must stop poisoning our food, water, and air. There are natural alternatives. If you are tempted to poison, write back and I will give you a natural solution.
Thank You Judi and Dallas. I didn’t realize lime was poisionous. We used it for pickles when canning.
The kitty litter can’t be reached by the chickens though. But as you have pointed out it is going to be put in the ground somewhere.
Dallas if you have a home remedy that is not poisionous I would surley like to use it. Any and all your remedies would be welcome. Thank You.
Am glad I put the ideas out here so they could be corrected and made better. I did and do not intend to poison or be mean to them and/or our enviroment.
Thank You Both,
Barbara
ps: I catch alot of flies with a can of sardines in maybe 4 plastic water bottles or such filled half full with water. One little 1/4 inch hole in the lid of the bottle. And the proverable fly strip of course.
Please do not get me wrong, I am NO tree hugger, but I do love animals and believe we should eat eggs that are natural, we also do not feed medicated food. I believe that the animals deserve the same treatment as we do when it comes to food and water.
Hope you have as much fun with your chickens as we do.
Judi in Wyoming
Mo. Hillbilly,
You asked for a home remedy, but what are you wanting to solve?
All,
By the way, speaking of kitty litter, we are experimenting with cracked corn. Cats seem to like it, and there are much less questions as to where to put it. We don’t need clay anywhere on our property, and no worries with the corn having anything added to it as it was intended as livestock feed.
In Reply to Dallas,
RuralnearDallas Says:
March 18th, 2009 at 3:15 am
Our chickens were in an enclosure in our barn until last month when a tornado blew it away:( They had a dirt floor which worked fine. Now we have them in a wooden building that used to be a playhouse. It is about 6′ x 8′. It has a wooden floor. We have about 12 birds in it.
Dallas, you should put your waterer on a longer chain and get rid of the pole, or raise the pole higher so the chickens cannot fly up to it. It really sounds a bit crowded in a 6×8 playhouse for 12 chickens with feed and water in there.
Also Dallas I am continuing to use kitty litter unscented) under my roosts. Clay is really not a bad thing. With the wire grid that is under the roost there is no problem with the chickens getting to any of the kitty litter anyway.
Lime (also know as Dololite) is a wonderful thing to use under the roost. Lime is not poisionus.
Corn will rot and smell really awful if you are trying to use it for your Cat. Besides drawing unwanted rodents when you toss it out.
So, Dallas, do you have another HOME remedy?
TO the girl that wanted to know why her Water Turned Green. The Sun turns water green. Keep it in the shade or covered some kind of way. A Wishing Well sounds lovely.
Grannie
OK.
Our chicken house would be too small except that it has a door to a rather large chicken yard. They can come and go as they please.
The pole was when the chickens were in the now gone barn. Our current system works well.
There is nothing wrong with clay except that we have too much on our property. We don’t have any problems with the corn.
I wouldn’t have any problem using lime except I don’t know why I would. I guess it is for order control, but we don’t seem to have a problem with that.
looking to make water and feed containers, does anyone have ideas..leaving for a 5 day vacation this summer and trying to be perpared..for our chickens..thanks for any help.
does anyone have any idea on how to make water and feeders for chickens, planning a summer vacation and trying to get prepared
Rhonda,
how many chickens do you have?