Coop Location...

[Railroad Picker]

Hey there,
I have recently moved out of a small town where I had to keep my chickens under the radar. Did that for 4 years without any problem and now myself and the family have moved out of town onto a chunk of land with a few acres and now have room to have more birds. Question:
There are two great spots I would like to see the coop... close to house and nicely tucked back in some trees etc.etc. The only problem is that they are both in relative close proximity to the well head. What is a good safe distance from well area so water doesn't get contaminated? Nothing but gravel and bedrock... no dirt.
Thanks

 

[Egghead_Jr]

100 feet is the required "legal" distance from well water to farm/poultry pens.

 

[Alex41]

100 feet is the required "legal" distance from well water to farm/poultry pens.

Egghead,

I ask this because I don't know.
Is that a standard practice, or a law in your state/county/town?

Alex

 

[Egghead_Jr]

http://www.water.ca.gov/groundwater...nia_well_standards/wws/wws_combined_sec8.html

This is California specific but typically these distances are very standard to all states, you should be able to find the same charts for your state.

Having a late lunch so did some research. What do you know? PA is very lax in it's suggestions. I use to live in VT which has distances exactly like CA and these are not suggestions rather codes in these strict environmental states. PA government for private water wells only suggests you check out links like CDC.

Here is the CDC suggested distance: 50ft from livestock pens.

http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/private/wells/location.html

 

[valleychicks]

We have a deep well (100' deep) that goes to an underground spring. The person I talked to at our local health department in Wilkes county GA said "it doesn't matter if animals are close to your well. If you drive along the country roads in the South you will see well houses in the middle of pasture land."

 

[Railroad Picker]

Thanks for the info. Recently doing out that our well is 222 feet deep with 28 feet of casing so the 60 feet distance doesn't seem like a problem.
Thanks to all. Look forward to building the new coop once the 4 feet of snow is gone and the temps get above -30.... Maybe by June

 

[bluefrog87]

textbook answer for sanitation: 100 feet downhill from water source

actual answer: keep as far as possible from the well to avoid the rain washing chicken poop in the well (hence downhill)


The best spot is downhill. Rain water washes chicken poop away from the well. This is why a lot of wells are built on top hills