Chicken drippers soaking my coop

[5fowl]

All summer we had a drip drinking system installed inside our coop and never had a problem with moisture. Now the drippers are constantly releasing water leaving frozen stalagmites below on the cold days and soaking the sand on the not so cold days. I tried cleaning and replacing drippers and have finally given up and started filling old 2 gal metal waterer. I still have a lot of wet/ frozen sand inside, which I know is not good. Any help on what I could do would be appreciated.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You may have to pull everything out that's wet and put in dry.

The freezing conditions may have been part of the problem. Are they vertical or horizontal nipples?
They both work on very low pressure and if your head is too high, the pressure may overcome the seal, especially with the added pressure of freezing weather.

I'm in Missouri with high humidity but lots of big open windows and this time of year, if something gets wet, it stays wet.

 

[Hokum Coco]

Now the drippers are constantly releasing water leaving frozen stalagmites below on the cold days and soaking the sand on the not so cold days.

I would drain the system and go with another type of waterer through the winter months personally. Or you could experiment with different solutions that may prolong your aggravation.

Watering
For along time I used heater tape around a bucket with chicken watering nipples. This is what it looks like and it thermostatically controlled to come on at just above the freezing temperature. It worked fine in my set up. You would have to wrap it to suit your particular application if it is viable for your set up. It is available at Home Depot in Canada and comes in a variety of lengths and of course pricies..



Last year I switched to white rubber contains the wife found somewhere. The freeze solid every night but the ice just pops out of them in the morning and I replenish them with fresh warm water. They have black ones at the feed store that are similar but large than mine.

The chickens congregate around them like people having their morning coffee. The only draw back is my yard is pepper with small ice bergs the size of the buckets.

April looks after that however..

 

[5fowl]

Thanks that is actually what I have done! I guess I just feel cheated having to haul water after I insulated and heat taped the entire dripper system so it would not freeze, only to have it drip all over the coop. I know other people use them through the winter like that so I must have the faulty one or something.

 

[5fowl]

Thanks for the advice Hokum!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I hated last winter. The worst of my sexagenarian lifetime.
I swore last winter that I wouldn't be carrying water to 7 flocks 3 times a day this winter.
I had a good plan but winter snuck up on me before I got it done.
The plan was to heat the 55 gallon drums I use for nipples the rest of the year and an inline aquarium pump to keep it circulating when below 35F.
I hope I get it done in the next week.