Abstract
Range chickens. |
This publication describes some of the basic equipment needed for
small-scale chicken flocks, especially flocks on range. Major topics
are addressed in detail, including watering and feeding equipment,
fencing considerations, and roosting and nesting boxes. References
and resources are embedded in the narrative.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Allowing poultry access to the outdoors provides challenges from
indoor methods. The roof and walls of a confinement house protect
both the equipment and the chickens. With the chickens and equipment
outdoors, there will be new problems from weather, predators, interaction
with other livestock, and sheer distance. The equipment for an indoor
flock doesn't need to be strong enough for goats to jump on, for
example.
Working on a small scale also calls for different management decisions
than modern large-scale operation. You probably won't be adding
a pair of diesel backup generators or drilling new wells just for
your pastured chickens, though this is common enough in conventional
broiler farms. Some of the equipment used by the big boys is great
for small-scale operations, and some isn't. This publication helps
you figure out which is which.
Each issue (water, feed, fencing, roosts, and nest boxes) has a
variety of solutions. Sometimes equally good solutions are almost
opposite in approach, such as setting up a pressurized water system
vs. having your chickens drink from a brook. I will try to be clear
about which considerations steer you towards one or the other, and
which ideas I have actually tried, and which I've only heard about.
Some of the larger manufacturers offer equipment not detailed in
this publication. Those considering a larger operation might find
the following sites useful. Check out:
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Waterers
The issue of waterers is far more important than people realize.
A poorly conceived watering system will stunt or kill your birds
while at the same time consuming an enormous amount of labor. On
hot days, a failure in the water supply will start killing broilers
almost at once. A reliable source of water is absolutely essential.
The labor of watering poultry by carrying water in buckets
is tremendous and not to be considered in any up-to-date poultry
plant. Watering must be accomplished by some artificial piping
system or from spring-fed brooks. — Milo
Hastings, The Dollar Hen, 1909, p. 62. |
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General Issues
The water needs to be drinkable to begin with, and needs to stay
that way once it's poured into the vessel that the chickens drink
from. This can present problems on both ends.
Cleanliness
The chickens themselves are part of the problem. They poop in the
water and scratch litter into it when given the opportunity. Don't
give them the opportunity. Provide some kind of guard to prevent
them from getting where they shouldn't be. Many commercial waterers
provide this by design. Bell waterers, vacuum founts, and many other
designs have a narrow water bowl and a large, roost-proof central
dome. But with other models you may have to roll your own.
Because a chicken's crop doesn't have a valve at the top, if they
have to bend down to drink, some of their crop's contents will run
into the water. Yuck! Keep the waterers high enough that the water
is above crop level. (In poultry publications, this is rather misleadingly
called "as high as the chickens' backs.")
Source Water Quality
It's popular these days to say that you should never give livestock
water that you wouldn't drink yourself. I don't go that far, since
I won't drink from streams myself, but don't mind if my livestock
do. But, at a minimum, your water should be as uncontaminated as
springs or creeks ever are.
Obviously, some contaminants are worse than others. The chickens
don't care if the water supply has sand or newts in it, but arsenic
or high bacteria levels are another story. It wouldn't hurt to get
your water tested, wherever it comes from. It might be instructive
to make two tests; one filled at the water source and one filled
from a waterer. If the waterer is loaded with bacteria and the source
is clean, you'll know you have some work to do with the waterers
and distribution system!
Many farmers have reported improved results with low levels of
disinfectants in the drinking water (such as using chlorinated city
water), presumably because the residual chlorine kills bacteria
in the waterers and prevents transmission from one chicken to another.
Adding chemicals to the water sounds like too much work to me, but
it drives home the point that waterers can be reservoirs of infection
if you're not careful.
Puddles and Wet Spots
Chickens do not appreciate clean water and will drink from manure-soaked
puddles if it saves them a single step. Thus, one aspect of providing
clean drinking water for your chickens is to prevent puddles where
possible. Often, these puddles are caused by spillage from the waterers
themselves. They provide a nasty disease vector, since waterers
get a lot of traffic and are the ideal spot to exchange pathogens.
Also, most pathogens prefer damp environments to dry ones. So take
that spillage seriously.
This installation from the 1930s uses a simple wire covered
platform to prevent wet spots. |
This is much less of a problem for daily-move pens or any method
which involves moving the waterers frequently (unless the leakage
is really large), because the waterer moves and the wet spot dries
out before the pathogens really get established. It's an enormous
problem inside permanently sited houses. With permanent installations,
it's a good idea to think about some kind of drainage system, especially
if you can come up with one that can handle the total failure of
an automatic watering system and prevent the house from flooding.
Many such systems basically involve having some kind of porch or
alcove outside the chicken house proper, with a wire floor. Spilled
water thus falls harmlessly outside. Another system is to have a
pit with a drain inside the house. Litter can clog the drain in
the latter case. Keeping litter out can be tricky, though keeping
the area higher than the litter (and providing access ramps for
broilers, who don't hop well) can work.
Freezing
Winter is a nasty time for the water supply. People keep telling
me that chickens will eat snow, and I suppose that's true, if you
happen to have snow. But can they eat enough snow to be highly productive?
I doubt it. There are two basic approaches to dealing with freezing.
One is to have a system that can freeze solid, but will work again
when it thaws. The other is to prevent freezing.
Freezable Water Systems
I have seen plastic pans split from freezing, but not galvanized
ones. A simple freezable watering system consists of two sets of
galvanized pans or (for full-sized birds) buckets. You take warm
water out to the chickens in one set, and bring the other set back
home with you, allowing whatever ice is at the bottom to thaw before
it's time to water the chickens again. This is simple, reliable,
and far too much work! But it's the traditional "if all else
fails" backup system.
Freezing is a nuisance for all types of automatic waterers, but
it is especially hard on low-pressure waterers with valve assemblies
that are at least partly plastic. These tend to split if they freeze
solid, resulting in a flood when they thaw. Bell waterers, nipple
waterers, and cup waterers generally fall into this category.
Waterers with all-metal valve assemblies tend to survive freeze/thaw
cycles without any ill effects.
PVC piping tends to split when frozen. I have had excellent results
with ordinary garden hose, which never seems to fail from mere freezing.
I believe the elasticity of the hose absorbs the swelling in the
system as it freezes, preventing damage to other components. I have
much less experience with poly irrigation tubing. So far, the tubing
has always survived, as have plastic T-fittings, but plastic ball
valves split in hard freezes.
Freezable systems work best in areas where daytime temperatures
are generally above freezing, so the system will thaw and start
working sometime during the day without any attention from the farmer.
This is my situation. But freezable systems are useful in any climate,
as a way of preventing equipment damage if the system freezes up
in spite of your best freeze-proofing methods.
Freeze-Proof Systems
To prevent freezing altogether, you need some combination of water
flow, insulation, or heat. One method is to put your waterers in
a house that never drops below freezing inside, and supply it from
buried pipes. Or you can use heating tape to prevent the system
from freezing, even in a cold house. If you can't use outdoor piping,
a reservoir inside a warm house could provide water.
It is not very difficult to build chicken houses that never fall
below freezing, provided that they have an insulated roof and controlled
ventilation. Normal stocking densities will ensure that the hens
themselves provide most or all of the needed heat, and the deep-litter
system will generate more through composting. However, this works
best with relatively large flocks; it's much easier to get this
effect with five hundred chickens than with fifty. With small flocks,
the problem is that a house large enough for the farmer to work
in comfortably is too large for the flock to heat. In this case,
using electricity to heat the water pipes rather than the house
will be most efficient.
I have used two kinds of heat for watering systems: heating tape
and bucket heaters. Heating tape (available at any hardware or plumbing
supply store) is an electric cable that runs off AC power and is
designed to keep pipes from freezing. Make sure you buy an outdoor-rated
product, even if you are using it indoors, because chicken houses
are a harsh environment, and follow the instructions. In some cases,
such as Little Giant bowl waterers, the warmed pipes will heat the
valve portion of the waterer and prevent the system from freezing
at this critical point.
Bucket heaters (and their smaller cousins, birdbath heaters) are
immersion heaters that go right into the water. These aren't suited
to any kind of poultry waterer that I know of, but they work fine
on big pan waterers like the Little Giant Everfull Bowl waterer,
which is just a galvanized pan with a float valve. Bucket heaters
need to be grounded to prevent stray voltages that will keep the
chickens from drinking. This is no place to use the old extension
cord with the missing ground pin! (More about stray voltages later.)
A birdbath heater, such as this unit from
K&H Manufacturing, 719-591-6950, is a simple way of
keeping water drinkable in buckets and pans. |
These are available from pet supply stores. Personally, I think
that the 1,000-watt heaters are ludicrously overpowered, and even
the 200-watt units are questionable. Yes, they have a thermostat
to turn them off before the water gets too hot, but if you have
multiple waterers, the big heaters will overload your wiring. I
think a 50-watt birdbath heater is more appropriate if the power
is connected all the time. Higher wattages only make sense if you
supply power intermittently.
I don't approve of using light bulbs under waterers—too scary.
Overhead heat lamps will keep just about any waterer from freezing,
and may not be too expensive if you put them on a thermostatic switch
and keep the waterers in a place that isn't freezing cold all winter.
By the way, chickens don't like drinking ice-cold water, so taking
the chill off will improve production.
You'll notice that all the above assumes that you have AC power
available. What if you don't? Other than the possibility of using
kerosene or propane space heaters, I don't know of anything very
useful. Temporary freezing can be prevented to some extent with
insulation.
Continuously flowing water can also prevent freezing. If you have
lots of low-cost water, this is an option. The simplest version
is of course a brook that runs through an area the chickens have
access to.
The alternative to all this is to keep chickens only during the
warmer months. This is practical with pastured broilers, but not
with hens, because hens must generally be overwintered.
Too-Hot Water
If your water is too hot in the summertime, it will prevent the
chickens from drinking all they need to keep cool. This will hurt
production and may even lead to deaths.
I know of two effective methods to keep water cool. One is to shade
the areas containing the waterers, so no matter how hot the water
was when it entered the shaded area, it will have time to cool down
to air temperature by the time it reaches the chickens.
This works even better if the waterers hold a lot of water, because
when the valve opens and lets in a little bit of water to top things
off, it is diluted by the large volume of air temperature water
already there.
When I dump the water from my hen waterers on a sunny day, the
incoming water is often scalding hot, while the water I just dumped
was only lukewarm.
The second method is to have the water flowing continuously, at
a high enough rate that the feeder hoses can't act as a solar water
heater. In hot climates, this might pay off big, because the chickens
will drink more water if it's cool.
I've been told that garden hose sometimes splits when used in a
hot climate. This hasn't happened to me—but I don't live in
a hot climate.
Stray Voltage
I have already mentioned stray voltage in the context of bucket
heaters. They can also plague an automatic watering system for no
apparent reason (though it will be related somehow to AC power or
electric fencing).
You should suspect stray voltage whenever your chickens aren't
thriving and there's no apparent reason for it. Try watering them
with waterers that are filled by hand and are nowhere near electric
fencing or anything metal. If the chickens start to drink from these
and avoid your regular waterers, there's a problem—maybe a
mechanical problem, maybe stray voltage.
I once had stray voltage because I used an extension cord with
a missing ground pin to hook up a bucket heater. The chickens would
dip their beaks in the water, squawk, and avoid the waterer from
then on.
Adding a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) did nothing;
they don't trip until there's a lot more stray current than was
present at the waterer. Fixing the ground circuit worked. The best
way to fix the ground circuit turned out to be using intact cords
and to place a ground rod near the waterer. To create a portable
ground, I put a metal outlet box on top of a convenient length of
galvanized electrical conduit, which I stick into the earth near
my bucket heaters. This has worked very well for me.
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Types of Watering Systems
Several general types of watering systems may be available. The
following discussion addresses comparative advantages and shortcomings
of the various systems.
Brooks
A brook can be the ideal watering system if you happen to have
one in a convenient place. A brook is simple, free, zero-maintenance,
self-filling, and self-cleaning. The water is generally cool, and,
given a few trees or shrubs, it provides a very comfortable environment
for chickens, who are nowhere near as fond of sunlight and wide-open
spaces as you might think.
Brooks have disadvantages, though. They aren't always available,
are immovable, are useless for penned birds, and may be too challenging
for broilers, who can be too clumsy to manage even shallow stream
banks. They also are prone to flood and tend to serve as predator
highways.
If you can deal with these issues, having stream-watered poultry
can be extremely satisfying. I used this method for a while, until
the coyotes became bolder. But it was great while it lasted.
Buckets
Watering from buckets has its place. Its place is in the past.
True, watering from buckets has its advantages. It's simple, stone-age
technology with minimal equipment costs and no fine points to learn.
But it's unbelievably labor-intensive. Not only is lugging water
around in buckets the worst possible use of limited time and energy,
it forces you to keep a ludicrously demanding schedule. If your
chickens run out of water for even a brief period on hot days, they
will be stunted or killed—and it's not that much better on
cool days. You must always return to the chickens before they run
out of water, just so you can pour them another drink. On hot days,
you may have to water the chickens three or four times a day, which
makes poultry keeping even worse than dairying at tying you to a
rigid schedule.
Buckets are okay as a fallback system when everything else has
failed, but that's about it.
Water from Pipes
Piped water is the most important labor-saving device for your
poultry operation. The chickens never run out of water on hot days;
you get to have a life. It's a good deal. In addition to eliminating
buckets from your life and letting you plan your own schedule, pipe
water allows you to run clean-out hoses and sprinklers should you
desire.
The disadvantage of piped water systems are that they cost money
and can require considerable maintenance, especially if there's
a problem with the installation (such as a low-flow feed well or
a brook with lots of sediment in the water). Long lengths of hose
freeze easily in cold weather and can heat the water very hot in
warm weather.
Garden Hose
I have at least a thousand feet of garden hose supplying water
to my hens.
Mostly I buy cheap garden hose on sale (some of it is surprisingly
good and has lasted ten years; even the worst stuff is good for
five). At roughly 15 cents a foot, a thousand feet of hose costs
$150, which isn't too bad, in my opinion. Use only metal Y-adaptors,
shut-off valve, and nozzles, because the plastic ones don't survive
freezing or rough handling.
Poly Tubing
Poly tubing is a black-walled plastic pipe that's used for all
kinds of agricultural uses. The half inch tubing is often sold in
the garden section as the feeder pipe for drip irrigation systems
(the branch lines use smaller, highly flexible quarter-inch drip
irrigation tubing). Poly tubing is cheaper than garden hose, but
it isn't very flexible or convenient to work with. I have a length
of three quarter-inch tubing running about 1,500 feet to the top
of our broiler hill. For long feeder pipes like this, poly tubing
is a big win because it's cheap. I bought the tubing in 300-foot
lengths. We connected the lengths with plastic barb or T-fittings,
available any place that sells the tubing and at most hardware stores.
At every coupling between two sections (we used plastic barb fittings),
use hose clamps to prevent the sections from separating or leaking.
Use hot water to soften the tubing before forcing it over a barb
fitting. Dishwashing liquid makes a good lubricant.
Because of our mild climate, we just put it on top of the ground.
Where it crossed in front of gates, we used lengths of garden hose,
which we figure will survive vehicle traffic better.
I like garden hose best because everything about it is easy. Also,
I know from experience that it survives freeze/thaw cycles (such
as they are in Western Oregon) very well.
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Drip Irrigation Tubing
Quarter-inch I.D. drip irrigation tubing is okay for some applications.
The tubing itself is inexpensive, flexible, and very strong. It
can withstand almost any pressure, though this hardly matters because
the fittings available for it are weak. It's nice for connecting
up hanging waterers and other applications where garden hose is
too stiff and bulky.
Pressure Regulators
Low-pressure waterers require pressure regulators. Some of them
don't work at household water pressures, while others break. The
poultry equipment manufacturer GQF,
(912-236-0651) out of Savannah, Georgia, sells low-cost regulators through its
online catalog. These are essentially propane regulators with appropriate
fittings. Our pressure regulators have never lasted long, but our
low-pressure systems use brook water and freeze from time to time,
which may be hard on them.
Intermediate Cisterns
One way to get low-pressure water is to have a bucket, cistern,
or stock tank at the right elevation compared to the waterers. This
supply container is fitted with a float valve connected to the piped
water system. You get the same low-pressure water you would from
any bucket fed system, but the float valve and piped water keep
the bucket topped off at all times, which eliminates labor.
This also provides a reserve water supply. I like using square
four-gallon buckets because it's easy to attach a standard stock-tank
float valve to one. A garden hose supplies water to the float valve.
A length of drip irrigation tubing or garden hose connects the waterers
to the bottom of the bucket.
Cistern Systems
A cistern system is what I call a piped-water system with a central
reservoir that you fill with something other than a pump. Unlike
an intermediate cistern, which is kept full with water from a pipe,
a cistern system has to have water carried to it. On our broiler
hill, for example, the water system relies on a stock tank filled
from a tank in the back of our pickup truck. A pipe from the bottom
of the stock tank goes to our broiler houses.
The stock tank was at the top of a hill, so the water flowed down
the pipes to the broiler houses by gravity; we didn't need a pump.
On flat ground, or on ground where the cistern is on lower ground
than the houses, a pump would be necessary.
The advantage of a cistern system is that you don't have to carry
water around in buckets, and the chickens can be at any distance
from the ultimate water source. Sometimes you just can't run water
pipes, such as when the chickens are on a piece of land with no
water and no access to any.
The disadvantage is that you still have to carry water around (though
probably in the back of a truck). In some ways, it combines the
disadvantages of the bucket system with those of a piped-water system.
When we used this cistern system, I was particularly irked by the
time lag between noticing that the broilers needed water and getting
it to them. I had to get back to the shop, empty the pickup, put
the water tank in it, fill the tank from the brook (which took a
long time), and drive back to the broiler hill before the chickens
saw a drop of water. And God help us if the pickup didn't start!
If you're already using a system of stock tanks for your four-footed
livestock, a cistern system for your poultry will fit into your
existing workflow, and no harm done. Otherwise, consider it only
if you can't get piped water from here to there.
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Water Sources for Piped-Water Systems
Water for piped systems can come from several general sources.
The following discussion focuses on the advantages and disadvantages
of these sources.
Brooks and Streams
A Rusco strainer prevents crud from reaching the waterers. The
flush-out valve at the bottom ejects the accumulated sediment
without disassembling the strainer. |
My chickens use water pumped from a brook. Because I have AC power
handy, I use an AC-powered jet pump.
Brook water tends to carry a lot of sediment, which is hard on
both the pump and the waterers. If you can, pump from a quiet backwater.
A fine screen around the foot-valve helps, if it doesn't clog or
restrict the flow too much. (I once used a string glove as a quick-and-dirty
foot-valve screen. It worked great.)
To keep sediment out of the waterers, I use a Rusco
sediment filter instead of the usual cartridge filter. The Rusco
strainer is designed specifically for sediment and has a flush-out
valve so you can get rid of the crud without taking it apart. And
it has a permanent plastic-screen strainer; you never need to buy
a new filter cartridge. (1-800-345-1033. Any pump/irrigation shop
ought to have these in stock.)
I use two of these inexpensive, ready to use jet pumps from Harbor
Freight Tools. |
My jet pump is an inexpensive all-in-one jet pump with a power
switch, pressure switch, gage, and pressure tank from Harbor
Freight Tools (Look for "3/4 HP, 1-in. Cast Iron Shallow
Well Pump." 1-805-388-3000). These pumps seem to be permanently
on sale for about $100. Add a foot-valve and some piping, and you
have a complete pumping system. I have used three of these pumps
and I like them, though obviously they can't use the highest-quality
components. They're so inexpensive that I keep meaning to buy one
as a spare, though I never have.
When I pump from a more remote location, where AC power is not
available, I use a 12V RV diaphragm pump with a built-in pressure
switch—FloJet makes several models for under $100. (I bought
mine from J.C. Whitney, 800-603-4383).
Shurflo makes similar pumps that are supposed to be at least as
good.
This 12V FloJet pump
is designed to provide
water in an RV, but I've
found them useful for
all kinds of on-pasture
water needs. |
You don't need a pressure tank with these if you use them with
garden hose, which provides enough elasticity to keep the pump from
short-cycling. I tried using one with just PVC tubing, which wasn't
elastic enough. The pump short-cycled like mad, running for a fraction
of a second, pausing for a few seconds, then running again. This
is annoying and hard on the pump. When I added fifty feet of garden
hose, it would run when water was being used, and shut off and stay
off when it wasn't.
Diaphragm pumps are very simple and easy to work with. I ran mine
from an over-the-hill car battery, and it would run the pump for
weeks before discharging. This is because chickens don't drink all
that much, so the pump doesn't use much electricity.
Well Water and City Water
City water can be used as-is. (If you have strong anti-chlorine
views, you probably have a carbon filter inline with the water supply
anyway). If your well water is good enough for you, it's good enough
for the chickens—but it might have too many particulates for
the valves in the waterers to work reliably. In that case, use a
Rusco strainer, as described above.
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Types of Waterers
Non-Automatic Waterers (buckets, pans, vacuum founts)
I don't like vacuum founts,
though they're okay as backup waterers. |
Use these for emergency or supplemental watering only. I particularly
dislike vacuum founts. A bucket or a galvanized feed pan has many
uses, while a vacuum fount doesn't.
Continuous Troughs
In many ways, the continuous-flow trough is the ideal waterer.
By having water flowing through it constantly, the trough is self-cleaning.
The water stays cool in summer and doesn't freeze in winter. It
has no moving parts except the valve on the water spigot. Once installed,
it can run for years without attention.
It takes a lot of water to do this, of course, and the concept
is best suited to permanent installations such as laying houses.
Continuous troughs can be a pain if you have to adjust the height
all the time, as you would for broilers, and getting rid of the
wastewater can be a nuisance. Continuous-flow troughs were very
common in confinement houses fifty years ago.
Float-Valve Waterers
Float-valve waterers use the same nineteenth-century technology
as the fill valve on a toilet. These waterers operate at any pressure,
are very difficult to clog with algae or sediment, and are freeze-proof
if they have metal valve assemblies.
A float-valve trough from Brower. (The hose fitting at the end
isn't visible, but it's there.) |
As you would expect from a product with all these advantages, float-valve
poultry waterers are hard to find! GQF
sells float-valve troughs in 18-inch and 36-inch lengths, and you
can also buy just the float valve part for use with your own trough
or pan at 912-236-0651. Brower and Kuhl also have float-valve trough
waterers. (Brower, 800-553-1791
and Kuhl, 908-782-5696.)
The Little Giant Everfull Bowl tends to get fouled by the chickens
pooping in it, but is rugged, reliable, and available everywhere. |
A homemade slotted pan cover, like the one from the 1930s shown
above, keeps the chickens from perching on the waterer. |
Although it's not a particularly good poultry waterer, I use Little
Giant "Everfull Bowl Automatic Waterer," which is a fancy name
for a three-gallon galvanized feed pan with a float valve. These
are available in feed and pet supply stores everywhere. They're
rugged and reliable. However, they have no guard to keep the chickens
off them, and the water tends to be very dirty because of this.
I use them because they're available at my local feed store, so
I can always get one in a hurry, and because my sheep and goats
can drink from them, too. Also, these waterers are practically the
only ones big enough to hold a bucket heater.
Bowl Waterers (Little Giant)
Little Giant bowl waterer. |
These are my favorite waterers for use indoors or with pasture
pens. Unlike most of the float-valve waterers discussed so far,
these can be lowered almost to floor level so little chicks can
use them, and they are more compact and adjustable than float-valve
waterers. You can buy them in any feed store. Though the water bowl
is plastic, the working parts are brass, and these waterers can
freeze solid without damage (at least, they can if you use flexible
hose to hook them up with). Like float-valve waterers, these work
equally well at any pressure.
The mechanism is not as crud-resistant as a float-valve, and the
waterer includes a fine brass screen to protect the valve. If this
clogs, the waterer stops working. You need better water quality
for this kind of waterer than with float-valve waterers.
These waterers have been around for more than fifty years. The
old ones are identical to the new ones. Sometimes you can get a
good deal on old ones.
I normally screw these waterers onto a footlong length of half-inch
galvanized pipe. The weight of the pipe helps them to hang straight.
At the top of the pipe I put a barb fitting for whatever kind of
hose or tubing I'm using to hook it up. You can also get brackets
for attaching these waterers to the wall.
Always use two pairs of pliers when adjusting the two nuts that
control the water level in the bowl. They will work loose if you
don't. Similarly, you should screw the bowl tightly onto the stem,
or it will eventually fall off, flooding the whole area.
Bell Waterers
A Plasson bell waterer. |
Bell waterers are all-plastic hanging waterers, similar in concept
to the Little Giant bowl waterer. Because they are all-plastic,
they may not withstand household water pressures and can crack if
frozen solid.
Bell waterers are very popular, though. They are big and provide
a lot more drinking space than most other waterers. They can be
used with chicks and full-sized birds. They're inexpensive. They
tend to come with handy mounting kits that make it easy to do a
professional job when hanging them from the roof joists.
They work very well if you filter the water, protect them from
freezing, and keep the pressure within specification (which varies
according to manufacturer, but five pounds per square inch is common).
Many different manufacturers make bell waterers: Plasson, Kuhl,
and others.
Nipple Waterers
Nipple waterer. |
Nipple waterers are standard now in the confinement industry. They
are very simple, with a stainless steel trigger sticking straight
down from the bottom of the waterer. When a chicken pecks at the
trigger, a drop of water rolls down and into the chicken's mouth.
Because they have no bowl, there's nothing to clean. The trigger
is self-cleaning because it's washed by the water rolling down it.
Installing nipple waterers is easy; there are kits for gluing adapters
to PVC pipe. Many installations use a weird kind of PVC pipe with
a square crosssection; others use ordinary half-inch PVC pipe.
Nipple waterers must be set at the correct height—high enough
for the chickens to peck upwards at them. They are also finicky
about water pressure and are not freeze-proof.
I don't like nipple waterers for small-farm work. The payoff is
not enough to outweigh persnickity height requirements and pressure
adjustments.
Nipple waterers leak sometimes, especially if your water quality
isn't perfect. You need more filtering to prevent this. Like other
waterers, it's best to use nipple waterers in an environment were
wetness under the water doesn't translate to wet litter or wet chickens.
FarmTek has a line of nipple
waterers and accessories. 800-327-6835.
Cup Waterers
Cup waterer. |
GQF (912-234-9978) has a good line of low-pressure
watering cups. Cup waterers have tiny bowls that hold only a couple
of tablespoons of water. Instead of a float valve, they have a yellow
trigger arm that lets water in when the chickens peck at it. It
takes the chickens zero time to figure out how to use these waterers.
I like these better than nipple waterers, though I wouldn't use
them where litter might get into them, because I wouldn't want to
be cleaning them all the time. These are great waterers for brooder
or hospital cages.
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How Many Waterers?
Having enough waterers is crucial. It's best to have more than
you need, because they fail sometimes. I think every group of chickens
should have a minimum of two waterers. When using the traditional
"pasture pen with a bucket of water on top," there should be
two buckets as well as two waterers. Also, if the chickens ever
run out of water, you can limit the mob scene when the water returns
by having space for all the chickens to drink at once.
(Hint: if the water runs out, put out some pans of water temporarily
to reduce fighting.)
The following table gives the amount of waterer space recommended
for hens and broilers:
Number of Chickens Per Waterer |
Type |
8-foot Troughs |
Bell or Bowl |
Cups or Nipples |
Layers |
200 |
25 |
8 |
Broilers |
200 |
60 |
9 |
Waterer recommendations from North & Bell's
Commercial Chicken Production
Manual. |
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Feeders
When I collect eggs, I start by scattering a bucketful of whole
wheat on the pasture for the hens. The same pasture has four huge
range feeders that hold six hundred pounds of feed each. Why use
feeders at all if you can just scatter feed on the ground? Why scatter
feed on the ground when you have these nice feeders?
Feeders aren't necessary for feeds with a large particle size,
that won't dissolve in moderate wetness, and when you have a place
that's not too wet or filthy where you can scatter the feed.
But, realistically, scattering feed on the ground is best left
for whole or coarsely cracked grain fed in small enough amounts
that the chickens eat it quickly. That way, all the grain is actually
eaten by the chickens. If you feed too much, wild birds and rodents
will get a lot of it, or it may spoil. Feeders keep the feed clean,
dry, and unspoiled.
Scattering scratch feed helps make the hens friendlier, and they
come running out for the treat, giving you a good look at them.
This is especially useful at egg-collecting time, since the hens
who were loitering around the nests get out of your way. Also, it
helps identify sick hens who can't work up any enthusiasm for a
treat, and stay in the chicken house instead.
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Issues With Feeders on Range
Weather
Obviously, outdoor feeders are subjected to more weather than indoor
feeders, and this can lead to trouble. In fact, the feeders don't
actually have to be outdoors to have these problems—many pasture
pens and range houses let in enough weather for the same issues
to apply:
- Feed with a small particle size can blow away in a strong wind.
- Wet feed will ferment and mold.
- Frozen or snow-covered feed is unavailable to the chickens.
- Chickens don't like walking on snow, and may refuse to go outside
unless you shovel the snow or cover it with straw or some other
familiar footing.
- Hot sun, heavy rain, and strong winds will keep the chickens
indoors.
It surprises people that chickens aren't big fans of sunshine
in hot weather, but it's true. In warm sunny weather, they will
do most of their foraging and feeding early in the morning and late
in the afternoon. With hens, this twice-a-day feeding is okay, and
all your feeders can be outside. Broilers, though, need to eat more
often than this, and should have feed available to them that isn't
out in the noonday sun.
Accessibility
Snow, ice, and mud may make it difficult to bring feed to the outdoor
feeders. I live in Western Oregon, which has a very mild climate,
but once in a while we have snow on the ground for a week or two.
This happened to us a couple of years ago. Our henhouses were scattered
all over the farm, and the labor required to pull feed from house
to house in a child's toboggan was indescribable. Outdoor feeding
has its place, but its place wasn't then and there!
Similarly, our two-wheel-drive pickup is convenient for moving
feed in the dry months, but we can't take it onto the pasture during
the wet season. Outdoor feeding may have to be seasonal, or you
may need to keep the chickens closer to home during the winter to
shorten travel distances.
Wastage
Feed is easily wasted from shallow feeders or from deep feeders
that are overfilled. Chickens will scatter feed in all directions,
but won't eat the dropped feed unless it's relatively clean. If
the feed is in large particles (pellets, whole grains), more feed
will be picked up off the ground.
The rule of thumb is to keep the feed pan at the level of the chickens'
backs, and to fill the feed pans no more than one-third full. The
latter rule is hard to follow with a lot of equipment, which is
sized for chicks, not full-sized birds. More about that later.
Wastage also happens when finely ground feed blows away in the
wind, or when feed gets wet. Chickens like wet feed, but if more
wet feed is put in front of them than they can eat, it goes bad
quickly, especially in hot weather.
Thus, feeders with a deep pan, kept only one-third full of large-particle
feed, with some kind of shield or roof overhead to keep the rain
off, provide the recipe for low feed wastage.
The other method is to feed only as much as the chickens will eat
at once. This minimizes wastage, but tends to result in underfeeding.
Keeping Other Livestock Out
Horses, cows, sheep, goats, and pigs all love chicken feed. They
should be excluded for a variety for reasons. Giving free-choice
chicken feed to ruminants isn't good for them, and you can't afford
it, anyway.
Excluding other livestock can be difficult. Goats will jump perimeter
fences, while sheep will often just plow right through. More about
this in the section on electric fencing.
The cattle in the upper photo are kept out of the feed through
the simple corral shown in the lower photo. The corral presents
no barrier to the chickens. The farmer enters through a gate. |
James Dryden's classic Poultry Breeding and Management (Orange
Judd Publishing, 1916) shows a chicken feeding area surrounded by
a portable corral made of boards and mounted on skids.
I've noticed that full-grown chickens can walk right through the
mesh in lightweight galvanized cattle panels. Four such panels,
a little framing, and a pair of skids would give a feed area sixteen
feet square. I leave the issues of adding a gate and even a roof
to you.
Another way of excluding larger livestock is with some kind
of barrier on the feeder. A chicken can easily reach its head and
neck through a two-inch gap, but four-footed livestock can't. An
arrangement of slats or strips of welded-wire fencing can keep out
other livestock, but the feeder must be heavy or rigidly attached
to something that is, or the livestock might push it over.
I toyed briefly with electrifying feeders. I had a tall metal trough
feeder that stood on legs about 18-inches high. Hens would hop up
to the perches on the sides of the feeder and eat. I put each leg
in a five gallon bucket by way of insulation, and hooked the metal
feeder up to an electric fence. The hens didn't care (they were
up off the ground, just like a bird on a high-tension wire, which
is what gave me the idea), but the goats really hated that feeder.
But I gave up on the concept because I kept shocking myself on it.
Vermin Problems
Outdoor feeders attract mice, rats, wild birds, raccoons, and other
freeloaders.
My biggest problems to date come from rats. To keep the area around
my range feeders mud-free, I put them up on wooden pallets. This
worked so well that I stopped moving the feeders every time I refilled
them. Soon the area under the pallets was swarming with rats. It
was disgusting.
I discarded the pallets and resumed my practice of moving the feeders
every time I refilled them—and I moved them a lot further
than before. This exposed the tunnels under the feeders every time
they were moved, and forced rats to trek to a new location and dig
again each time. There must have been some kind of predator waiting,
because it wasn't long before I didn't see rats anymore.
Rats are the main reason why I don't like putting feeders in range
houses unless they are moved frequently. This isn't a problem with
daily-move pens, but I only move my henhouses a few times a year.
Feed would be a rat magnet. (I'm told that this is especially bad
with houses with wooden floors. The area between the floor and the
ground, like the area under my pallets, is a safe haven for rats.
If the feed is in outdoor feeders, the rats are always at risk from
owls.)
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Kinds of Feeders
There are really only three kinds of feeders:
- No feeder (feeding on the ground, which we have already discussed).
- Troughs and other kinds of shallow pans.
- Hopper-type feeders with a feed reserve that empties into a
pan. Examples are tube feeders and range feeders.
There are also automatic feeders that use an electric motor to
run an augur or chain to move feed around, but I don't think these
are practical for outdoor use.
Troughs
The simple trough feeder is poorly understood by modern farmers.
Hopper-type feeders are so common that people have forgotten what
trough feeders are about.
The advantage of a trough is that, when it comes right down to
it, it's just a pan that you pour feed into. Nothing could be simpler.
You can put just about any kind of feed into a trough, including
liquids. A trough is the universal feeder. Because of this, it should
be easy to clean!
Troughs need to hold enough feed to get the chickens from one feeding
to another without running empty (or just barely running empty).
Most troughs on the market are too shallow and too narrow for this.
I can't imagine what the manufacturers are thinking. I have some
ancient hen troughs that are eight feet long, ten inches wide, and
six inches deep. That's a great size when feeding full-sized birds.
As mentioned before, the top of the trough should be even with
the chickens' backs. If the height isn't adjustable, you end up
having to keep several sets of troughs for birds of different ages.
To some extent you need to do this anyway, because a pan deep enough
to prevent feed waste with larger birds is too deep for chicks.
A traditional wooden hen trough. |
Traditionally, chicken troughs have some kind of guard, reel, or
wire across the top to keep the chickens from perching on the troughs
or dust-bathing in them. These aren't strictly necessary, but they
help. They tend to make filling the trough a nuisance, though.
Troughs are often built with an inward-facing lip at the top to
help keep the chickens from flipping feed out, and may have a grille,
like the one shown earlier on the Brower trough waterer, which both
reduces wastage and helps prevent feed loss.
Types of Trough
This range feeder from 90 years ago uses slats to keep the chickens
from dust-bathing inside. The use of a plank roof instead of
something more weatherproof tells you that this farm was in
California. |
Commercial troughs are generally made out of galvanized steel or
plastic. As I have already mentioned, I don't know of any commercial
troughs that are big enough for full-sized chickens.
The best materials for home-made troughs are wood or large-diameter
PVC pipe.
Wooden troughs are easy to make but are heavy. My experience is
that non-galvanized nails don't have enough holding power. In fact,
if I were to build any more wooden troughs, I'd use screws instead.
A traditional range feeder from the 1930s. The roof lifts off
for refilling. Internal partitions allow different kinds of
feed to be used. Note that rats will take up residence under
the wire platform unless the feeder is moved between fillings. |
There are any number of wooden trough designs, some quite strange.
Most don't have any kind of rain shield, which is fine if the trough
is used for supplemental feeding, but is a problem if you want to
use it to keep feed in front of the chickens all the time.
My favorite rain shield for a wooden trough is single sheet of
corrugated roofing, laid flat. The water will drip off whichever
end is lowest, and the sheet is wide enough to give some shelter
to the chickens. The roof should have some means of attaching it
securely to the trough, which should be heavy enough to keep everything
from blowing away in strong winds.
Troughs made from PVC pipe are the coming thing. I haven't built
any myself, and I haven't figured out all the mechanical issues.
The basic concept for a trough that you're going to hang from chains
at either end is:
- Take a length of large-diameter PVC pipe (most people use 4-inch
pipe, which may be too small) and glue caps to both ends.
- Remove about one-third of the diameter of the pipe, starting
a little way past the cap.
- Add eyebolts to hang the trough from.
- Attach chains (or ropes, or baling twine) to the eyebolts and
hang the trough.
My only real concern about this design is that a long trough might
sag in the middle.
Maybe you get extra credit if you don't simply glue caps on the
end, but glue on threaded adaptors and have screw-on end caps. That
way, you can unscrew the ends and hose out the trough more easily.
One final note: it used to be fairly common for poultry houses
to have feed troughs attached on the outside of the houses, even
though the chickens were inside. A length of two inch by four-inch
welded wire allowed the chickens to reach the troughs from inside
the houses. The advantage of this system is that the farmer can
fill the trough without going inside the house. This is worth considering
if you're tired of removing and replacing the feeders in your pasture
pens with each daily move. It's the same concept as nest boxes that
are accessible from the outside, but applied to feeders.
Hoppers
A tarp-covered cattle panel provides shade for two ancient galvanized
range feeders on my farm. Note the waterproof lid and rain shield.
Modern versions are generally made of plastic, but look pretty
much the same. |
Hoppers are just a feed bin that empties into a trough or pan.
Tube feeders are like that; so are range feeders.
The point of hoppers is that you don't have to fill them as often
as troughs. They might hold feed for a day or for a month. Arguably,
the sweet spot is when they hold at least a week's worth of feed,
so you can fill the feeders on Saturday and have only light chores
the rest of the week.
Managing feed hoppers is practically the same as troughs. The differences
are:
-
Feed flows differently depending on its particle size and weight.
A tube feeder that does great with feed pellets might leave
most of the feed on the ground if filled with light oats. Most
hoppers have some way of adjusting the opening between the reservoir
and the pan. Getting this right can be a nuisance. Lightweight
feeds need a much narrower opening than heavier ones.
-
There's more feed in a hopper. This means that any kind of
accident is more expensive.
-
The feed is around longer. An amount of rain and condensation
that wouldn't matter in a trough that's emptied twice a day
might lead to a serious mold problem with a hopper that holds
a week's feed.
-
The hopper is heavier. If suspended from a chicken house, it
can strain the structure—or your back.
Tube feeders in a cattle-panel hoophouse. |
In Pastured Poultry Profits, Joel Salatin reports poor
results with tube feeders, because the feed gets wet and refuses
to flow. I live in an area with over 60 inches of rainfall, mostly
in the winter, and I have this problem only when there's a problem
with the lid or rain shield on a range feeder. So it's not black
and white; the devil is in the details, as usual.
It may be easier to get good results with a range feeder sitting
out in the weather than with a tube feeder in a pasture pen. It
can get pretty damp in a pasture pen, and the lack of lids and rain
shields on tube feeders can be a real liability.
Types of Hopper
These days, you basically have your choice of tube feeders and
range feeders, both of which have a round feed pan on the bottom
and a cylindrical feed reservoir on top. The difference between
the two is that a range feeder sits on the ground and has a lid
and rain shield to keep the weather out, while a tube feeder is
suspended from above and lacks the weather protection.
In the old days there were many different rectangular hoppers,
all of which looked more or less like hog feeders or creep feeders.
My local feed stores have two kinds of tube feeders; smaller ones
for chicks and larger ones for older birds. The smaller ones hold
ten to fifteen pounds of feed, while the larger ones hold roughly
thirty pounds of feed. So it takes two of the larger feeders to
hold a fifty-pound sack of feed.
The issues with pan height are the same as with troughs. Height
is easy to adjust with hanging tube feeders. Range feeders are generally
non adjustable. Mine are Big Dutchman turkey feeders that are probably
fifty years old. They work fine with hens and older pullets. In
fact, smaller pullets do okay, too, since they climb right into
the feed pan to eat.
Pan fullness issues are also the same as with troughs. As already
described, most of the larger hoppers have some kind of adjustment
(though tube feeders for chicks may not).
I don't know if anyone still makes steel range feeders. What I
see in the catalogs are plastic range feeders from Kuhl, which I've
heard good things about but haven't used myself. I'm very pleased
with the durability of my antique steel range feeders. I can back
my pickup too far and whack them with my tailgate, and they don't
care. The plastic ones probably require more TLC.
The ideal size for a large range feeder is one where you can stand
on the tailgate of a pickup and tip feed sacks into the feeder.
If you have to hoist the sacks so you can pour them into the feeder,
it's too tall. Also, you want the range feeder to be short enough
that you don't have to climb inside to remove caked feed from the
bottom.
On a big farm, you'd want to invest in a feed wagon with (for example)
a power take off-driven feed augur. Then you could use bulk rather
than bagged feed. I knew a farmer who did this. He used an elderly
grain wagon, which was a trailer used originally as a way of shuttling
grain between a combine and the granary. It held a ton or two of
feed. The PTO-driven augur would send the feed up a tube that looked
like a length of stovepipe and was mounted so it could be positioned
where you wanted it.
He would hitch the grain wagon to his tractor, back it under his
free-standing outdoor grain bin, fill it, and then tow it to each
range feeder in turn, positioning the feed tube over the top of
the feeder and engaging the PTO to start the flow of feed into the
range feeder. He got all of this equipment (grain bin, grain wagon,
and range feeders) at a nominal price because it was considered
obsolete or too small for modern farming. His outdoor feed bin was
filled directly from the feed mill's bulk feed truck, which had
its own feed-augur rig.
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How Many Feeders?
As with waterers, the amount of feeder space you need depends partly
on how likely the chickens are to run out of feed. If you ever let
them run out of feed on purpose, you need to provide enough feeder
space that all the chickens can eat at the same time (or scatter
some of the feed on the ground to prevent pile-ups). Otherwise follow
the guidelines in the following table:
Number of Chickens per Feeder |
|
8-foot Troughs |
Range Feeders |
Tube Feeders |
Layers |
50 |
50 |
15 |
Broilers |
66 |
66 |
33 |
Recommendations from North & Bell's Commercial
Chicken Production Manual. |
The table specifies a lot more feeder space than most farmers provide.
Lack of feeder space causes subtle problems, where the weaker or
more timid chickens are excluded from the feeders by their more
aggressive flockmates. The flock is healthier, more uniform, and
more productive if there's plenty of feeder space.
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Fencing
Chickens were rarely fenced in the old days; it would have kept
them from foraging, which was their sole source of feed. In those
far-off days, pigs and chickens roamed the streets, and you would
fence areas to keep livestock out, not in.
Eventually, poultry keeping's focus shifted from scavenger chickens
to chickens that are actually fed real feed, and where foraging
is less important.
Later, increasing environmental consciousness caused governments
to stop paying a bounty on everything that moved, and predator populations
soared. A hundred years ago, the most serious predator was human
chicken thieves, because the predatory animals were practically
extinct. Now the animal predators have multiplied enormously, and
they're hungry.
So for today's poultry keeper, fencing is mostly to keep predators
out, and only partly to keep chickens in. On many farms, there's
no need to keep chickens in at all, because sheer distance takes
care of that.
Do electric fences work with chickens? Yes, they do. Although chickens
aren't easily zapped by fences, because their feathers are good
insulators, they don't like getting zapped and will avoid electric
fences.
There are two kinds of electric fence used for chickens. One is
a simple one- or two-wire fence, and the other is electronetting.
Back to top
One- and Two-Wire Electric Fences
Hens confined by a single electric fence wire. |
The oldest kind of electric chicken fence is a single wire about
five inches off the ground, or a pair of wires, one at five inches
and another at ten inches. I've seen several references to such
fences from sources between 1950 and 1960, but the practice was
largely forgotten when commercial poultry went to 100 percent confinement.
However, these simple low fences are still common to keep raccoons
out of sweet corn.
I have two extensive fences of this kind, each enclosing several
acres. They are very inexpensive. I put lightweight T-posts at the
corners and use step-in fence posts everywhere else (I also have
some fiberglass fence posts, but the step-in posts are better).
Use doughnut insulators at the corners; snap-on T-post insulators
will pull off.
I use aluminum fence wire because it's highly visible and easy
to work with. Polywire (plastic rope with stainless steel conductors
woven in) also works, but it's not as easy to work with, and it
sags more. It's stronger, though, which sometimes matters if you're
trying to keep sheep or pigs from stampeding through your fences.
I recommend using two wires everywhere except where you drive onto
the pasture, where you should see if you can get away with a single
wire. You can drive over a one-wire fence without bothering to turn
it off.
Don't make the wire too tight when you first install it. With several
feet of slack, you can bow the fence in one direction or the other
and mow along the line where it used to be. Tensioning the fence
is just a matter of pulling up a step-in fencepost and moving it
out of line far enough that the fence becomes tight.
Buy lots of fenceposts. Buy them by the case. Anywhere the ground
is uneven and the wire touches the ground, put in another post.
Otherwise, you have to raise the fence too high, and predators will
squeeze underneath.
Do these low fences really work? They do! My dog is terrified of
them. I once watched a coyote chase a hen that was outside the fence.
The hen raced past the fence, but the coyote stopped so fast that
I swear I heard tires squeal. Even in the heat of the chase, there
was no way he was going near that fence!
Raccoons aren't afraid of fences the way dogs and coyotes are,
and apparently will prowl around them looking for a way to squeeze
through without touching the wire. And if the voltage drops, they'll
be inside.
I've had trouble with bobcats going over the fence, but I'm not
sure that even a high fence would deter them.
The behavior of the chickens themselves is worth noting here. Chickens
usually don't realize that they ought to fly over things they can
see through, so they rarely fly over one of these fences. They don't
like the fences, but if it starts getting dark and they're outside
the fence, they'll go right through it to get home.
A panicky chicken will pop right through this kind of fence. This
means that a fox in the henyard will scatter the flock to the four
winds and will only kill one or two. With ordinary chicken-wire
fences, the chickens end up with their heads stuck through the mesh
and are easy pickings. Electronetting has a similar problem, though
the electrified chickens are less fun for the fox.
Electronetting
Electronetting. This photo shows Renco
netting, a British brand. U.S-made fencing looks much the
same. |
Electronetting is basically a net made of polywire. It comes in
different heights, from garden fencing that's 16 to 18-inches high,
up to 48-inches or more.
Why use electronetting? Remember, the more tightly you fence your
chickens, the better the fencing has to be. If you enclose multiple
acres, a one-wire fence will contain your chickens. If you enclose
just a small area, such a fence may not hold them.
Similarly, electronetting is a better barrier to fence-wise predators.
On our broiler hill, we switched from a two-wire fence to electronetting
when predators were somehow getting past the two-wire fence. Maybe a coyote had learned to jump the wires; I don't know.
The taller lengths of electronetting are also better at keeping
out your other livestock (such as goats) than a low fence.
Electronetting isn't a panacea. It shorts out easily against the
grass, and raccoons and other predators will squeeze under the fence
if there are any gaps. If you leave the fence in one place for any
length of time, the grass will grow up around the bottom strand,
and it will be difficult to remove. It's also quite expensive.
My main gripe about full-height electronetting is,"Where's
the gate?" It's as much a barrier for the farmer as it is for anything
else. Garden netting is great in this regard because you can step
over it.
My favorite use of electronetting is to surround a pasture house
when I put pullet chicks out on pasture. There are predators that
will kill six-week-old pullet chicks that won't attack a full-grown
hen, and the extra protection is worth it. Hens also like to bully
half-grown chicks, and this keeps them away. Garden netting is adequate
for this.
Lots of people make electronetting. My wife Karen swears by Premier,
800-282-6631.
Permanent Perimeter Fencing
I have no experience with permanent, high tension wire fencing.
Such a fence, if electrified, should be very effective (make it
taller if it's near a busy road). The heavy galvanized wires should
prove very tough, so using a weed-whacker to keep the bottom wire
clear should be safe and easy.
My farm has an old, decrepit perimeter fence using field fencing
with a couple of strands of barbed wire at the top. Where this is
intact, it holds the chickens in quite well, because the mesh at
the bottom of the field fencing is tight enough to keep them from
squeezing through. The whole fence is only about 48 inches tall,
and if I had poultry pens right up against the fence, I'd want it
to be taller. Instead, I keep my chicken houses some distance back,
inside a two-wire electric fence. This seems adequate for our gravel
country road. If I were on a highway, I'd want better fences or
more distance.
Fence Energizers
The Parmak Super Energizer 3. Note the prominent voltmeter. |
If you have the choice, use the most powerful AC energizer you
can get your hands on, preferably one with a built-in voltmeter.
A wire 5 inches off the ground will constantly be shorted out by
grass, molehills, and such, and the fence won't have any zap to
it unless you use a powerful charger. I like the Parmak
Super Energizer 3—which is almost frighteningly powerful—until
you hook it up to a pasture fence, which robs it of much of its
strength. The Maxi-Power Mark 6 is also good, but not as powerful.
If you must use a battery-powered unit, the Parmak Magnum 12 isn't
bad, but I don't think it has anywhere near the power of the Super
Energizer 3. All of the Parmak models I've mentioned have built-in
voltmeters.
My wife, Karen, likes Premier energizers, and I think they're good
units, but I won't use an energizer that doesn't have a built-in
meter. If there's a meter, I'll glance at it frequently, and will
often see trouble developing before it's too bad. Without a built-in
meter, I don't notice anything is wrong until predators start killing
my chickens.
Hand-held meters do the same job, and they work fine, but I find
that I don't use them consistently. Maybe you're more methodical
and they'll work for you.
A solar energizer is just a battery-powered energizer with a solar
panel. I like solar energizers, but the presence or absence of the
solar panel is not that important in this application. The reason
is that the high load on the energizer is likely to be more than
the solar panel can provide, so you will need to be prepared to
swap batteries in any case. You still need to monitor the voltage
and be prepared to swap or recharge batteries as soon as the fence
becomes less effective.
Regular AC energizers are probably used less often than they could
be. It's not very hard to run a couple of thousand feet of feeder
wire over the top of your existing perimeter fences, and it offers
a more reliable setup. To get past gates, I like to attach poles
a few feet on either side of the gate, and run my wire overhead.
You can run heavily insulated feeder wires underground if you want
to, but that seems like too much work to me.
Grounds
A good ground is half the battle. Netting with alternating hot
and ground wires makes this less of a problem. Pounding in ground
rods along your permanent fence line is a good idea. Premier sells
galvanized T-posts, which might be handy. I keep meaning to try
them. Ordinary T-posts are supposed to provide a terrible ground.
The instructions that come with fence energizers are usually quite
thorough in what you need to do to get the most out of the product
in terms of grounding and wiring. Follow the instructions and you
won't go far wrong.
Predator Issues
Baiting Fences
A method to discourage predators is known as fence baiting. Take
a predator-killed or naturally deceased chicken and lash them to
hot wires on the fence. This teaches predators that chicken tastes
even worse than porcupines, toads, and skunks. I like to put bait
at the point where I guess the predator enters the field. Anything
that slows them down is likely to zap them.
Traps and Fences
Unbaited leg-hold traps are recommended by Joel Salatin and others
for catching predators that attack broilers in pasture pens, but
in an unfenced field they might catch anything—your dog, the
sheep, anything. Using them inside the perimeter fence should catch
nothing but predators that sneak past the fence (assuming the chickens
in the pasture pens can't escape). Predators tend to circle the
houses before deciding where to strike. See Pastured Poultry Profits for details. This has never worked for us, but maybe you'll be luckier.
We have had better luck with live traps, but the results are still
uncertain.
Electrified Houses
My original use of electric fence wire was on the individual houses
themselves. My pasture houses are mounted on skids, and have a low
front which the hens hop to the top of when entering and leaving
the house. Predators climb rather than hop, so fence wire along
the front of the house and between the skids should keep them out.
An electrified house. The yellow insulators near ground level
are (perhaps) just visible in the photo. Chickens hop up to
the top of the low front to get inside; predators have to climb.
The mast at the back of the house allows the hot wire to come
from overhead. |
This works pretty well, actually, but I switched to a system of
perimeter fencing once I realized that a coyote had learned to howl
right outside a henhouse at night, causing the hens to fly out in
blind panic. (I discovered this by pitching a tent and camping on
the pasture to figure out what was happening to my hens.) Once the
predators learned to use the houses as a hen dispenser, I figured
that perimeter fencing was the way to go.
Salatin-style pasture pens are easy to electrify; just nail insulators
on the corners and surround the house with a hot wire a few inches
above ground level. Predators nosing around the pen will get a nasty
shock. I recommend using a mast (a ten-foot long two-by-four is
good) to get the feeder wire high enough that you aren't constantly
running into it.
Be careful to electrify just the wire, not the poultry netting
on the sides of the house. The chickens don't appreciate electrified
walls.
USDA-APHIS (Federal Trapper)
The replacement for having a federal bounty on predators is the
USDA-APHIS Wildlife Services Program, better known as "the
federal trapper."
When predators attack my livestock, I call the local federal trapper,
and he tries to kill them for me. He has access to some specialized
trapping equipment, is very skilled at using game calls to lure
predators into shooting distance, and knows where to set snares
so they will catch predators and not every other kind of wildlife.
The program depends on local matching funds, which means that your
predator problem is likely the fault of your county government's
stinginess. Vote for someone else next time.
This is the kinder, gentler form of federal predator control. In
the old days, there was a bounty on everything that moved. Now the
focus is on the individual predators that actually prey on livestock.
I like this ecological soundness; I wish more programs were like
this!
For more information, visit Wildlife
Services or call toll-free at 866-4-USDA-WS. I strongly recommend
that you use this service as fully as you can. We'd be out of business
if it weren't for the Federal trapper.
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Roosts
Chickens want to perch up in the air, and doing so can keep them
clean, dry, and safe. As long as the roof is tight, the roosts tend
to be nice and dry, which is more than can be said for the floor
sometimes. Pasture houses, in particular, are subject to dampness
and even flooding, and it's good for the chickens to be up on a
nice dry perch.
Baby chicks lack a roosting instinct, which is just as well, since
they live on the ground. The urge to roost develops slowly, but
eventually the chicks get the idea and want to sleep as high up
in the air as they can get.
Broilers are butchered before they're old enough to develop a full-blown
roosting instinct. In any event, modern hybrids are soon too heavy
to fly up to a perch.
I don't recommend even low roosts for broilers because early roosting
tends to develop crooked keel bones in broilers. The keel is mostly
cartilage in a young bird, and it's easily misshapen if the chicken
sleeps on a roost, where the keelbone may be supporting much of
its weight. Apparently this corrects itself in older birds.
Egg-type chickens are another matter. They have no difficulty in
using roosts eight feet off the ground, and may decide to roost
even higher, abandoning the henhouse altogether for the branches
of nearby trees.
It's helpful to encourage chickens to start roosting at an early
age, because they seem to lose the desire to huddle and smother
each other once they've learned to roost. This is done with "practice
perches," miniature roosts near ground level that the chicks can
get to without any difficulty. My brooder houses are so small that
it's difficult to shoehorn practice perches into them, but maybe
you have such space.
Regular roosts should be built simply out of ordinary two-by-fours.
I like to nail a pair to the walls of the henhouse, running from
front to back, and then lay two-by-fours on top of these rails.
These aren't nailed down; they can simply be lifted out. You can
lay the two-by-fours flat or put them up on edge. Laying them flat
is the easiest, so that's what I do. Eight-foot roosts supported
at the ends will sag if you lay them flat, but they won't break
even when crammed with full-sized hens. If you install them on edge,
they won't sag.
I've recently decided that my roosts are far too low in my taller
henhouses. I have a number of henhouses with a roof line between
six and eight feet high. In these, the roosts should be at least
four feet off the ground. My reasoning is that this is high enough
that I can duck underneath the roosts if I have to retrieve an egg
from the back corner. If the roosts are any lower, I have to crawl,
or remove the roosts, or something. Too much work. Besides, the
hens like high roosts. High roosts prevent them from roosting in
lower places, such as nest boxes.
As a general rule, roosts should be about a foot apart, and you
should figure that there will be two to three chickens per foot
of roost. It's useful to give them more roost space than they need,
so they can pick and choose according to the weather.
I suspect that high roosts can prevent some predator losses. Roosts
that are nestled right under the roof make it impossible for an
owl to dive-bomb a sleeping hen. If you suspend the roosts from
the ceiling, raccoons won't be able to climb up and grab a hen.
Don't build ladder roosts (A-frames with roosts on various levels).
The hens will fight over the highest perches, and ladder roosts
turn your henhouse into an obstacle course.
An alternative to high roosts is low roosts, of course. These are
often done over a droppings pit, which just means that the hens
are denied access to the area under the roosts by building the roosts
on top of an open-topped box with chicken wire under the roosts.
The advantage of a droppings pit is that you don't have to manage
the manure much, since it's not in contact with the chickens. Throwing
in some superphosphate fertilizer once in a while to keep the smell
and flies down about covers it. If you also put the waterers over
the droppings pit, the litter will stay drier.
In the 1950s, when egg profits plummeted, desperate farmers built
three-story roosts; three identical decks of roosts, one on top
of the other. It worked. You'd think the hens on the bottom tier
would get pretty messy, but apparently this was not a problem. Go
figure. I haven't tried this, but I think it would be useful to
have a deck of high roosts at the back of the house for the hens
to sleep on, and a deck of low roosts, nailed across the skids of
the henhouse, for a daytime floor. This keeps mud and manure from
being a problem in a litterless pasture house in wet weather.
This photo from the 1930s shows a farmer painting a set of removable
roosts to prevent mite infestation. |
Where there are roosts, mites are sometimes
associated with them. There are
many types of mites that affect poultry,
including red mites, northern fowl mites, and scaly leg mites. Mites travel slowly from
one bird to another and may be found in
cracks, crevices, nests, and roosts. While
many poultry resources recommend pesticides
or synthetic oils to control mites, these
materials are prohibited for use in certified
organic production systems. An integrated
approach would include the poultry expressing
natural behaviors to control mites—dust
baths in dry soil and preening—and treating
roosts with natural oils such as linseed
oil. Any vegetable oil has the physical effect
of suffocating and killing mites. However,
some oils are more desirable because they
do not dry or go rancid as quickly. All oils
would need to be reapplied periodically,
but some much less frequently than others.
Avoid materials that have been used traditionally,
such as kerosene, used motor oil,
or synthetic turpentine, as these are prohibited
by organic standards. Raw linseed
oil is presumably better than boiled, since
it takes a very long time to dry, but I had
six months of mite-free roosts with boiled
linseed oil.
Roost mites can also be controlled with
natural insecticides that are allowed under
organic standards. Pyrethrum or its components,
known as pyrethrins, are natural
botanical extracts and their use is allowed
in organic production. Its synthetic substitutes,
pyrethroids, are prohibited. Many
other insecticides are effective, but most
are more toxic than other methods, have
a withdrawal period, and are prohibited
for use in organic production. If you are not an organic producer, then other “less-toxic” materials are an option. For example,
lime-sulfur spray smells like rotten eggs
but really gets the job done. Lime-sulfur is
not listed as an allowed synthetic for use in
organic livestock production (see National
Organic Program National List 205.603).
You might note, though, that it is allowed
for disease and mite control in crops (see
National List 205.601). Certified organic
producers must list all materials they use
or plan to use in the organic system plan
submitted for approval to their certifier.
Organic producers should not use any synthetic
material without prior approval of its
specific use by the certifier.
Roosts are not absolutely necessary—most hens kept in high-density
floor confinement are not provided with roosts—but a set of
properly placed high roosts will keep the hens dry and happy, and
they'll sleep where you want them to.
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Nest Boxes
I'm going to tell you a secret. The best nest boxes have a floor
that's made out of half-inch hardware cloth covered with straw.
These nest boxes never get disgusting inside because the crud falls
through. You get less egg breakage because the floor has some give
to it. The straw stays drier because it has air circulation from
underneath and because broken egg contents drip through the bottom.
The eggs cool down faster because of the increased air circulation.
I don't know why everyone doesn't use such nests. Since, as far
as I know, no one makes these commercially, you'll have to build
yours yourself. They're a little more difficult to build, since
hardware cloth is a pain to work with compared to nailing boards
together. Other than that, they're ideal.
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Types of Nest Box
Individual Nests
Plans for a two-tier conventional nest unit. Everything is built
in sections so it can be taken apart for cleaning. Wire mesh
is used at the back for ventilation, but not for the bottom,
though this would be easy enough to change. |
The traditional individual nest is a foot deep, a foot wide, and
something less than a foot tall.
With board floors, an enormous amount of litter in the box helps
to cushion the eggs. The front board should be a 1 x 6 or even a
1 x 8. With hardware cloth floors, I don't think this matters. A
1 x 4 is plenty. Such a nest is good for four to five hens. Of course,
individual nests aren't really made individually. Wooden ones are
built in units four to eight feet long containing four to eight
nests, and metal ones are typically five feet wide and have two
rows of five nests.
I have discovered that what hens really like is not individual
nests, exactly. They mostly like having a corner to themselves.
One corner will do. This means that you can remove half the partitions
in a nest box and the hens won't mind a bit. The advantage of doing
so is that hens are always trying to cram themselves into spaces
that are already occupied, and the wider the nest, the fewer eggs
get smashed in the pile-up.
Community and Tunnel Nests
A community nest. The lid is normally kept closed except during
egg collection. |
Community nests work on the idea that the hens prefer to lay in
darkness, but they don't eat in darkness. This eliminates egg eating.
The traditional community nest is a box four feet wide and two feet
deep, with a doorway that's not much more than six inches wide and
eight inches tall (and maybe with a flap of cloth or plastic across
it). This is good for fifty hens.
Another variant is the tunnel nest, which is eight feet long, two
feet wide, and has a small entrance at each end. This is good for
a hundred hens.
Community and tunnel nests need to be well-ventilated without letting
in much light. This is usually done by leaving the back partly open
or drilling large holes in it (on the assumption that the nest will
be installed to almost but not quite touch a wall of the henhouse).
Sometimes they're installed at floor level, in the spots where the
hens insist on laying in spite of having perfectly good nest boxes
elsewhere.
Community and tunnel nests can be constructed as free-standing
outdoor structures if you put a good roof on them. They'll probably
need to be staked down to prevent them from blowing over in high
winds.
Roll-Out Nests
Roll-out nests have a sloped welded-wire floor. The eggs roll down
the slope to a (hopefully) safe place to await collection. This
mostly keeps them clean and prevents breakage and egg eating. The
trick lies in getting the hens to use them. I am skeptical of their
utility in range and small-farm environments, where the hens have
plenty of more attractive places to lay.
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Collecting the Eggs
Eggs are generally collected from the front of individual nests,
though sometimes they're collected from the back, such as when the
nests open on the inside of the henhouse but it's more convenient
to collect them from outside. Usually there is a flap or a hinged
roof to allow the back of the nest to be closed except during egg
collection.
Community and tunnel nests require a special way of collecting
eggs, since the tiny entrances don't allow adequate access to the
inside. Access is usually through a hinged lid, though sometimes
it's from a flap or hatch on the front or back side.
About the Author
Robert Plamondon is a part-time farmer and full-time writer
in Blodgett, Oregon. He keeps around 500 free-range hens and
his wife, Karen, butchers more than 1,000 pastured broilers
annually. Robert also runs Norton Creek Press, a "shoestring
press" with four poultry books, including his Success With Baby
Chicks. See Robert's Web page at www.plamondon.com,
and sign up for his email newsletter at www.plamondon.com/newsletter.html. |
Poultry: Equipment for Alternative Production
By Robert Plamondon
Paul Driscoll, Editor
Tiffany Nitschke, HTML Production
IP295
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