Wow even 10lbs of pressure makes my nipples drip I'm trying to fix it up for my DH I'm not wanting him to have to clean all my waters I'm going to be gone for a week and it's going to get hot over 90 when it's been lucky to get 70 to 75...what's the trick? He was thinking that he could hook a float to the bucket I have too many baby birds for them to not have a good water source I so hoping just to hook it up to the faucet with a pressure reducer but that's not working
Talk about bringing back memories... those suckers are pressure sensitive for sure. Some run on 4 to 6 lbs... others up to 10... you may need to find a poultry supply house and install an adjustable pressure reducer gizmo... which means you are looking at building a little PVC header system. Find a poultry place that sells the nipples and they will set you up. You must have pressure or they will not seat and just drip, drip, drip. BTW, I have never seen nipples on a hose? edited to add you are going to need a pressure gauge... be sure to ask and they will set you up.
We have a 5-gallon bucket with 4 nipples in the bottom, the bucket hangs from a hook on the wall. My husband mounted a simple toilet float valve from the bottom of the bucket and that float valve is hooked to a toilet supply line (braided hose that you find right next to the float valves inthe toilet repair section of your hardware store, be sure one end will screw onto the float valve and the other end to the garden hose), then to the garden hose. It works great. We drop blue ice packs into the bucket on really hot days so the water stays cool.
Quote:hose thread on a pvc 1/2 inch pipe I wish you could put those things in a drip line like I use for watering the plants now that would be trick...
There is a gentleman on the forum here that sells nipples. He is very helpful as well and offers a lot of suggestions before taking your order. I placed an order with him recently and im very happy with them. Fast shipping and VERY reasonable prices!! https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/profile.php?id=15206
Just got to a computer after getting back from the poultry show. No chicken nipple drinker system that I know of is designed to operate ant greater than 30" water column. 27.82" equals one PSI. So you are way way overdoing it. The pressure reducer that you would need, and it may even take two to step down the pressure, is not going to be very available. I have them and most any providers of large poultry rearing facilities and equipment will have them but we are far and few between. A 6001 would work - http://www.quillproductions.co.uk/PDF/uploads/Maxi_Flow.pdf around $50. I thought you might want another idea! Calculate how much water you will need. You will be suprised how much less it takes when using a closed system. Here are a couple of rules of thumb - 100 heavily producing layers consume about 5 gallons of water a day and by weight a growing meat chicken drinks three times as much water as it eats feed. Sounds like a bucket with a $10 to $15 toilet fill valve hooked to a hose might be the most you would need. If that.
