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| Here is the waterer in use. |
I first heard of this phrase in a training class at work,like its some new idea, but it's not. Its been around a long time, Farmers have always been trying to save money by making something yourself or just making do with what you have.
You can spend a lot of money raising chickens, I have known folks who spent hundreds of dollars on fancy painted chicken coops and then go out and buy expensive waterers and feeders that cost an arm and a leg. They even say look at all the money I'm saving raising my own chickens, when in fact it would take centuries for those eggs to pay for themselves. I have raised chickens for several years starting off with just a few hens, to currently raising 27. I have also spent too much money on products that either don't work well or don't last. I am afraid to add up what I have spent on drinkers alone. I tried the plastic ones they where a pain to fill and tote around, I shelled out big bucks for a metal one that rusted out in less than a year. When I bought this last batch of birds I wanted to buy a nice range waterer, so I drove on down to the farm supply store and got sticker shock. 50 bucks for one waterer, and I needed two at least! I don't know about you but that's a lot of eggs to sell to get that kind of money. So, I went about researching how to make my own and stumbled on some that where ok, but not real practical. I took those ideas and came up with my own. I took a 5 gallon bucket and drilled two 1/4 inch holes in the bottom of the bucket just above the bottom, I took a metal pan from the farm store that's big enough for the bucket to fit in with enough room around it for the birds to get a drink. I made sure my holes would be below the lip of the metal pan. I put a gamma lid in the top of the bucket so I could remove and replace the lid to add water. If you can find the bucket lid with the little screw on cap that will work too, but I couldn't find any so I used the slightly more expensive gamma lid. To fill it you simply take of the lid fill it with water and screw the lid back on, instant range waterer. The pans where $3.00, the buckets where about $2.50, and the lids where $6.00, for a grand total of $11.50 each. They work easier than any waterer I have ever used. Their easy to fill, easy to clean,and the the water is always fresh and clean and the birds love them.
For a feeder we needed something that would hold the feed and any scraps from the garden or the kitchen. To my knowledge they don't sell any thing at the store to fit that bill. It just so happened that we had some left over PVC that is cut in half lengthwise, I would say that it was 6 inch PVC or so. The section I had was about 5 feet long. I originally had it as a feed trough for goats, but it works really well for the chickens. We can put their feed in it as well as all the garden scraps we have. The cost? Absolutely free, it was given to me by another farmer that didn't need it anymore but it has found a home here.
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| Here is one of the metal pans we use as the base of the waterer |
If you are wondering what I mean by garden scraps It's the peelings and end pieces of squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. instead of throwing them out we feed them to the chickens, they love them and they're good for them. Sometimes we find a cuke that we missed that is a little too far gone for us to eat, but to the chickens it is a real treat. They eat the seeds out first and then finish off the rest. This may sound strange to some, but this is the way people have raised livestock for centuries, and it makes us feel good that nothing is wasted.
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| Here is one of the two holes i drilled in the bottom of the buckets. this is the first one i made and i made the holes too far up on the bucket, its still works but not as well, it likes to overflow. |
This afternoon I came home from work and the recliner was calling my name, but I knew If I sat dow in that recliner, I would have never finished the chores, the garden was in dier need of picking. I went straight down to the shed to get a bushel basket and started picking. I hit the cucumbers first. The slicing variety is really being affected by the hot weather and the drought, they feel a little soft but they will crisp up in the fridge... I hope! The pickling cukes are handling things a little better, but its just about curtains for the pickling ones, we planted them about a month before we planted the slicers. The squash is pretty much played out as we say here in the south. then it was on to the three rows of tomatoes, and they are loaded. Probably picked a half a bushel basket full. Looks like the next few afternoons are going to be spent canning. We raw pack our tomatoes in pints and quarts, the pickling cukes are made into bread and butter pickles. The recipe I use is pretty intensive, we soak them in salt for an hour, rinse them off and bring the pickles almost to a boil before putting them in jars. It is an out of sight recipe, I have had so many compliments on them from coworkers and friends that I think I will stick with this recipe, it's worth the trouble.
Speaking of preserving, we also dry a lot of things from the garden. Our neighbors taught us a lot about drying food. We have learned how to dry Cherry tomatoes, squash, and all sorts of things. I've had a dryer for years and never used it, but after learning from our neighbors we use it all the time. My favorite thing to dry is hot peppers like cayenne. You just remove the seeds and membranes from the pods, and cut them into strips with a pair of scissors, and dry them. How long should I dry them you might ask? Until their dry, of course haha. That's what my neighbor tells me when I ask him and yet I still fall for it every time. But it's true, every dryer is different so just check your manual. Another thing I like to dry is basil. It's the only herb that survived my first attempt at an herb garden. It's pretty prolific stuff, I just dried the leaves whole and crumble them up in a spice container. By the way, the last time i dried cayennes I halved them, removed the membrane, and dried them that way, and just crumbled them up afterwards.
