Watering Solution for Vacation

[Aunt Angus]

My adult son is being paid handsomely to watch my flocks, my herd, my dogs, and my cats while we are traveling abroad next month. It's a lot of work, so I'm trying to make it a little easier on him.

My large flock has 16 chickens and 5 ducks. Right now, the birds have a hanging 2.5 gal bucket with vertical nipples, a 1 gallon gravity-type waterer, and two 2.5 gallon buckets. I change all of these 1x/2x daily.

The buckets are for the ducks, so they will have to be dealt with daily.

The bucket w/the vertical nipples can be left for a few days.

The gravity feeder is a PITA. The chickens fill it up with litter from the run when they scratch, but it's their favorite.

Any ideas for larger capacity waterers that they can't make a mess of and that the duckies can't drain quickly? One that can be filled and left for a few days???

TIA!

 

[Tretinker]

This is ours, it's hooked up to 2 x 210 litre water barrels that feed it. It has a plug in the bottom to drain for a clean out when needed but this has been working great. It has a ball valve so it refills like a toilet cistern.

 

[Aunt Angus]

This is ours, it's hooked up to 2 x 210 litre water barrels that feed it. It has a plug in the bottom to drain for a clean out when needed but this has been working great. It has a ball valve so it refills like a toilet cistern.

That's not a bad idea. We have something similar to this for the goats.

How often do you have to clean it out? I see you also gave duckies, so you know the struggle to keep waterers clean.

 

[Nyhillbillies]

If you have a large enough area, I vote for a couple of those blue plastic kiddie pools in the run or pasture. Easy to dump and clean and refill if you have a garden hose nearby !

 

[RojoMarz]

Can you put the gravity waterer on a tree stump, cinder block, something, so that its not on the ground. Mine sits on a tree stump and it does get some dirt, but no litter/bedding in it.

 

[Tretinker]

That's not a bad idea. We have something similar to this for the goats.

How often do you have to clean it out? I see you also gave duckies, so you know the struggle to keep waterers clean.

Honestly they are filthy beings. I could clean it out hourly and it would still be gross. We do it weekly with the house bedding change but I because everything settles at the bottom if I scoop a cup of water out it's pretty much clear so I'm happy the water is okay. They drink out of muddy puddles with glee so I think this is cleaner than that at least

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Keeping the water away from the grass / dirt grounds help
I use fake grass in part of my run and place kid pool on it
This stops then from digging into the ground beside the kid pool
I also have a covered Patio that is brick and I place water / feed and kid pools on and again this stops the mud build up
But I do also put a few water dishes around the yard so they can do what they love and enjoy mud and grass with water

 

[Aunt Angus]

Honestly they are filthy beings. I could clean it out hourly and it would still be gross. We do it weekly with the house bedding change but I because everything settles at the bottom if I scoop a cup of water out it's pretty much clear so I'm happy the water is okay. They drink out of muddy puddles with glee so I think this is cleaner than that at least

Well, that certainly sounds like something the son can manage. I'll get one or two this week so the birds get used to it before we leave.

Thanks!

 

[Tretinker]

Well, that certainly sounds like something the son can manage. I'll get one or two this week so the birds get used to it before we leave.

Thanks!

One thing I remembered is we switched out the ball valve because the one the sink came with needed more pressure than our gravity feed system would produce. We ordered ball valves from Amazon that fitted the sink perfectly and work with very little pressure.

 

[Aunt Angus]

One thing I remembered is we switched out the ball valve because the one the sink came with needed more pressure than our gravity feed system would produce. We ordered ball valves from Amazon that fitted the sink perfectly and work with very little pressure.

Excellent! Very helpful!