Advice on feeders and drinkers please

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Rubellite

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Advice on feeders and drinkers please
« on: March 11, 2009, 22:31 »
Regarding my now unruly flock of hens, I am having to rethink my feeder and drinker. Prior to the new arrivals I had a large plastic plant saucer with a brick in it to stop them tipping it over. No problem and perfectly servicable. Now...............we have seed everywhere, straw and poo in the saucer, straw in the water etc etc, you get the picture. (I still can't believe how my so so tidy chicken house has become akin to a teenagers bedroom).
I never leave the food outside as the door to the shed is always open during the day. I don't like plastic much so have been looking at galvanised feeders. Will the gravity fed feeders stop some of the mess? What do you find best for drinkers? Don't mind spending a few bob as now I've got the chickens and I like them and I'll probably get more, I'd rather invest in a good piece of equipment that will last us.

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treacleminer

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Re: Advice on feeders and drinkers please
« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2009, 22:40 »
I've not tried them but have wondered about the treadle type feeders -

http://www.pandtpoultry.co.uk/index.php/fuseaction/shop.product/categoryid/57/productid/1397

(I'm sure other people supply them too).
I have a normal 'hatted' galvanised feeder which works pretty well but put food out every morning to cut down on pests - currently mainly starlings which also sh*t in the food given half a chance.  A treadle type one may allow you to refill it every 2-3 days and stop rats etc. getting at the food??

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Rubellite

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Re: Advice on feeders and drinkers please
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2009, 23:00 »
Lol - my girlies are so naughty I have visions of them bouncing all over the treadle and grain shooting everywhere!!  :D
I've cured the problem of the doves and crows coming down and stealing the feed by netting over the whole enclosure. Rats also don't present a problem at the moment. Had signs of one but poisoned it pretty quickly and haven't seen any other trademarks since. For this reason though, I like to keep the feed indoors and thus shut away at night. Shed is approx 8 x 6 feet so plenty of room. Do the trough feeders with lips work well, does anyone know? Just wondered if I were to stand it against a wall it would be more out of the way than a circular one.

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GrannieAnnie

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Re: Advice on feeders and drinkers please
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2009, 23:02 »
Being on a tightish budget, I usually go for plastic Ruby, although we do have some very old but still serciveable galvansied feeders from the last time we kept chickens.

Water wise, we buy these half height, but wider buckets from a cheapo shop around here called Scooby Do's.  they are only £1 and the oldest ones I have are about 3 years old, been out in all weathers and still going strong. Pictured with turkey!  Then at the other end of the scale are these ones we bought initially for the turkeys  to have inside, then the chicks had them, but solwayfeeders.com do these in a galvanised version as well I think.  But these are good.  never yet got tipped over, except a couple of times by the turkeys when empty!  They re the white and red ones in the picture.

Feeders we also get from Solways.  They hold10-12kgs of feed, and occasionally the inner crossover bit of plastic breaks if the chickens decide to go on a rampage, but solway also do a spare part for it.  We've had ours again for 3 years.
DSCF0015 (2) (320 x 240).jpg
2nd Amberlinks week4 001 (320 x 240).jpg
DSCF0002 (6) (320 x 240).jpg

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Rubellite

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Re: Advice on feeders and drinkers please
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2009, 23:18 »
I've never seen a half bucket, what a good idea! I am a bucket fan, when I see a bucket for 99p I just have to have it, they are so useful. Husband always steals my nice clean buckets and mixes concrete in them - grrr.
If the plastic feeders are durable enough I'll give them a go. Thought they may go brittle quickly, which was why I was thinking galvanised. I've only got 4 chooks to think about, looks like you've got a lot more than that.

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GrannieAnnie

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Re: Advice on feeders and drinkers please
« Reply #5 on: March 11, 2009, 23:38 »
If you keep your feeders inside like we do Ruby, they shouldn't go brittle for a long time.  they only go brittle when out in all weathers, but saying that, those half height buckets at £1 each are still going strong, apart from the one where I jabbed my garden claw in one to break the ice, but I jabbed it a bit to strongly and I made a hole in the bottom of the bucket!!!! lol

Perhaps those big ones are a bit big for 4 chickens, and yes, we have a few more than that, but only got about 115 at the moment!!!   :)

I always worry with buckets in case the water gets low and they fall in, but with these ones, if they get over adventurous and fall in, they just stand there knee deep in water looking silly!!!!
 :lol: :lol: :lol:

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Brambles

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Re: Advice on feeders and drinkers please
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2009, 00:04 »
If you only have a few hens, I find a hanging plastic feeder is very good.  My big girl Bertha used to tip out food from any other type of feeder, which is not only wasteful as it gets trampled and washed into the ground but also makes such a mess >:(
As for drinkers - I got a heavy steel one that is for geese (try and tip that one over Bertha ;) )  Hope you find a solution to your problem, your lot sound good characters!

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RGManby

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Re: Advice on feeders and drinkers please
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2009, 00:17 »
Most feeders have a loop in the centre, hang it on a piece of string 6" from the floor, they wont poo in it then  :tongue2:

I have a 6' piece of guttering with end pieces on, I just flush it out with the hose every day. Yes even when its raining  ::)
« Last Edit: March 12, 2009, 00:19 by RGManby »

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smiler43

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Re: Advice on feeders and drinkers please
« Reply #8 on: March 12, 2009, 16:34 »
We have 3 girls and they have in the run a very large pot dog dish for pellets, it stands on a couple of stones so they can't get their feet in it.  Works fine.  Proper plastic drinker again on stones, fine.  In the garden they have a washing up bowl full of water and we have a decorative barrel which they also like to drink from, in fact they'll drink from a puddle if it's there even though fresh is provided!!  We do take the food dish and water drinker out at night and put back in in the morning, stop pests.

Pic of drinker





« Last Edit: March 12, 2009, 16:37 by smiler43 »



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