Added A Watering/Nipple System To My Coop Today

[VTHokieAg]

I just finished up my watering system on my new/old coop. Coop is 10+ years old. I used this coop at my old house in a different manor and just moved it to the 15 acres we bought. The way I am going to use it now I will chicken wire the entire bottom. I just wanted to post some pics of the waterer because I got all of my ideas off of this site and incorporated a few ideas from each. As it stands right now I can hold 27 gallons of water in that tote. I leak tested it today and all OK. I can't wait to get the rest of the coop retrofitted to my new needs and put some chickens in there! The chicks are currently in my basement. The only thing I meant to do was bevel the top of the 2x6 that the pipe is attached to to prevent chickens from roosting on it. As soon as I had everything all leveled/attached I realized I forgot to do that.

PS- The water stream coming out of the left most nipple is because I removed the nipple to drain the system if anyone was wondering.

 

[pdirt]

Nice setup, looks good and solid. The only suggestion I have is I expect that black container to build up significant algae, which could end up clogging your system. Sun hitting the container, plus it is so large for the number of chickens you will be able to house in that coop, it will probably be a couple weeks or more before needing to refill. Or you could just not keep it completely full and simply refill it more often.

Also, in winter, it will freeze. If not the container, the nipples will. Horizontal nipples are much less prone to freezing, and you probably would want to heat and circulate the water in the container and pipes, not too hard to do with a stock tank de-icer, some tubing and a submersible pump. But maybe you don't intend to use it during winter. In any case, nice job!

 

[lugnut151]

I too love using water nipples. personally, I prefer horizontal nipple but many use and love verticle ones. You could use a toilet float valve to keep a constant water supply in the tote. either way, nice setup!

 

[PapaChaz]

sunlight is what causes algae, that container is pretty opaque, I wouldn't think algae would be a problem with it. We had a swimming pool at a previous house and covered it wouldn't grow any algae at all. The one thing I would worry about is heat, that black plastic is going to draw heat in the summer, in the winter, it might help keep the water from freezing (during the day if the sun hits it) but in the summer, it would become scalding hot.

the only thing I would suggest for now is take off one of the ends of your tube and put a gate valve to drain it with. I love the red nipples, the chickens will too!

 

[VTHokieAg]

Thanks for the suggestions. I just painted the plastic lid that was yellow to black to help with sunlight penetration for algae. I am going to put a bypass valve on it this weekend so I can drain the container when need be.

 

[VTHokieAg]

I finally got around to doing the final touches to the watering system today. I have 1) Painted the original yellow lid black to help with algae 2) Added a PVC air vent in the lid and put fine mesh screen over the pipe opening so insects can't get in 3) Added a bypass valve with a garden hose fitting so I can drain the container when the time calls for it. Here's some updated pics.

 

[TheEggCollecter]

Looks awesome

 

[VTHokieAg]

Thanks

 

[acraiger]

My solution to the algae problem is make sure you use food safe buckets for your water.
I originally used a cheap bucket that was not food safe, and had algae after a week or so.
Then I tried a food safe bucket, after water sat in it for over a month there was still no algae.
I swapped the water that had been sitting for over a month just to give the birds fresh water, but no algae.

 

[JavaJones]

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