ButchofLockhart
Hatching
- Jul 16, 2018
- 2
- 0
- 4
I know there's another thread here with this topic, but now that I joined, I can't find it. I would like to make an automatic waterer from a 55 gallon drum. My rain barrel is about 30 feet from the henhouse. Although I am in the process of building a bigger henhouse closer.
I was in the hospital for a week and then the doctor made me stay with a friend for another week before I went home, and when I got home, the chickens were OK and I had people that were suppose be checking, but the water trough was dry and so was the bowl.
So, I want to make something that the chickens can automatically use if I need to be away again and I won't have to depend on my friends and neighbors as much. I saw something like this in a book using a hose and a 5 gallon bucket and looked like something like the end of a toilet plunger in a bowl or something.
But I'd like to try it using a 55 gallon barrel. I have enough barrels that I can set one or two up closer to the hen house and frankly I wouldn't mind trying it with a 250 gallon water tank I have, but it originally had low VOC paint in it, so I'm not sure about that one. Regardless, I do not want my chickens to run out of water ever again and as long as they are drinking the water it should stay fresh, especially after I add 2 or 3 dozen more chickens they'll be drinking it sooner too.
I also plan on using up 8 of the 55 gallon barrels on my new hen house, 4 on each side, those barrels had a mild hand soap in them and they do need to be painted a dark color [most of them]. The guy I got them from works for the Texas School for the blind and the students use the soap to make perfumes. I don't think they ever had perfume in them, just the soap and my chickens have been fine drinking the rainwater from them, so far.But the hen is bigger than the rooster [She's also older and he follows her around]
I was in the hospital for a week and then the doctor made me stay with a friend for another week before I went home, and when I got home, the chickens were OK and I had people that were suppose be checking, but the water trough was dry and so was the bowl.
So, I want to make something that the chickens can automatically use if I need to be away again and I won't have to depend on my friends and neighbors as much. I saw something like this in a book using a hose and a 5 gallon bucket and looked like something like the end of a toilet plunger in a bowl or something.
But I'd like to try it using a 55 gallon barrel. I have enough barrels that I can set one or two up closer to the hen house and frankly I wouldn't mind trying it with a 250 gallon water tank I have, but it originally had low VOC paint in it, so I'm not sure about that one. Regardless, I do not want my chickens to run out of water ever again and as long as they are drinking the water it should stay fresh, especially after I add 2 or 3 dozen more chickens they'll be drinking it sooner too.
I also plan on using up 8 of the 55 gallon barrels on my new hen house, 4 on each side, those barrels had a mild hand soap in them and they do need to be painted a dark color [most of them]. The guy I got them from works for the Texas School for the blind and the students use the soap to make perfumes. I don't think they ever had perfume in them, just the soap and my chickens have been fine drinking the rainwater from them, so far.But the hen is bigger than the rooster [She's also older and he follows her around]
