Battling Extreme Desert Heat

[Mutt Farm]

So back to not wanting to be tied to the farm adding ice to waters and ice bottles to the pens, when it's extremely hot, here's what I came up with. When it's hot, I use cold H2O in coolers for dog water buckets in the kennels. Why wouldn't that work for chickens? They make an adaptor for the Igloo, but the water would still be be warm from sitting in the reservoir.

So I got creative!


This is the inside

Here are the parts and the drill tool I used. The parts are positioned as they are once assembled. Just cut the black one to the desired length.

It was a 1 hour project plus a day for the aquarium sealer to dry.

 

[perchie.girl]

So back to not wanting to be tied to the farm adding ice to waters and ice bottles to the pens, when it's extremely hot, here's what I came up with. When it's hot, I use cold H2O in coolers for dog water buckets in the kennels. Why wouldn't that work for chickens? They make an adaptor for the Igloo, but the water would still be be warm from sitting in the reservoir.

So I got creative!


This is the inside

Here are the parts and the drill tool I used. The parts are positioned as they are once assembled. Just cut the black one to the desired length.

It was a 1 hour project plus a day for the aquarium sealer to dry.

later on you could ad a float valve to that and have an auto waterer... NEVER goes dry. simple process and very similar tools.

You can get a float valve in the airconditioning replacement parts area of either Lowes or Home Depot. Bag of ice in the summer time and you are good to go.

I dont do nipple waterers for a whole other reason...

deb

 

[pinkmartin73]

Meyer Hatchery is right in Ohio...I ordered 5 kinda rares from them. They were super healthy and active even after their 2.5 day trip out here. What kind are you looking for? Edit to add that they're growing up to be really beautiful. About 11 wks old now.

Our birds are from Eagle Nest. Also in ohio. All healthy and thriving. Had ordered extras just in case but no losses. I have a catalog from meyer and may use them next year. I drove to pick our chicks up instead if shipping.

We really want a breeding pair if aracaunas. Also a couple if marans girls. Our 4-H pullets next yr will likely be either buckeyes or light brahma. Our judges prefer heavy girls. I can't complain about Eagle Nest except that for show we need identical birds and out of 3 rir and 3 bo each set has an odd ball. If I had ordered only 2 of each we may not have had sets suitable for showing. Not huge differences but different combs. That is enough to push you from 1st place to not placing at all. 4-H is about learning but lets face facts. Every kid wants to win. We need a couple more bantam girls for our bantam boy but I hate buying straight run. I bought 5 last time. 4 were boys. Had to give 3 away. Not the best odds and had a hard time getting rid of extras even for free. Luckily every chick at eagle nest was only $2 but i did have to pay a fee for not ordering their minimum number. When we they imposed the poultry ban due to AI and said no birds allowed at fair I was happy that I had decided against the $45 birds from the breeder.

 

[pinkmartin73]

later on you could ad a float valve to that and have an auto waterer... NEVER goes dry.  simple process and very similar tools.

You can get a float valve in the airconditioning replacement parts area of either Lowes or Home Depot.    Bag of ice in the summer time and you are good to go.  

I dont do nipple waterers for a whole other reason...

deb

Only reason we didn't do something similar was teaching them to use it. Lol we do have a really large waterer in the shade though. I put a couple frozen water bottles in in the morning. Stays cold most of the day.

 

[perchie.girl]

I use recycled rubber tubs the kind you feed horses out of.... with a stock tank float. they hold about three or four gallons each.





with quick inspection I can see water levels on at least four partitions at once. Easy to assemble I run a water line of PVC they all run off that. They are easy to dump for cleaning. And when it freezes the ice chunk just drops out. Yep my desert freezes and snows....
One year we got enough snow to collapse my Tin roof horse structure....

As long as the water stays shaded Its a comfortable temperature. I am planning on a handicapped accessible Chicken house for my rebuild... So I need to keep things as simple as possible because I will be in a wheel chair eventually.

deb

 

[Mutt Farm]

later on you could ad a float valve to that and have an auto waterer... NEVER goes dry. simple process and very similar tools.

You can get a float valve in the airconditioning replacement parts area of either Lowes or Home Depot. Bag of ice in the summer time and you are good to go.

I dont do nipple waterers for a whole other reason...

deb

Hadn't thought of that! Great idea. I need the most efficient ways to keep the chickens happy. My goal is 3 days fine and dandy without worry. I froze H20 in a plastic bucket for a BIG ice cube. Should stay cold in 100 deg for 3 days. We'll see.

 

[Mutt Farm]

Only reason we didn't do something similar was teaching them to use it. Lol we do have a really large waterer in the shade though. I put a couple frozen water bottles in in the morning. Stays cold most of the day.

Right? I worried about teaching them to use it. No training needed! My youngest are 11 wks and it's 95-100 deg. All are used to the big traditional waterers. I hung it in the coop from a rope yesterday pm, took the other water away while they were out wandering. They are thisty when they get back. They pecked, but spooked when it started moving. I put only one traditional H2O source right underneath it for the night. This afternoon, same thing, let them out for a few hours, but I secured it so it didn't spin. All 15 went right to it and drank well. So much less worry for me. Good to go with cold H2O for 3 days.

 

[Mutt Farm]

As long as the water stays shaded Its a comfortable temperature. I am planning on a handicapped accessible Chicken house for my rebuild... So I need to keep things as simple as possible because I will be in a wheel chair eventually.

deb

Deb, I don't know a lot about chickens just yet, but my job, my business is training service dogs for folks with limited mobility. Don't know your situation. My passion is advocacy for independence. If I can help with your accessible coop design send me a PM. You GO girl!

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
LOL Thank you so much......

I am a Mechanical Designer used to work in Aerospace and know quite a bit about Ergonomics designing tools for workstations and such. It was only a bit of a stretch to dig up the needs for a person in a wheel chair... I made some modifications with regard to mixing the two with Poultry housing design.



I even designed a roll out tunnel nest that has a drawer so you can collect the eggs from the aisle
I still need to build a prototype out of foam core to get the angles right for rolling eggs but its not much.

Here is a hand sketch of what one partition will look like




deb

 

[pinkmartin73]

LOL Thank you so much...... I am a Mechanical Designer used to work in Aerospace and know quite a bit about Ergonomics designing tools for workstations and such. It was only a bit of a stretch to dig up the needs for a person in a wheel chair... I made some modifications with regard to mixing the two with Poultry housing design. I even designed a roll out tunnel nest that has a drawer so you can collect the eggs from the aisle I still need to build a prototype out of foam core to get the angles right for rolling eggs but its not much. Here is a hand sketch of what one partition will look like deb

Really cool!