Rain barrel water safe for chickens?

[HennyYoungman]

I have a rain water barrel. Can I use that to water my chickens? Or do I have to use tap water to be safe?

 

[newguineamom]

rain water is better than tap because its not going through any systems just from above.

 

[HennyYoungman]

Well, it is also not treated to kill bacteria and parasites. Should I periodically clean the barrel with some water and bleach? Any advice on how to most safely use this water, would be appreciated. Thx.

 

[Spartan22]

I would say rain water a lot cleaner than the ground/soil they pecked on unless the roof it came from had a lot of wild bird droppings. Cleaning your rain barrel once in a while is not a bad idea.

 

[0die]

i'd be concerned about the asphault shingles and crap in the gutters and what's groing in the barrels...how much tap water are you really using?

 

[salemguy]

The only thing I can think of aside from keeping the barrels clean is if you have wooden gutters. Some wood gutters are lined with lead to protect the wood from rotting out. Even if the lead isn't harmful to the chickens, I'm guessing that it can pass to humans via consumption of the eggs and meat. We have aluminum gutters and we have used our rain barrels for our garden for many years and now we are using them for our chickens too.

 

[HennyYoungman]

I know I'm not really using very much tap water for my chickens. But I have the rain barrel... Seemed like the right thing to do as long as it won't harm them.

 

[pdirt]

I did a bunch of research on this a while back...sorry I don't have any of the relevant links to share with you as I lost track of them.

The bottom line I came up with is that unless your roof is metal, don't use the water run-off unless you also filter the water to remove bacteria, parasites (from wild birds) and chemicals (leaching from asphalt or wooden shingles). Arsenic is commonly used in wooden shingles. I don't recall the verdict on ceramic tiled roofs, but I imagine they would be similar to metal.

If you roof is metal and you don't have a lot of wild bird droppings on the roof, then you would probably be fairly safe using the water straight. But it would be a good idea to also drain out and bleach the barrel perhaps once a month or two.

 

[0die]

I have used rain barrels in the past...strictly for lawn/plant use...

I get the 275 gal poly totes from the local farmers, often for free...you can find them on CL too for $50-100 usually.