First Coop Build, how’d I do?

[Welllaidacres]

I feel like I’m never done updating my coop ha. Is there a name for this disease I’ve caught? Haha.

I built a water tower to gravity feed my watered and a grit feeder. I built the water tower from a 15 gallon food safe drum I found on amazon. I threaded a spicket in the bottom and put a splitter on. One hose on the splitter runs to my hog nipple waterer. The other hose runs to a horizontal nipple bar I made from 1 1/2” pvc. I hung the pvc pipe at an angle on purpose. I did this because I have a mixed breed flock and the heights of my birds varies. The water tower was built because in the winter, I do not have water to the barn. My water line is not buried below the frost line (installed before I bought the property). I will put a tank heater in this drum come winter time to keep it from freezing. I’m hoping that will be enough heat to keep the bar and nipples thawed but time will tell. This system allows me to provide fresh clean water to my pigs and chickens with less cleaning of basins or cups. I top the barrel off each morning with a garden hose. I plan to build another nipple bar and put it in my run. I will just attach a hose to the spicket at the downhill side of the bar in the coop and run it out to the bar in the run.

In the photos you will also be able to see my grit feeder I made. I constructed this from miscellaneous PVC fittings I had around. The main pipe is 2”pvc with a wye at the bottom. I sawzalled the wye so that the opening was more open for the chickens to get too. I bought a 2 to the 3 adapter for the top to act as a funnel for when I’m dumping bags of grit in. The bottom of the feeder is adapted down to 1 1/2 pvc for no reason other than I only had 1 1/2 caps on hand and an adapter, but no 2” caps.

What do you think? Anybody done something similar? Have tips or suggestions for me to improve this system? When will I stop thinking of upgrades?

 

[javarob66]

It will not, the nipples will freeze, then the pipe.
Better off putting horizontal nipples in the tank, or tanks if you need more than one.

I am still building mine, but I think all you need is a pump to keep the water circulating like one for an acquarium. If the heater is heating the water, then circulating it through the system should keep it working. That is two different failure points though, and would have to be monitored closely.

 

[Welllaidacres]

It will not, the nipples will freeze, then the pipe.
Better off putting horizontal nipples in the tank, or tanks if you need more than one.

I am not using a deicer, I am using a tank heater. De-icer's only get the water to 35 degrees and shut off. I’m going to adjust this heater to a temp high enough that it will hopefully keep the hoses and nipples thawed. It may still fail, but it’s worth the attempt in my book

 

[aart]

I am still building mine, but I think all you need is a pump to keep the water circulating like one for an acquarium. If the heater is heating the water, then circulating it through the system should keep it working. That is two different failure points though, and would have to be monitored closely.

Yep, if you circulate the heated water all the way down to the end of the pipe(s) it should stay thawed.

I contemplated doing a circulating system, but decided it was too complex to bother with.
Went with this:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-heated-waterer-with-horizontal-nipples.67256/
has worked great down to -12°F for up to 23 birds.


Welcome to BYC! @javarob66
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