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How to Choose a Feeder and Waterer for Chicken: A Helpful Guide

Each poultryman knows that chick breeding is a troublesome activity that requires a lot of money. Purchasing and rational consumption of feed is the main concern of the farmer. Appropriate feeders will help to significantly reduce its costs. To figure out how to choose the best feeder for the chick, you need to consider a number of factors.

What Types of Feeders for Chicken Are Differetiated?

Feeders are distinguished depending on the material from which they are made and the way they feed. If you need expert advice, you are recommended to check the useful tips at https://unclefredsfarm.com/best-chicken-feeder-and-waterer/ to discover what to pay attention to when choosing the feeder. By type of feeding, there are the following feeders:

  • The first type of the feeders has a restrictive removable grille and several feeder units. Thanks to this, there is an opportunity to fill up several types of feed at once. It is easy to care for such models, since they are installed out of cells. This design is used to feed adult chickens.
  • There is also a model that is suitable for feeding small chicks. The container has a flat shape, and its edges are equipped with edges. They protect the food, preventing birds from rolling it all over the cage.
  • There is a feeder known as the bunker: The daily feed rate falls into a closed bunker, which feeds the grain gradually, during the day.

Wood, plastic and metal are used as material for the manufacture of feeders. The material is selected depending on the type of feed. For dry fodder, mixed fodder, grain and mineral additives, wooden constructions are suitable. For wet fodder - plastic products, since the dried residue of food is easier to wash off the plastic. From the metal, grass bins are made. Convenient care, durability and economical use of feed are the minimum requirements that any feeder should meet.

How to Choose the Best Waterer for Chicks?

Those who breed poultry know that they need not only food but also enough water. Small chicks experience the acute need in the constant access of fresh water because they are fed with special mixtures, after which there is a need to drink a lot of fluid. Most farmers still use open waterers but it is necessary to keep in mind that there are many disadvantages of such kind of waterers:

  • the contamination of drinking water with food and litter;
  • the penetration of insects and harmful bacteria into the water;
  • the possibility of turning the water;
  • the rapid evaporation of water from an open container.

When choosing a waterer for chicks, take into account that when using vacuum waterers, the bird does not have access to and does not pollute the entire water supply, which meets the norms of sanitation in poultry and the prevention of infectious diseases. These self-winding machines are made of non-toxic, non-oxidising materials. The design provides convenient washing and disinfection.