This page will be boring to most, but it is some of the equipment that we use and find to work well.
Water Troughs: There’s too much on these to add to this page, so HERE is a link to the description of the parts and construction methods.
Most of our fencing tools and parts come from Kencove Farm Fence Supplies. We get all the crimping tools, sleeves, insulators, fence strainers, bungee gates, gate handles, fence chargers and other odds and ends from these guys. In my experience they have great prices and good customer service.
The are a few exceptions to fencing supplies. The really bulky or heavy items I will purchase locally, like wooden or metal fence posts and the reels of high tensile wire. Another item that I get from somewhere else is the poultry netting we use. I know that Kencove sells this type of product, but I don’t know anyone who has used it and I’ve never seen it in person, so we use a product from Premiere1Supplies.com. There are several folks around that have it, and have used it for several years and are very satisfied with it. Being able to see it in person and talk to folks that have used it for some time who are happy with it is a huge benefit to me. The product we’re using is item #: 207018. It’s the PoultryNet Plus 12/48/3, (48″ x 100′).
Gravity fed waterers. We use them and they are great! The gravity fed waterer we use is Plasson brand. Here’s the manufacturer’s link: http://www.plassonpoultry.com/content/page/Broiler-Drinkers. The “Broiler Drinker” is the product that we use for the broilers and the layers because of its lower overall height. I bought it from Gillis Mfg. and here’s the link: http://www.qcsupply.com/422210-plasson-broiler-drinker.html.
Our big chicken range feeder came from Cutler Supply. It’s a Kuhl brand (I don’t recommend that brand for waterers), and the model is the RF50. Supposedly it holds 50lbs of feed, but I can only get about 40lbs in it. Here’s the link: http://www.cutlersupply.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11_59_56&products_id=395
We have a well that was drilled by Watson Company LLC. We have two solar panels that drive a well pump that fills a tank that gravity feeds water to the first two fields. One day we hope to cover more area. Here is the System Layout. The pump came from http://www.solarpumps.com. The other parts came from a bunch of different places, but Backwoods Solar supplied our solar panels.