Engineering a Watering System

[bigredfeather]

I have a few of those little red watering nipples I want to use. I am wanting to be able to attach them to a short piece of hose then connect two or three of them to the bottom of a five gallon bucket. The problem I am facing is how to attach the hoses to the bucket with a leak free connection.

Has anyone ever done this? What type of connector did you use to make the hose/bucket connection?

Any ideas proven or unproven would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Just stick a hole in the bucket, stick the hose in an silicone it up.... They make a fitting just for that, its a threaded tube with a lock nut but I dont know what its called.

 

[trilyn]

Go to either Home Depot or Lowe's or any other hardware store with a plumbing department (they all have 'em) and tell them what you're doing. Most places have people fairly knowledgeable about this kind of thing ( I don't mean waterers, but plumbing in general) they should be able to hook you up! Good luck and have fun with this! The nipples rock and make your life so much easier!!

 

[hplowe]

I have 5 of them, but my chickens show NO intrrest

and is a Food grade 5 gallon bucket and PVC OK for the waterer?

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote:
The bucket and PVC are fine.
You need to take away ALL other water sources so they will learn to use the nipples

 

[cw]

have you considered gallons per min, head pressure, fire protection, line maintance cost etc.. for your litle water system? you probably qulify for grants, so that will help you financially,



now on the serious side, what about a calve nipple bucket? should be threaded for the nipple. just find an adapter and you should be good to go

 

[hplowe]

Quote:
The bucket and PVC are fine.
You need to take away ALL other water sources so they will learn to use the nipples

I have, and they still show little interest, wil they dehydrate?

I figured the red, and the shiny would intrest them alot

 

[beer0clock]

Here's a few photos of my watering system. I used 3/8" poly tubing and john guest fittings. It's not as cheap as pvc but this is my first coop and I wanted the option of reconfiguring the system. I wrapped the threads of the nipples with a bunch of teflon tape and threaded them into the tubing. As far as the water drum was concerned, I drilled a 3/8" hole in the side and used a 3/8" npt fitting wrapped with lots of teflon.

As far as teaching your hens to use the waterer goes, use a chopstick to push up the piston and get a stream of water going. It'll take the girls about 10 seconds to come over and investigate.