This has got to be one of my favorite changes that we have made on the homestead and I’m so glad that Jeremy thought of it! We love to travel and since moving to North Carolina we travel even more. That’s not something typical homesteaders may do because of the level of animals we all seem to get into. So with a little bit of work we have managed to so far get ourselves a little bit of wiggle room.
The big perk of this change too is that if needed we are typically ok to wait until mid-day to feed animals. But that’s typically not the issue. Let me also explain that we have 8 different coops for chickens, turkeys, and ducks. This change has only been implemented in 4 groups. Some of our chicken coops are small groups at maybe 10 chickens in each coop. So we really didn’t need to actually do this improvement for everyone.
About midsummer Jeremy decided to upgrade our feed bins in some of the coops. He actually took some trash cans and plastic storage bins and changed them into new water bins and feed bins. These bins have been able to hold at least one full 50 pound bag if not more. The trash can food bins could easily fit 4 or more bags worth. The totes have been fitted to hold the water typically and he has added little water spouts to the sides for everyone to reach.
Each bin has been able to give us a few days of wiggle room before we need to fill either food or water. To which that means we have made it that our friends have less work on their plate while we head out of town. Someone is always stopping by to check on the animals but now its less on the person helping. Shoot its even less on myself when I feed in the mornings. I have even taken the time to wait to fill the water bins until the afternoon so its a tad warmer for myself.
It’s such a simple fix but its been such a nice change for us. We run around like crazy and this was one of those simple helping moments that we didn’t realize we needed. But now especially when we are away on trips it is nice to be able to make less work for others too!