To safely deliver the nutrition and hydration that your hens need requires a couple of important devices that make it easy. Drinkers and feeders are essential to not only take care of your hens but also retain your sanity.
If you want to save money you can always use a bowl for feed and water but they will encourage spilling, contamination and wastage. You will also find yourself frequently replenishing your water and feed bowls which will take up time and drive you crazy during the summer when hens are thirsty.
Feeders
Feeders are devices that provide the right flow of feed to your hens whenever they feel hungry. They come in different shapes and forms, but it is important that you match your feeder to the number and breed of hen that you have, along with your available time.
You can waste a lot of money on buying a feeder that is either too big or too small for your needs, is of poor quality, or is set up wrong so that it wastes feed. As a rule of thumb, a 5kg feeder will keep a pair of actively laying hens fed for around 20 days and six hens for around six days. A Hy-Line Brown laying hen will get through around 130g of high-grade chicken feed per day if healthy and active.
Always calculate the amount of feed needed for the number and type of each breed of chicken you own. We have a handy chicken feed calculator on the website that will give you a good idea. If you find that your flock are going through more or less feed than they should be eating, look to pests or feed quality as potential causes. Remember that the more your laying hens eat of a high quality feed, the better their egg production will be.
Common types of feeders
The most common types of feeders include:
The most common (and inexpensive), type of chicken feeder for the backyard chicken keeper is the plastic bell feeder. Bell feeders are shaped like a 'bell" and have a moat around them where hens are able to access their feed. It’s useful to have some adjustment options for the flow of feed in case the feed you use is of different consistencies.
It is best to hang your bell feeder on a chain with an 'S' hook at the end to hang the feeder on. The “moat” should be hung around 25 to 30cm from the ground for the medium-sized hybrid laying hens such as our Hy-line Browns and Lohmann Whites. The backs of a feeding or drinking hen should be flat or parallel to the ground. This will reduce any wastage of feed and make it more difficult for rodents and bugs to access the feed.
Another feeder that is quite a bit more expensive, but often a worthwhile investment, is the tread-on feeder. This type of feeder reduces feed losses due to wild birds and rodents eating feed meant for your hens. It is more box-like in shape and works by opening once a minimum weight is applied to the platform in front of the feed box. The box then opens allowing the hen access to the feed but not the pests.
The 'tube' style feeders are quite popular due to their efficient use of space. This is particularly relevant to families who own small, imported coops where space is at a premium. Some tube feeders can be extended for greater feed capacity and allow the feeding area to be the only part that is inside the coop with the feed silo on the outside. Our ChookTower Feeder is a good example of this and makes it very difficult for pests to access the chicken feed while stopping messy feeding behaviour by chooks.
Drinkers
It is vital that your hens receive enough clean water, which is essential for health and good egg production. Laying hens will consume around 220 mL of water each day on average, with more or less consumed depending on the climate.
Using a good drinking device will make it easy for your hens to access water and reduce the amount of dirt or debris getting into it. Poorly designed drinkers will just encourage spilling and contamination of the water.
Like the chicken feed calculation above, make sure you calculate how much water your flock should be consuming on average each day. A simple way to do this is to measure exactly 1 or more litres of water and place it in your drinker at the start of the day then measure what's left after nightfall. Make sure that your drinker is the only water source that your flock can access for the day. Calculate the difference and you'll have a good idea of the minimum amount of water you will need for your flock.
Armed with your flock's daily water consumption requirements, you’ll be able to purchase a good drinker that is right for your situation and your available time. As an example, a flock of five Hy-Line Brown hens will consume around 1.1 litres of water each day.
Don’t forget to clean your drinker periodically and watch for any signs of gunk or slime, as you’ll want to remove it immediately. Poor quality water is a key reason for poor hen health and egg quality issues, yet is often overlooked. Also, don’t forget to check your flock’s water supply daily as they won’t last more than 48 hours without it!
Common types of drinkers
The most common types of drinkers include:
The plastic bell drinker is the most common form of drinking device used by backyard chicken owners. They look almost identical to the bell feeder and have a moat around the bottom, but don’t tend to have any water flow adjustment mechanism.
Like the bell feeder, they should be hung using an 'S' hook and chain so that the back of your hens are flat or inclined slightly upwards when facing the drinker. By elevating your bell drinker the water will stay cleaner and it will be easier for hens to consume the water as they aren’t able to swallow like us humans and instead tip their heads back and rely on gravity.
Twin-cup drinkers are a versatile type of drinker suitable for up to 10 chickens. They have a small surface area which minimises any evaporation and reduces the chances of contamination. They can also be connected to a range of different water sources including standard water flagons that have a female threat. Some of our customers have connected them to their mains water via a pressure reducer.
The ChookTower is a type of tube drinker that also uses twin drinking cups identical to the above Twin-Cup Drinker. The 'tube' contains the water reservoir and this type of drinker works very well in smaller coops with small flock sizes.
Please feel free to contact Talking Hens if you would like more specific guidance and the feeder or drinker best suited to your particular setup.
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