How often do you feed /water your hens, and how do you keep food dry?

[LivvyW]

We have our hens a couple of months and we feed them and give them fresh water every morning. I top up the water throughout the day, if necessary. The feeder is hanging from a post in the run and gets wet easily. Do you put your food in the hen house?

We are hen sitting for a neighbour, and he puts his food and water in the henhouse, feeds them in the morning and at night. And the water is in a huge bucket which he changes every couple of days.

What do you do?

i wouldnt put the food in the henhouse cos during the night thats generally where they poo.

I built a sort of gazebo thing out of wood over my chickens food to keep it dry from the rain.

We had a sort of upside down very large scale hampster type feeder that basically looked like a cup and saucer with the cup upside down. it worked really well as it kept the water fresh and only delivered what they needed, that was from a big agricultural outlet in france though so not sure if they do them in the UK.

Thanks Mankymummy, I didn't fancy putting food in the house either. Gazebo thing sounds very grand, but i think i know what you mean. I was thinking that was the way to go.

Our hen house is in a lean-to, we feed the hens up to three times a day, the food goes in a trough, which keeps the local mouse/crow/small bird population well fed by the looks of things.

The water is filled up daily, it is a plastic container, bell shaped.

No food in the hen house here, the hens are free range though, does that make a difference?

our water feeder seems to be similar to Mankymummy's, we got it at local farm type supply shop.

sorry, gazebo does sound posh... actually its more like a very long roof over the long feeding tray .

or you could just stick an old parasol in the ground and chuck the food under that !

I put fresh water in when it runs out - probably needs doign twice a week. Normally have to put new food in the hopper every 3rd day.

I have pellets available all the time from treadle feeder that they still won't use (sigh). Water is in one of those plastic things you fill then put bottom on and turn upside down - that needs refilling every few days. Then I give them kitchen scraps lunchtime-ish if I'm there and there are any, and the children give them a handful of mixed corn at 6pmish.

I use the water tower things too. The chicks ones get cleaned and refilled 2 or 3 times a day because they perch on them and poo all over it. The laying hens only gets refilled every 2 or 3 days.

Food is in hoppers that are hung too high for the birds to scratch at or poo in (except the chicks again, who quite like perching on the hanging hopper and using it like a swing). The main hen house feed hopper is kept indoors to keep it dry and away from the crows. I fill it daily.

i use the omlet nipple super glugs on the mesh of my run. i have two and they last ages but i do tip them out a refill with fresh when needed. i have one of theose 20l enamelled stanless steel feeders with a rain guard i have it on a few blocks of wood so the hemcore doesnt get kicked on the food. it lasts ages but i do feed them non-meat scraps and corn in the afternoon.

My hen house has a little roof type thing over the food and water bowls. I just top up the pellets when needed (plus bokashi bran) and then they get the odd handful of sunflower seeds when I need to tempt them back into the run or when they beg hard enough.

I gave up on the upside down water thing because the water was getting muddy constantly. I now have one of those long plastic plant troughs (window box type) without punctured holes in the bottom, dug a little bit in to the ground so they can't tip it. I top it up with the hose every 2 or 3 days. Works well.