Nipple Watering System Made Easy
I wanted to share the watering system I made in about an hour the other day. All it took was a five gallon paint bucket, a hose faucet "Y" splitter, some old garden hose, a couple of garden hose ends, five stainless steel chicken nipples, five feet of 1" pvc pipe, and a couple of pvc fittings. I certainaly can't take all the credit for the design, alot of the information came off of various threads on this site, but I wanted to share the simplicity of this system with everyone. So here it is:
I set the bucket inside the coop, about two feet above where the nipples would so I would get a good gravity flow of water to the nipples.
In the bottom of the bucket, I inserted a "Y Splitter" so I could run one hose inside the coop, and one outside.
I used two feet of 1" pvc and two nipples for the inside. A Garden hose attaches the pvc to the bucket for flexibility.
Three feet of pipe and three nipples for the outside. Same thing with the garden hose, just drilled about a 3/4" hole through the outside of the coop.
The hardest and most time consuming part was buying/figuring out the connections. You really need to stand in front of the pipe isle at the hardware store and just figure out what you need to buy. Like I said, the project took about an hour from start to finish, and was very much worth it. The girls took to it immediately, and now they always have nice fresh clean water to drink. The water is lasting forever between re-fills. I can't believe that it's been 90 to 100 degrees for the last week, and we haven't had to refill the bucket! Hope this little write-up can help you if your interested in this type of setup. Feel free to ask any questions if I forgot to mention something.
I set the bucket inside the coop, about two feet above where the nipples would so I would get a good gravity flow of water to the nipples.
In the bottom of the bucket, I inserted a "Y Splitter" so I could run one hose inside the coop, and one outside.
I used two feet of 1" pvc and two nipples for the inside. A Garden hose attaches the pvc to the bucket for flexibility.
Three feet of pipe and three nipples for the outside. Same thing with the garden hose, just drilled about a 3/4" hole through the outside of the coop.
The hardest and most time consuming part was buying/figuring out the connections. You really need to stand in front of the pipe isle at the hardware store and just figure out what you need to buy. Like I said, the project took about an hour from start to finish, and was very much worth it. The girls took to it immediately, and now they always have nice fresh clean water to drink. The water is lasting forever between re-fills. I can't believe that it's been 90 to 100 degrees for the last week, and we haven't had to refill the bucket! Hope this little write-up can help you if your interested in this type of setup. Feel free to ask any questions if I forgot to mention something.
