While it may be more interesting to focus on building a chicken coop structure, making sure your chickens needs are met once it is built is critical.

It's important to have a supply of fresh water available at all times. I personally like plastic aviary feeders available from pet stores, and use them for both feed and water. They are inexpensive and allow you to see the level of the feed or water without removing a cover. These should either be placed on a cinder block or hung from the ceiling of the coop, to avoid a mess, and keep the food and water from being contaminated with droppings. Needless to say the food and water should be positioned away from the perch. There are also quite a few DIY feeder and waterer designs available online. Many are constructed with plastic 5 gallon buckets and are quite clever.

Of course in addition to water, providing the proper feed is equally important. Although there is some disagreement over what constitutes the optimum chicken diet, I recommend sticking with a basic feed that is formulated for the chickens age and purpose. By focusing your flocks' diet around a formulated feed you can be assured that your will be providing the proper mix of nutrients, in the correct proportions. It's vitally important to keep a supply of fresh water available to your flock at all times. There are inexpensive feeder and waterers widely available to ensure that your flock will always have access to a fresh supply of water and feed.