Great waterer and feeder

[Blueskat]

I just finished making a waterier and feeder. The feeder is 4 foot tall 4 inch PVC drain pipe. A tee on the bottom with 18 inch pipe on both sides. Each bottom pipe has 3 hole that are 3 inches in diameter. The tee does not flow real well so the bottom pipe only fills about 1/4 way up. I think that is good because the chickens have to put their heads in and do not spill it or drag it out and waste it. It does flow enough to always have food in the bottom for them. The waterier I think is great idea. I used the water cups and made 5 separate down pipes so if one fails it will only drain one pipe not the complete system. The top pipe is made of tees and elbows so the end cap pulls off and the complete system can be filled at one time. It holds 17.5 gallons of water and can not get dirt or bugs in it. This set up should work good for the 22 birds that I have.
5 Partridge Plymouth Rock hens
5 Welsummer hens plus a rooster
5 Cuckoo Marans hens plus a rooster
5 Ameraucanas hens

So far this is working great so I wanted to share if this helps someone.

 

[janelle18]

These are awesome! I am in the process of putting up more coops and plan on making PVC waters and feeders. Right now my girls have just the typical 1 gallon water, that is filled with leaves and scratch within minuets of being refreshed!
Do you recommend the little cup like things that you have at the bottom of your waterer? I was just going to design my water to be the same as my feeder. Small holes so that things cannot get in but they can still drink..

 

[FireTigeris]

Beautiful! can rabbits use those cup things?

 

[Blueskat]

So far yes. I built the feeder last weekend so is has been up working and maintenance free for a week and the chickens have had no problem getting food. I did a lot of research on the water cups before I bought them. They seem to get good reviews. Most people put them in a pipe with a 5 gal bucket to supply the water. I did not like that idea if 1 sticks open it would drain all the water fast and they could be without water for hours, in Texas that is death. So I made mine so if one sticks I still have 4 that work. The chickens were playing with it after about 5 mins. I left the old water jug in the pen until I am sure that this is working and they all know how to use it. I should know more in a few days.

 

[Blueskat]

No they are plastic so the rabbits would eat them. They do make a metal nipple that might work. I plan on getting rabbits maybe this fall so I will be looking into something like this.

 

[FireTigeris]

Metal nipple on the bottom of that might work, and I'd have to have a modified feeder or a separate rabbit feeder...

 

[Blueskat]

 

[karlamaria]

Very nice! Love the waterer ! I must be the only one who's chickens never let a pellet out of there site lol, or when we used crumble either. My birds food is put on a large cinder block, so is the waterer. They have never spilled any food out, not one moral or water. Water stays clean and clear this way also when they free range, we just pull out our five gallon waterer and put that on another cinder block, But yours looks awesome for all those birds.

 

[Blueskat]

I was ask about the roof so here is a reply. As you can see the run is made from an old dog run that I had. I cleaned it up and put chicken wire on the bottom 3 feet. The roof I made from other scrape I had or collected. The metal 2x4 came out of a metal building's inside walls. By putting them upside down they fit over the top run pipe. I cut and notched the cross pieces to overlap the long side and screwed them together with 3/8 inch bolts. I had some long pieces of old tin roof so I screwed those to the 2x4 frame work and was done. It just sits on top. I may need to anchor it to the ground. I will note that it is heavy and would need a good frame to hold it up.

 

[AngelzFyre]

Thanks for the info on the roof! I couldn't figure out what the framework was made of...now I know!
Great ideas!!!!