Inexpensive automatic chicken waterer and rain water catchment.

[Sono]

just use a MUCH larger pipe as inlet. and make sure you have a full diameter clean out at the bottom.

1 inch should suffice with the amount of water that comes down the spout, insert as a 45 degree angle upwards with a 45 degree cut to catch water with a screen on it ( dont glue the inlet pipes so they can be removed for cleaning, glue everything else ) depending on how much water you need and use for garden as well, the 275 gallon totes are nice as well, in a metal cage you can also store items on top to save space.

 

[JackVinehopper]

I do the same, only more roof, and more chickens, so I use a 275 gal food grade tote. Run about $100 (used) in my area, can just move an empty one as a one person job (VERY bulky, 80#???), mostly by dragging. Also, I have goats and ducks, so I attached an automatic dog watering bowl to the plumbing, in addition to the chicken watering cups.

The only time I have to fill mine is after annual cleaning.

Those big totes look like do a good job for rain collection. But where I live we get freezing temps. How do you prevent frozen ice from breaking the tote?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I use 275 gallon totes myself. It takes almost no rainfall to exceed the capacity of a 1" vertical pipe to move water - air has to escape as well.

Forget "should suffice" - the experience of plumbers since at least the Roman times says otherwise. Don't get me wrong, I love theory, but at the end of the day, reality always trumps it.

There's a reason why your house is almost certainly plumbed with a 3" dia vertical air stack, even though the supply line for the home is probably only 3/4" (admittedly, pressurized).

Placing an angled 1" pipe at the start only serves to reduce inlet area further, hopefully allowing air to escape, but also ensuring you likely can't capture much rainfall. 1" dia pipe has an inlet area of about 3/4 sq inch.

In KC, MO, a 5 minute rainfall rate of .4" is an annual event at 90% confidence, a rate of almost .7" in that period is a 10 year event. SOURCE If your shed or coop has a mostly flat roof (so we can discount velocity) and a surface area of, say, 64 sq ft (8x8), that's 9,216 sq inches.

9,216 square inches x .4" of rainfall/5 min is 3,686 cubic inches/5 min, or almost 16 gallons of water in a 5 minute period. Under those conditions, a 1" diameter pipe needs to move water at a rate of 3gpm while allowing air to escape at the same rate. That's more water than comes through a showerhead under pressure (if manufactured for US use after 1992). Its about 5.5 gallons a minute for the 10 year rainfall rate.

Plumb it with a 2" line, you can move 6x more rainfall, and likely never have a problem. Its also much easier to clean out.

 

[Sono]

Those big totes look like do a good job for rain collection. But where I live we get freezing temps. How do you prevent frozen ice from breaking the tote?

they wont break as they are flexible. you can put a heater in them if needed.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Those big totes look like do a good job for rain collection. But where I live we get freezing temps. How do you prevent frozen ice from breaking the tote?

I don't have winter. So I don't worry about it. I think the longest stretch of sub freezing temps we've had here recently was around 17 hours, the tote never froze, and we only spent an hour or three below 20F. (That's a LOT of thermal mass - over 2,000# of water, almost 1000kg when full.) To take it from 32* F water to 32* ice is 334 MJ, roughly the equivalent energy of 334 one ton cars each doing 100mph.

For those who actually experience winter, a small amount of motion in the water (a very small submersible pump, for instance) should keep it from freezing (the top of mine probably skinned over, just like my kiddie pools), as would a plug-in heater. Otherwise, you need to build a cistern to prevent freezing by using the goround as an insulator, and some pump method or closed loop design to keep water flowing in the supply lines.

 

[Sono]

My system , a 5 gallon jug inside the coop, keeps from freezing with a heat lamp during the winter. it is plumbed with 3 inside and 3 outside nipples, I can turn off the outside line with a valve and drain for the winter... or if you want to keep the outside line active you can wrap with heat tape to keep from freezing. I am getting more chicks, so new bigger coop on the way

 

[Dreammaker]

Keeping this marked for the future. Our coop/run is similar and we're wanting to do something like this in the future. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Sono]

Keeping this marked for the future. Our coop/run is similar and we're wanting to do something like this in the future. Thanks for sharing!

I have a thread with pictures of my current set up But will be selling this one and building a larger setup soon with a 55 gallon barrel instead of the 5 gallon jug as well.