Best way to water the flock?

[DickGJ]

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LMAO!

Even a dixie cup will feed 250 people if they take turns!

 

[Fool]

If gravity feed is causing too much water pressure, wouldn't siphoning work to solve the problem? Instead of draining water from the bottom drain valve and having the weight of all the water in the barrel forcing the water out. It seems to me that running a line out of the top of the barrel (with the hose stuck down into the bottom of the drum) then down to the waterers should solve this problem.

 

[DickGJ]

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I may be wrong, but I believe as soon as the nipples are activated to release water, air is likely to back flow into a "siphoned" system and will result in the loss of the vacuum necessary to sustain the water flow.

 

[MareeZoCool]

Sounds VERY INTERESTING!

I'd love to see photos, since I'm not very imaginative these days.

BEST OF LUCK ON YOUR PROJECT!

 

[DJSams]

SO How do you teach 250 cornish cross chicks to take turns

!!!!

 

[DickGJ]

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[lfreem2]

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No. Siphoning has no bearing on this issue. My barrel just has the lid sitting on top, so there is no vacuum happening. a ling running out of the top of the barrel does no good as that is not gravity feeding. Gravity feeding means that the point of water that is exiting must be slightly higher than the nipples to feed it water using gravity and no power. To raise the water up and out the top of the barrel would require a pump.

It's just simple math here. The nipples require 1-5 PSI of water pressure max to function. A barrel the size of mine provides way may PSI thanks to the weight of the water. Therefore, the nipples will leak because there is more pressure than they need involved. The PSI has to match up. The Little Giant waterer allows for up to 70 PSI, therefore it will work perfectly.

 

[DickGJ]

I would love to have the meter or equipment necessary to test the PSI of a gravity fed water supply from a 55-60 gallon barrell. Hard to believe it's above 10 psi

 

[lfreem2]

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You can google it for yourself and see. On average it's 13 PSI. Like I said the nipples and cups can't handle anything over 4 PSI.

 

[DickGJ]

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You can google it for yourself and see. On average it's 13 PSI. Like I said the nipples and cups can't handle anything over 4 PSI.

I tried that without luck. Maybe I used the wrong phrase or question with google...I'll take your word for it though. My 10 nipples came in today...I almost hate to give it a try since I'm set on using the 55 gallon barrel. Essentially I just wasted 20+ bucks!