The chickens’ new rocket ship, um, I mean drinker

Posted by louisa on Friday 5 August 2011 in chickens | 3 comments

Earlier this week, the chickens had a new feature installed in their run – a 30litre (6.5gallons) drinker.

It’s a somewhat excessive for six chickens really (they get through about 3-4 litres a day between them) but I’m sick of buying small drinkers and then wishing I’d bought a bigger one (that’s happened twice now), and this one was about the same price as one about half the size so I thought it’s easier to half fill this one than double-fill a smaller one, if you know what I mean ;). Given there is a plan to expand the team slightly next year, and at some point (although probably not imminently) expand into having chickens-for-meat too, I’ll consider this too-big purchase an act of futureproofing.

And it’s not just about future benefits: their feeders hold about four days worth of food and this drinker will easily hold that much water too, even if I only half fill it — I’m not planning on neglecting them by any means, but it’ll lessen the burden on anyone looking after them if we want to go away for a long weekend (the chicken-sitter will only have to check on them and collect eggs). Now, to start planning a weekend away somewhere…! :)