I've run into a problem the last couple weeks. Our water quality has gone rapidly downhill, most likely due to the drought and falling water table.
One day I went out and the bigger flock had barely consumed an inch of their water, compared to most of the 1 gal bucket normally. I dumped and refilled it with fresh water, but they still wouldn't drink.
By the next day I gave up and started giving them spring water.
The chickens all immediately drank so much that I felt guilty for not doing it sooner.
So I got some 5 gal jugs and get refills on them, but it's a pain, and they all combined drink about 3 gallons a day.
I want to set up a water filter for the chickens, and I've grabbed a few supplies for it.
To start with is a solar powered water fountain pump.
I also got some activated carbon filter media.
I'm afraid that won't cover all the bases for what's wrong with our tap water. If we had more rain, I'd be trying to collect it. I'm not sure what other media to add. Any ideas?
* Problems with the water: It's on a softener, not controlled by us, and I think they overdo the salt in reaction to how very hard the well water is. Because my plants hate the water too. It's also recently turned yellow, and has significantly higher TDS than it used to. No idea what other contaminants.
** My intended design involves having a reservoir that is continually filtered. I have an automatic waterer meant for dogs that I mean to attach to the reservoir to refill with clean water.
Another issue is the quantity of sand and debris my chickens deposit in the water. Like it's a beak rinsing station. I've always dealt with this by dumping and rinsing buckets. But I'm not sure how to handle it with a filtered setup. Use an aquarium vacuum to remove debris from the bottom of the reservoir? What a pain of a chore.
Originally, I was going to connect the auto-waterer to the hose, and have the drain outlet connected to another hose with an irrigation timer turning it on for just one minute a couple times a day, running to the garden. To flush out the debris and keep the water clean. But now that I'm going to filter the water, that's too wasteful.
*** I don't wish to use water nipples. Here in Florida it is too hot much of the year and my big floofy chickens rely on dipping their faces in cool water to regulate their temperature.
So nipples have always been a no-go for me.
Sorry this is so long winded.
One day I went out and the bigger flock had barely consumed an inch of their water, compared to most of the 1 gal bucket normally. I dumped and refilled it with fresh water, but they still wouldn't drink.
By the next day I gave up and started giving them spring water.
The chickens all immediately drank so much that I felt guilty for not doing it sooner.
So I got some 5 gal jugs and get refills on them, but it's a pain, and they all combined drink about 3 gallons a day.
I want to set up a water filter for the chickens, and I've grabbed a few supplies for it.
To start with is a solar powered water fountain pump.
I also got some activated carbon filter media.
I'm afraid that won't cover all the bases for what's wrong with our tap water. If we had more rain, I'd be trying to collect it. I'm not sure what other media to add. Any ideas?
* Problems with the water: It's on a softener, not controlled by us, and I think they overdo the salt in reaction to how very hard the well water is. Because my plants hate the water too. It's also recently turned yellow, and has significantly higher TDS than it used to. No idea what other contaminants.
** My intended design involves having a reservoir that is continually filtered. I have an automatic waterer meant for dogs that I mean to attach to the reservoir to refill with clean water.
Another issue is the quantity of sand and debris my chickens deposit in the water. Like it's a beak rinsing station. I've always dealt with this by dumping and rinsing buckets. But I'm not sure how to handle it with a filtered setup. Use an aquarium vacuum to remove debris from the bottom of the reservoir? What a pain of a chore.
Originally, I was going to connect the auto-waterer to the hose, and have the drain outlet connected to another hose with an irrigation timer turning it on for just one minute a couple times a day, running to the garden. To flush out the debris and keep the water clean. But now that I'm going to filter the water, that's too wasteful.
*** I don't wish to use water nipples. Here in Florida it is too hot much of the year and my big floofy chickens rely on dipping their faces in cool water to regulate their temperature.
So nipples have always been a no-go for me.
Sorry this is so long winded.
