Automatically filling a gravity waterer

[Denisea3465]

We have to go away for about nine days last minute. We’re leaving on Monday. We have nine chickens. I have two 15 L buckets with horizontal nipple waterers in the chicken run/coop. I also have a 20 L gravity fed waterer like the picture below. We have a rain barrel that captures rainwater right next to the coop.

I’ve been googling and googling But I can’t find what I’m looking for. Is there anyway (because physics just isn’t my thing and I know I’ll mess it up) to run a hose or pipe from the rain barrel to the gravity fed waterer so that it fills up as needed?

50l water should Of course to be enough for nine chickens but I am paranoid, and we have no one who can come and watch daily- only two or three times while we’re gone, and I worry that something will happen. It seems like my chickens are always doing crazy things and causing trouble and getting into mischief. Thanks!

 

[Denisea3465]

@U_Stormcrow would you mind giving your opinion? You seem to know what works and how to do it. Thanks!!

 

[SourRoses]

I wish that was an option but gravity waterers only work with a sealed reservoir. Any loss of vacuum will result in water leaking everywhere.

We once placed a gravity waterer under a persistent drip coming from a hose controller thingie. The drip flowed into the base and kept the reservoir from running out as fast. But one day the drip decided to go on vacation and not come back, so that was the end of that experiment.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

@U_Stormcrow would you mind giving your opinion? You seem to know what works and how to do it. Thanks!!

I am not familiar with that waterer design. It all comes down to the way it works. The waterers that are basically buckets upside down with a tray at the bottom of them only work under vacuum conditions. You can't use a supply from another bucket to keep them full. The waterers that work with some form of valve or nipple can be kept full with A second water source based on Siphon principles.

 

[Yardmom]

I might have had a similar waterer. It did not need the lid to work. The "seal" was in the bottom. Sorry my knowledge of how to make the water flow from rain barrel to the gravity waterer or if it does require a sealed top the nipple waterer is not enough to help.

 

[Denisea3465]

It does not require the lid to work. The float or whatever it is (sorry I don’t really understand it myself) is a ring of plastic under the barrel that holds the water, and there is a small opening at the bottom of the red ring that allows water out.

The bucket has two a hole in the bottom and it screws onto the red ring with the float.

I had hoped I could somehow run a hose from the rain barrel to keep the white barrel/bucket part topped off. But I don’t know how to make it so that the rain barrel doesn’t just keep pouring in if it has enough water in the white bucket part.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Denisea3465]

 

[U_Stormcrow]

If it does not require the lid to work, then you should be able to fill it from the rain barrel via a siphon system. Now here's the trick. So the water will keep filling until the water in the rain barrel and the water in the water ER are at the same height. Meaning you will probably have to lift the waterer 2 the height at least as tall as the bottom of the rain barrel, and then the rain barrel will hold no more water than the height of your waterer. But that should still more than double the total water volume of your water

 

[Denisea3465]

If it does not require the lid to work, then you should be able to fill it from the rain barrel via a siphon system. Now here's the trick. So the water will keep filling until the water in the rain barrel and the water in the water ER are at the same height. Meaning you will probably have to lift the waterer 2 the height at least as tall as the bottom of the rain barrel, and then the rain barrel will hold no more water than the height of your waterer. But that should still more than double the total water volume of your water

Thank you!!!

 

[Tozan]

Very Simple fix I use the same waterer with my birds.

Just get a float fill valve and drill a hole in the side of the waterer and adjust the float valve to the height you want. I attach mine directly to a hose. In your case just connect it to your tank with a hose.