Lowest maintenance feeding/water

[Carson213]

I am looking for ideas to minimize how often I need to refill the food and water for my chickens. I have 23 pullets and 1 cockerel. Growing up, we always had 20-30 chickens with a coop and run. The original coop was 100 years old, rotted and torn down about 5 years ago. The original water was plumbed in with a float type system, the food was in a trough and the nesting boxes were individual non-roll out...so, we would feed and gather eggs daily...and clean out the water periodically. However, as an adult with 3 kids, we are “on the go” a lot and I would like to have things as low maintenance as possible. I have a couple of the “Grandpa’s Feeders” and two water containers with the metal nipples. I hadn’t planned on plumbing in water but it is an option. My other thought was to put a bunch of the metal nipples on a 50 gallon food safe barrel. The feeders work well but it would be nice to have a some kind of apparatus that could hold 100 lbs of feed. I have two 4 foot community style back rollout nesting boxes that can hold a lot of eggs.

1. What ideas do you have for the water? I can plumb it in if it’s the best route to go...but wondered if there are other creative ways to have a large volume of water that is also easy to keep debris out of...
2. For the feeder...it would be great to have something that doesn’t get filled with bedding or poop and holds a lot. I was thinking about using some other type of livestock feeder...any ideas?

BTW, both the feeder and water are inside the coop.

 

[cmom]

I use hanging feeders but I have a lot of birds. I also have auto waterers so they always have water. These are older pictures but everything is still there. We have added some coops since these were taken. I fill the feeders once a week.

 

[KarynVA]

For the feeder, I highly recommend the Stoltco porthole feeder. It can be used hanging or set on a cinderblock. For your large number of chickens, though, it would be pricey because you'd need several of them.

https://www.stoltco.com/feeder

 

[cmom]

They aren't available.

 

[Carson213]

I was thinking about using one of these...it’s a pig feeder that holds 185 lbs of feed.

 

[Carson213]

I was thinking about using one of these...it’s a pig feeder that holds 185 lbs of feed.

With the small amount of chickens that I have, this would last them well over a month.

 

[Carson213]

I hooked up a 50 gallon barrel to their water but it leaked all over the place. the metal nipples were garbage and didn’t work correctly. I think I am just going to plumb it. I am also going to extend the rolll outs to hold 7 days worth of eggs

 

[cmom]

Also Why have chickens if it's too much work to keep them. I feed my birds once a week and they have auto waterers. To have a months worth of feed in a feeder, I would be worried that at months end it may get moldy or buggy. I like to keep my birds feed somewhat fresh. I do collect my eggs every day. Letting them set for a week you won't know what eggs are the freshest. I do sell my eggs. I also have around 400 birds. Just curious. Good luck...

 

[cmom]

https://www.amazon.com/Harris-Farms...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

 

[cmom]

https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/...84001426103529&utm_content=Feeding & Handling