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[xScrunchee]

Does anyone on here use feeders/drinkers other than the Grub and Glug?

At the mo we use the Grub and Glug as well as 2 large bunny water bottles but I was wondering if the plastic feeders/drinkers that stand on the floor are any good or whether they just get the flooring kicked into them?

[superjules]

I use 3litre hanging feeders and drinkers. They work well and I really like them but if you put them on the floor they either get a messed up or knocked over. You could put them on a couple of bricks to get them off the floor if you've nowhere to hang them from.

[Katie]

We have a Parkland auto feeder that hangs from a branch and they tap a bar and food falls out. I found with floor feeders they just poo in them, or the food gets wet, or they just tip them over!

It just depends how reckless your chickens are I think

[Mrs Frugal]

I've bought 2 long galvanised troughs for their layers meal and a hanging gravity drinker which is very successful as they don't seem to fill it so full of dirt as they did my previous feeders. Wonderfully easy to keep clean too and it holds lots of water.

 

 

The trough hooks onto the fence as our Cube is in a custom built run and this keeps it off the ground which means food doesn't get mouldy underneath it

 

[xScrunchee]

So when you hang them from the run roof (I have a walk in run), do you just screw a hook into the wood and hang them with string/rope/chain?

 

And how far from the floor do you have them hanging?

[*mummy_hen*]

I have the plastic ones as well that stand on the floor, i got rid of the drinker after 2 days as they kicked all the floor material into it and then wouldn't drink from it. The feeder i will only use in the house as they kick it all out everywhere, inside the house i can just sweep this up, but outside if it got left (they have wood chip so not easy to just sweep up) it could attract mice,etc.

 

Personally i find the glug and grub best as they can't get their feet in to kick it all about and is at a perfect height for them as you have it as you want. If you hang the plastic feeders up they may be better....

[Mrs Frugal]

My drinker hangs from a piece of washing line hanging off a nail in the rafters of the run. It's around 6 inches off the floor (the base of the drinker) so that they can get to the water but without it getting dirty with their over exuberant scratching in the wood chippings. The feeders are a bit higher off the ground - maybe 12 inches so they are a bit lower than beak height.

[ajm200]

We used one of the really cheap plastic drinkers that stood on the floor at first as it took the girls a month to get to grips with the glug.

It was a nightmare to keep clean, the saucer was always full of hemcore and leaves. We tried putting it on an overturned flower pot and bricks but they kept knocking it over.

 

A more expensive one could have been hung up I suppose.

[Helen&Lee]

We also use two plastic flower troughs that sit in a wire frame that hooks through the mesh.

 

We got them from a garden centre for about £12.00 each.

 

Helen

[BarbaraJ]

my feeder is a grub but i use a gravity drinker,its about 6'' off the floor an gets a little messy but not bad.

[..lay a little egg for me]

So when you hang them from the run roof (I have a walk in run), do you just screw a hook into the wood and hang them with string/rope/chain?

 

And how far from the floor do you have them hanging?

The recommendation is to have them level with the birds' backs. We have a hanging gravity (aka tube) feeder and drinker and both work really well, but you do have to hang them up to stop them being pooped in. Also, site them where they won't be in poop range when the birds are perching if you have perches. We made that mistake

 

Our drinker is galvanized but if I were buying one now I would get a glass one like Kate's because you can't tell with ours when it needs filling up without getting in the run, unhooking it and taking the top off!

[meezers]

We also use two plastic flower troughs that sit in a wire frame that hooks through the mesh.

 

We got them from a garden centre for about £12.00 each.

 

Helen

 

Don't suppose you could post a piccie ? I've been looking for something like that, but haven't yet found it !

 

Kate; how much does your drinker hold ? like the idea of being able to see when it needs filling. What sort of hooks does the trough have ? would they fit through 1/2 inch weld mesh ? again, I've been looking at the troughs, but didn't realise they had hooks.

[Mrs Frugal]

Kate; how much does your drinker hold ? like the idea of being able to see when it needs filling. What sort of hooks does the trough have ? would they fit through 1/2 inch weld mesh ? again, I've been looking at the troughs, but didn't realise they had hooks.

 

My drinker holds about 5-6 litres, I think and will last my 6 for 2-3 days without needing a refill (great for a weekend away). The other good thing about it compared to the 2 other gravity fill drinkers I've used is that the saucer is nice and deep so they don't struggle to get water. The other 2 only had a very shallow amount of water available at any time.

 

The feeders are fixed to the fence with screws. LSH drilled keyhole shaped holes on the back of each feeder at either end and these hook onto screws in the fence. I would imagine that you could adapt them to fit onto anything although they don't have any fixings as I think they are designed to be floor based feeders.