Author: Anna & Mark

How to make a heated bucket chicken waterer

July 13, 2017 Chicken Products, Chicken Waterers 14 Comments

Last week, I summed up our previous experiments with heated bucket waterers and mentioned that we’re trying version 2.0 this year. Mark and I considered trying to make this heated chicken waterer a premade product that you can buy on our website, but we couldn’t figure out a way to make it cheap enough to be worth your while.  So, instead, Mark decided to give it away.  The video above (starting around 2 minutes and 45 seconds in) walks you through creating our new-and-improved heated chicken waterer.  Supplies you’ll need include:

  • Chicken nipples
  • Farm Innovators 2-Gallon Heated Bucket Waterer
  • Drill, plus 23/64-inch and 1/4-inch drill bits (These are different from the one that comes in your kit!)
  • Lid for a 2-gallon bucket (plus cabinet knob and scrap piece of wood if you want a handle)
  • Wrench (or pliers) to tighten in the chicken nipple, needle-nose pliers to bend down the wire, and wire-cutting pliers to cut the wire

Making a heated chicken waterer

In addition, if you don’t drill your hole well (and this one can be a little tricky), you’ll need some kind of sealant to keep the waterer from leaking around the nipple.  Mark’s favorite choices there include plumber’s tape and Rectorseal #5 Pipe Thread Sealant. Don’t go out and buy sealant right away, though, because if you’re good with your tools, you should be able to make the heated chicken waterer without it.

 

I hope several of you try out this design and report back.  I’d love to hear how it holds up in different parts of the country (and world!).

A very cool chicken feeder

January 12, 2016 Chicken feeders No Comments

ultra nice chicken feeder glow in the dark style
Weekend Hippies.com sent us this picture of their new awesome chicken feeder.


I love the functionality and beauty this design has to offer.


A little bar sticks out for the chickens to peck on to release small amounts of feed to a tray that is just high enough to keep them from getting in it. The reduced mess will equal less rodents and a nice cost reduction.


They made a really nice chicken feeder video that is short and to the point.

Automatic chicken door inventor

September 28, 2015 Chicken coops, Chicken doors No Comments

Homestead inventorWe’re on vacation this week, so I thought you might enjoy hearing from another chicken-related inventor. Jeremy Smith came up with a low-cost, dependable, premade automatic chicken coop door to protect his flock, then decided to share his invention with the world. I’ll let him tell you more in his own words.

— Anna

 


In our quest to find a door that was reliable and safe to use in our own chicken’s house, we came up very short.  There is simply not much available out there.  So, the master carpenter who works for me and I began designing our own coop door opener that would be trustworthy and that would cause our coop to be secure should we ever not be available to get the girls closed up at night.


After designing and building our door for our own coop, we realized that we had something that other people like yourself might find useful in keeping your own flock.  I know that our 28 Buff Orpingtons have been quite an investment in money, time and even care.  It took 6 months of feeding, safeguarding and caring for before we ever saw our first egg, so you can imagine our concern when we found cats, raccoons, coyotes, you name it trying to enter our chicken’s coop.


Boxer chickenWho would have known that my family would have started keeping chickens much less be so concerned about their welfare?  My wife who hated the idea of keeping chickens at first would now be heartbroken if something got a hold of one of our girls.  If you have chickens, you know how much of a pet they can become. So we designed this Automatic Chicken Coop Door to help us protect our chickens but also give us our sanity back knowing that our chickens will be safe.


Since we created our own door we wanted to share it with all the other chicken owners out there so they could enjoy chickenkeeping without the constant worry for their flock’s safety. To that end, we now offer a DIY version for $124.95 and a premade version for $184.99 to make predator prevention even easier for the busy homesteader. Because every chicken deserves a safe nighttime roost!