Can I collect water in barrels for the chickens?

Briarpatch

Chirping
12 Years
Mar 9, 2011
9
0
60
In the past, I've used an auto fill type dog bowl, mounted to a wall in the coop, for the chickens. The dish screws onto a hose that I'd run across the yard into the coop. It would be a lot easier if I could use a rain barrel closer to the coop without having to run the hose across the yard. I could either collect water from the roof of the coop (barn) or fill up with the hose from our well. I know that the barrel could contain algae after a while as well as other organic matter. Do you think this could be a problem for the chickens? After all, they eat anything they can find. I'm just worried that some bacteria or something might be a problem. I don't want to make them sick!
 
I don't think it would be a problem. You could add a little bleach or Oxine to the water to keep algae from growing in it.

ETA: We have a 55 gal. drum behind our house that catches rain water and this is what I use to get water for my animals.
 
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I wouldn't. Stagnant water is the breeding grounds for mosquitos. I had a tub from my daughters bday that had ice and sodas in it. Well needless to say I forgot to dump the water out and awhile later I had mosquitos breeding in it. I wouldnt think bleach water would taste all that great either.
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Buckwheat packs made of burlap will keep the water tasting fresh and mostly free of algae, but only if kept in a fairly shady spot. The skeeters will breed in it though unless you put a couple drops of something in it to kill the larvae. In that case, I wouldn't want my chickens drinking chemicals. A few drops of chlorine bleach would work maybe? (I haven't tried it) If so, it would evaporate out quickly.
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We did that very thing with the water tanks for our horses. We would fill all three of them, even though we only had 2 horses. Cause we had to haul our water in on a truck. The fish worked great. Just rinse out as needed. Rember to heat it in the winter. I sugest putting some type of chicken wire over the top of it or birds, other than the chickens, will eat them righ out the top. We had this happin. But, feeder fish sized goldies are cheep.
 
I cut a hole in the insert on a large pickle barrel, layed a peice of screen across the barrel and put the insert in. This way hopefully the skeeters cant get in. Dont know about the clean issue, I use it to water seedlings.
 
also, a fine screen mesh over the drain would prevent skeeters from leaving thier larvae in it. look up the plastic barrel set ups for rain catching, I know that they are sealed in some way to prevent skeeters
 
I cut a hole in the insert on a large pickle barrel, layed a peice of screen across the barrel and put the insert in. This way hopefully the skeeters cant get in. Dont know about the clean issue, I use it to water seedlings.
 

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