It's a sound theory...would make me nervous tho, even with the redundant float valves.So I have been thinking about the water system for the chicken barn. I was going to use nipples and while they worked great for the chicks I feel that now that they are older it takes them a long time to drink from the nipples. I don't think they dispensing enough water for the juvies.
Then I thought I would use small horse waterers but they are $35. each and would need to be cleaned often because of the amount of exposed area that could catch debris. No go.
I came up with this Idea.
Simply a bucket with 2 floats (In case one clogs). A 1 1/2" outlet pipe would run along the floor under the bedding to all pens. In each pen there would be a riser that is open at the top. This is where the chickens would drink. The outlet pipe would run out the other end of the barn and have a valve out side. Each night I could simply open the valve and drain/flush the whole system. This would hopefully remove any debris that may have gotten into the waterers during the day. If I cut the riser +/- 1/2" above the water level in the bucket they should stay full but not over flow. The water level in the pipes and the water level in the bucket should always stay equal.
Adding more drinkers would just be a matter of cutting the pipe and adding another riser.
Dealing individual waterers can be such a pain, filling, cleaning, constantly being polluted and they take up space even when hung.
This seems like such a simple system... I can't help but wonder... am I missing something?
I'm very familiar with this concept from the gravity fed filter system on my ornamental pond.
Gratuitous illustration of pond filter:
You could use fernco couplers between glued up riser assemblies to give more flexibility.
Level would be very important to keep water close enough to top of riser for birds to access.
Fernco's might help with adjustability there too, easily changing the top edge of 'riser'.
I suppose the float valves have to come into bottom of vessel?
But riser run could come out straight instead of elbowing down to reduce riser heights and overall 'stagnant' water held in system.
I've been using horizontal nipples for a couple years now. I always kinda kept track of how much water they went thru in a day with the open waterer, it was pretty consistent tho did vary with the weather(heat/rain) and moisture content of the scraps they were given. When I switched over to nipples (during mild weather to avoid dehydration) I kept a very close eye on the water consumption, it was definitely less at first as some of the birds had a hard time catching on, but it wasn't long before it equaled what they were consuming out of the open waterer. The extra time they spend drinking out of nipple I see as 'keeps em busy' as they are confined.
I do provide extra water during heat waves in the form of melting ice cubes in a large shallow pans.
For me the HN's are great for clean, debris free water, easy to heat in our frigid winters, and add very little to the ambient humidity.
Your climate holds no extremes as far as I know, so not sure I would sorry about dehydration at all.
Hey, were you the one with the tiny trigger feeder, multiple triggers in slanted 'horizontal' pipe...how'd that work out?
Whoa... I am verbose this morning...sorry for the novel, and the topic switch there at the end...haha!
