Chicken feeders and drinkers come in many sizes, shapes, and are built out of several different types of material. Chicken feed is generally in the shape of little pellets. You can buy hen scratch, or cracked corn to use as chickens feed, but both of those will also fit nicely into most of the automatic chicken feeders that you can buy commercially.
When a chicken is a baby you feed them from a specialized feeder that is designed so that several babies can get to the feed at once. They are also designed where all the little bird can get into the feeder is their beaks. They will be unable to get into the feeder and scratch the food out onto the ground.
As the birds get older you can either feed them from an automatic feeder or you can feed them from a bowl, or you can throw their food on the ground. A chicken does require a certain amount of grit in their diet for them to be able to actually process the things that they eat, so throwing some of their food on the ground is not as cruel as you might think it sounds.
You really should add some crushed oyster shell to the diet of your grown chickens to help them all the calcium that is required for good chicken nutrition. Chicken feed does contain almost everything that a chicken will ever require nutritionally, but you can add supplements, and you can add things like oyster shell to help your egg laying hens produce eggs with firmer shells. Never give the oyster shell to chickens under the age of six months.
Providing your flock with fresh drinking water every day is almost more important that giving them food. If they had to survive without food or water, they would survive longer going without food than they would without water. So if you can install an automatic watering system for your animals you will be getting the best thing you can have in your pen.
Of course a chicken will also drink out of a bowl, or any container that will hold water, they are not picky animals. You will need to make certain that you occasionally clean the water container, because algae will form in the bowl, and the chickens will introduce dirt into the container, and they will even poop in the water dish.
These animals are easy to care for, and they generally take up very little of your time. You will simply feed them once, or even twice a day, depending on your preference, and you keep them supplied in water. They will consume any of the grass clippings from your yard that you want to give them, because they love fresh green vegetation. They will also eat any scraps you are throwing away. People will tell you that these birds cannot taste their food, but they will eat table scraps, and leave their other food lying on the ground untouched. They will follow you around literally begging for scraps and treats. They are easy to spoil.
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