Hidden Forest Coop

[vehve]

Now that there is a nicely functioning deep litter. It needs to be pretty thick to work properly though. But leaving some sandy area for them is a good idea too.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote: I would not do that. You'll set up a cycle of bumblefoot you won't like at all, trust me. I did that when I first started, put some non skid tape, the equivalent of what you're proposing, on a round PVC pipe and that started bumblefoot issues, the abrasions from the rough surface. Just trying to save you some trouble here.

 

[Jetpad]

I've been pointing my IP camera at one side of my coop at night that lets it watch the biggest area but no animals have shown over the last month up even though I know there are foxes and racoons that frequent my yard. Yesterday I noticed some poop around the coop that I didn't recognized and after googling it, I determined that it was probably from a raccoon. So last night I pointed the camera at the outside area of that corner of the coop and caught the raccoon sneaking around at about midnight and then a few hours later. So far there doesn't seem to be any attempts at breaking into the coop that I can find.

 

[Scrambles55]

I've been pointing my IP camera at one side of my coop at night that lets it watch the biggest area but no animals have shown over the last month up even though I know there are foxes and racoons that frequent my yard. Yesterday I noticed some poop around the coop that I didn't recognized and after googling it, I determined that it was probably from a raccoon. So last night I pointed the camera at the outside area of that corner of the coop and caught the raccoon sneaking around at about midnight and then a few hours later. So far there doesn't seem to be any attempts at breaking into the coop that I can find.

Its looking for an easy meal. I a sure that your coop is secure and that your girls are safe.

 

[Jetpad]

Winterizing my Chicken Waterer


Here's a birdbath heater that I found on Amazon. There were a good number of reviews by people using it with their chicken waterers. It feels very rugged and gives me a fairly good piece-of-mind that it won't catch my coop on fire. It's uses about 50 watts and has a built in thermostat so it shouldn't end up using too much power. Hopefully it'll provide enough heat.


And here is a pump that I found. I was originally looking at external aquarium pumps and ran across these 12v RV water pumps. The price was lower than most of the aquarium pumps I found and (in person) it seems to be very sturdy. I dug though my box of power supplies and found a couple that work with it. One supply runs it at probably 100% and it puts out a good stream of water but unfortunately it is a lot louder than I'd like. I wouldn't want to be a chicken with this pump running under my roost all night long. Another power supply I found that seemed to be a good match for it, but it barely produced a trickle out of the pump. I'd guess it is probably running at 5% of capacity but it is very quiet. Probably pumping out something like 5 gallons an hour. It sounds like the hands on an electric clock ticking in a quiet house. I can't figure out what is special about the power supply that makes it run the pump so low. It does say it is a "switching power supply" which may be why it is under powering the pump. Ideally I'd like something in-between the two supplies. For now I'm going with the switching power supply. I think it just needs to be able to cycle out the water in the nipple pipes before it freezes and those pipes don't contain too much water (maybe a gallon?).


Along with the heater and new pump, I decided to try out the horizontal nipples. I mounted them vertically at different heights instead of horizontally and let the chickens pick the nipple they'd like to drink out of. I found two black fittings but the rest, including the pipe, is regular white PVC. I just painted it with a Sharpy permanent marker. I liked that it took up less space in the coop since it was vertical.



When I hooked it up, the chickens were obsessed with it and I think they loved that they could drink everywhere from it. And they could because it was leaking in multiple places. They were drinking from all the nipples and off of the black tubes as the water ran down it. I don't know if these nipples are more finicky or I did a poor job of using them or they really shouldn't be put on a 3/4" pipe or what. But I felt I couldn't depend on them and decided to switch back to the other nipples I was using.


So here is the nippled pipe I've been using for the last couple months. I replaced the fittings on the end with 90 degree elbows to help route the clear vinyl tubing up and then I wrapped the PVC pipe in those flexible black pipes you'd use to cleanup the clutter of computer cables under a desk.


Here is the pump installed under the coop. I'm pumping the water into the middle of the tank instead of the top. I don't think it matters and the existing hole in the tank happened to be in the middle instead of the top so that's what I used. The pump is also plugged into one of those thermocube outlets so that it only comes on when the temperature gets close to freezing.



And here are the rest of the clear tubing connections. Since this photo I had to move the tube that flows out of the tank lower so that it would still work via gravity when the pump is turned off.


Probably the best way to use the birdbath heater would be to put it in the tank and have it sitting right in the water. Maybe that is what I'll do on my next coop

but for now I'm mounting it on the outside of the tank.

I took a rectangular piece of Styrofoam and cut out some spots so it would fit on the end of the tank. I covered that side with aluminum tape and taped the heater to it.



On the other side of the styrofoam, I covered it with duct tape


And here it is, in position on the end of the tank. If I have to, I could probably wrap the rest of the tank with insulation but this is all I'm going to do for now. It should be able to at least keep the water on the side of the tank were the fittings are from freezing. Maybe I'm finally done with the coop.

 

[aart]

Can that heater run un-submerged?? Hope it heats all that water form the outside of the tank.

Will your pump run continuously when the temp drops to 45F via the thermocube?

You might have better luck tapping the pipe with a 1/8" NPT for the nipples, they will self seal on softer plastic but not PVC I don't think.
Have you browsed this thread yet? Lots of good ideas and info there.

 

[smcgill]

Are you planning to insulate the miles of clear tubing you have?

 

[Jetpad]

Can that heater run un-submerged?? Hope it heats all that water form the outside of the tank.

Will your pump run continuously when the temp drops to 45F via the thermocube?

You might have better luck tapping the pipe with a 1/8" NPT for the nipples, they will self seal on softer plastic but not PVC I don't think.
Have you browsed this thread yet? Lots of good ideas and info there.

Yes, I tried it un-submerged and it worked. But I suspect it would work a lot better submerged using more surface area.

The pump (via the thermocube) will start running when the temperature goes below 35F and shut off when the it rises above 45F.

Ah, I wish I'd found that thread earlier. That does look like a lot of good ideas.

 

[Jetpad]

Are you planning to insulate the miles of clear tubing you have?

It does seem to be a lot of tubing (8 feet?) but I think it only comes out to about a cup and half of water. I was thinking about it but probably would insulate the tank first. I like being able to see if there is water or air in the tubes.

 

[smcgill]

When My heat in my home froze, it was a section of copper pipe sitting on the concrete without insulating.

Water services are usually below 4' or covered. couldn't hurt to cover them, wind could work against you.