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Someone wanted some pics of the cage and automatic watering/feeding setups when I finished them. Here they are.
I used a bit of silicone to water tight the vinyl tubing (5/16" ID I think) into the plastic tub for the waterer. The red chicken nipple just squeezes/screws into the end of the tube and the clothes pin helps hold it straight and in the corner.
The feeder is an inverted vinegar bottle set into an upright vinegar bottle that had its top cut off. There's a hole in the bottom of the cut-off bottle for the inverted bottle's neck to fit through and into the tubing. The white tubing is just scrap stuff from a sink plumbing job. It is the drain line assembly. I used a piece of plastic to close off the end of the "J" section and cut a square hole for the chicks to feed from. To refil, I just put my thumb over the hole and flip everything upside down. Then undo the screw on fitting between the "U" bend and the straight pipe and fill using a funnel into the straight pipe. I used a heat gun to flange out one end so it fit over the vinegar jug's hole. Then I heated a coat hanger wire and shoved through both together as a pin to hold them together.
Now there's no fouling of the water, no scattering of the food all over the place. Before this, I was using those metal screw waterers and feeders that screw onto the top of a glass canning jar. Terrible things really.
The box under it is lined with 6m plastic with newspaper litter. The cage drops right into it and changing the litter is super easy now. There's never a reason to actually open the cage, except to handle the chicks themselves.
I can't wait for the weather to warm up and these things can go outside.
