Why we are Raising Backyard Chickens.
Our youngest child has been asking for chickens for years. With the pandemic making us stay at home, it was a perfect time to indulge their wants. There was a lot of research into types of chickens, chicken needs, and types of environments the chickens would need. The chicken coop came from an online ad, it’s wonderfully built. Our first set of chickens were also from online ads. They are Red layer and Plymouth rock and came from a small backyard in Toronto. That wasn’t enough chickens so we added to our small flock with a couple of Orpingtons. These fabulous two came from a breeder that bred show chickens. With our flock in the yard, we needed a way to keep them fed and watered.
Why do you need a Chicken Feeder and Waterer?
It’s important to keep these fun backyard chickens well fed and watered if you want them to make eggs. It’s a daily chore to fill their water and feed buckets. We wanted to make sure these fine birds had what they needed daily. We saw a few options on Pinterest and Facebook. What we wanted was something that would be easy to build and not too expensive. It also had to be made with easily available components in case we wanted to build another or replace a part.
What parts are needed for a Chicken Feeder and Waterer?
A handsaw, tape measure, step drill-bit, and drill were the only tools needed for this project.
For this project, you’ll need, all parts are for 4” diameter pipe:
- 1x 10 feet PVC Sewer Pipe
- 1x Wye “Y” Pipe
- 4x Threaded Cap
- 4x Threaded Cap Adapter
- 1x 90° Angle Adapter
- 2x Couplers
- Chicken Waterer Nipples, Some birds prefer this cup style
- PVC Primer
- PVC Solvent
Assembling the Chicken Waterer
The first step is to cut the PVC pipe. Cut the pipe so you have 2x 48” sections and 1x 24” section. The chicken waterer will use a 1x 48” section and a 1x 24” section. Apply PVC primer onto one end of the 48” section and one end of the 24” section. Apply PVC primer to both ends of the 90° elbow. Let the primer dry. Starting at one side, apply the solvent to one side of the 90° elbow then attached the elbow to one length of pipe. Repeat for the other side.
Apply PVC primer to the outside of the long pipe, the inside of the coupling, and the outside of the threaded cap adapters. I made a mistake in the photo below and primed the inside. Once the primer is dried, apply the PVC solvent and quickly attach the pieces together. Do one piece at a time to ensure the solvent doesn’t dry too quickly.
Once finished, the threaded cap adapter should look like something below. Repeat for the short side. The reason for threaded caps on both ends is for ease of filling and draining. It gets below freezing in our area so in the winter we use a heated waterer. We want to be able to drain our gravity system so it won’t freeze and break when it gets cold.
Now that the body is assembled, it’s time to give the chickens a way to get the water out of the tube. I purchased the chicken nipples shown below but now that it’s been assembled I think I would have gone with a cup style. We have 4 chickens so we added 4 nipples to the shorter side of the pipe. I used a T-square to measure equal distances between the nipples
The quickest way I found to install the nipples was to use a step drill. I measured out the diameter of the nipples and used the closest size of the drill bit. These nipples are pressure fit into the holes so drill smaller first then enlarge as needed.
Assembling the Chicken Feeder
The chicken feeder is assembled in the exact same process as the waterer. Because one end of the pipe is flanged, the threaded cap didn’t need a coupling. Apply primer to the inside of the pipe and the outside of the threaded cap. Once the primer is dried, apply solvent over the primer and insert the cap into the pipe
Apply primer and solvent to the outside of the other end of the pipe and to the inside of the Y-pipe. Make sure you prime the straight section first. Don’t glue the angled opening.
Finish the bottom of the chicken feeder by gluing in the last threaded cap. Below shows the assembled chicken feeder. Install the threaded end caps.
Use galvanized hanger straps to install the chicken waterer and feeder in the location of your choice. Since the chickens are so curious, it didn’t take them long to figure out how to use their new food and water delivery system. They really like it as you can see below.
This little girl loves to flick food out from the feeder and onto the ground where she preferred to eat.
The total cost for this project was approx $100 Canadian. The majority of components can be found at your local hardware stores.
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