Chook Pen 3 - Homemade Chook Feeders And Water

So this was my original concept. Based on what I had seen of commercial ones. You have a nice big storage of food, holes in the bottom and then have the bottom tray's sides higher than the holes. I found it didn't work, I didn't make the sides of the tray high enough and had to add gaffa tape to make it work. Also, the tray was so wide the chooks kept spreading grain on the ground and since there was always new grain coming they wouldn't eat it. The water was also wrong, this got dirty real quick just from them digging. They even stood in it sometimes to eat. So scrap option one.

This is option two. I got two old buckets from the local cafe. They used to hold margarine or something. I cut holes in the side and hung them from the roof of the chicken coop. The chooks put their heads inside to eat or drink. Grain is not lost and the water rarely gets dirty. The hose in the bottom of the photo links up with the pickle drum water tank that catches rain off the roof. I love it.

This is another improvement we made. People advised us that chooks liked to feel protected while laying. So I closed in the nesting area as you can see in the photo. I used an old tv cabinet from my Dad. It was chipboard, I cut it up and nailed together some boxes. The nest was lined with sugar cane mulch. We then added some fine wood shavings. A friend is a woodworker and has heaps. The coop smells beautiful. This is meant to help reduce mites etc. I regularly scrape the poo up and put it in my compost.