This is my original old coop. It was built around the same time my house was built and I know the house was built in 1935. I'm not exactly sure when they built the chicken coop but it has the same lumber as the house so it was close to the same time. Someone made a dog kennel out of it and when I bought the house it was empty for a couple years but then I decided it needed to be used and changed it back to a coop. The building is 8' x 16' with two 16' square runs off it. There are doors between every section so I can have two inside spaces and two outside spaces or open everything up and have just one large space.
The water system on this coop starts with a rain collection barrel I installed on the back of the coop before I put any of the auto waterers in. It has been a life send and saves me so much time and labor when it comes to watering my chickens, I empty and clean it completely once a year and add a little bleach to it after most every big rain event. The dirty water settles to the bottom and I always get clean water in my system.
You can see here the original water system I put in back in 2004. It is the Little Giant auto fount bowls, it has worked real well but it is really wore out and the bowls are in bad shape. There is one large bowl and one small one that I added later.
The large bowl is just plain dirty and will not come clean anymore and the brass pieces are corroded and just barely work.
The small bowl has UV damage and cracked last year, I coated the outside of the whole thing with epoxy and the covered it with masking tape, its just wore out. Grey pans are treat trays and for oyster shell.
I decided it was time for a change and PMed with Rich386 a couple times and decided to give the horizontal nipples he sells a try. Well let me tell you, these may be the best waterers I have seen or used and I have the little giant bowls, water nipples and water cups, 5 gal plastic and double walled galvanized, I've got em all. This is what my water system looks like now, clean, neat, compact and brand new!
On the side where the small bowl was there is now one horizontal nipple mounted in pvc.
The front side of the coop where the large bowl was now has 3 nipples that the chickens just love.
The girls just hung out and watched and waited while I put the system together.
The old system had brackets that held the bowls away from the wall and the birds would occasionally roost on them and poop in the bowls. The new system is much neater and mounted directly to the wall so there is no place for the birds to roost near them, all they can do is drink.
The new system was real easy to put together. The nipples have a neat tapered thread that is so easy to screw in straight especially in these pvc tees with 1/8' thread that I found, screw the nipple in hand tight and then one more turn with a pair of pliers and that's all it takes, no leaks what so ever. I do believe they would be easy to screw in most pipe or plastic buckets with the proper size hole without even using Teflon tape and there would be no leaks. Even Ms. Grouchy Bared Rock showed an interest in the nipples just after I turned on the water.
She decided to give it a try and get a drink, then she was hooked!
I'm hooked too! These horizontal nipples are jam up and work great, the birds love them, they were pecking on them before the water got turned on and you can tell when their drinking because you will hear their beaks taping clicking on the stem. The are real easy to install and don't leak. I'm convinced they will not come apart like some of the other nipples, the plastic is much tougher than the standard red nipples and should last a real long time. If they get stopped up or stuck open with debris all you would have to do is push in on the stem and flush out the debris, just in case I put screw on caps on the end of my pipes so I could flush the entire system.
Little Ms. Rhode Island White says thank you Rich don't run out of nipples because we might be ordering some more in the near future for the new chicken tractor LoneOak is building for some of us that are special!
The water system on this coop starts with a rain collection barrel I installed on the back of the coop before I put any of the auto waterers in. It has been a life send and saves me so much time and labor when it comes to watering my chickens, I empty and clean it completely once a year and add a little bleach to it after most every big rain event. The dirty water settles to the bottom and I always get clean water in my system.
You can see here the original water system I put in back in 2004. It is the Little Giant auto fount bowls, it has worked real well but it is really wore out and the bowls are in bad shape. There is one large bowl and one small one that I added later.
The large bowl is just plain dirty and will not come clean anymore and the brass pieces are corroded and just barely work.
The small bowl has UV damage and cracked last year, I coated the outside of the whole thing with epoxy and the covered it with masking tape, its just wore out. Grey pans are treat trays and for oyster shell.
I decided it was time for a change and PMed with Rich386 a couple times and decided to give the horizontal nipples he sells a try. Well let me tell you, these may be the best waterers I have seen or used and I have the little giant bowls, water nipples and water cups, 5 gal plastic and double walled galvanized, I've got em all. This is what my water system looks like now, clean, neat, compact and brand new!
On the side where the small bowl was there is now one horizontal nipple mounted in pvc.
The front side of the coop where the large bowl was now has 3 nipples that the chickens just love.
The girls just hung out and watched and waited while I put the system together.
The old system had brackets that held the bowls away from the wall and the birds would occasionally roost on them and poop in the bowls. The new system is much neater and mounted directly to the wall so there is no place for the birds to roost near them, all they can do is drink.
The new system was real easy to put together. The nipples have a neat tapered thread that is so easy to screw in straight especially in these pvc tees with 1/8' thread that I found, screw the nipple in hand tight and then one more turn with a pair of pliers and that's all it takes, no leaks what so ever. I do believe they would be easy to screw in most pipe or plastic buckets with the proper size hole without even using Teflon tape and there would be no leaks. Even Ms. Grouchy Bared Rock showed an interest in the nipples just after I turned on the water.
She decided to give it a try and get a drink, then she was hooked!
I'm hooked too! These horizontal nipples are jam up and work great, the birds love them, they were pecking on them before the water got turned on and you can tell when their drinking because you will hear their beaks taping clicking on the stem. The are real easy to install and don't leak. I'm convinced they will not come apart like some of the other nipples, the plastic is much tougher than the standard red nipples and should last a real long time. If they get stopped up or stuck open with debris all you would have to do is push in on the stem and flush out the debris, just in case I put screw on caps on the end of my pipes so I could flush the entire system.
Little Ms. Rhode Island White says thank you Rich don't run out of nipples because we might be ordering some more in the near future for the new chicken tractor LoneOak is building for some of us that are special!
