Keeping Water Clean

[imh]

Hello-
I am wondering if anyone has advice on how to keep the water cleaner - I change it daily but I'm worried that if I go away overnight it will be super-dirty, since they hens are always kicking shavings, etc into it. I have it elevated on a stack of 2 bricks, but even so, they will get stuff in the water.
Thank you!

 

[zatsdeb]

I have put a 10X10 stepping stone in the brooder/or wherever the hens are, and put the waterer in the center. the further away from the wood chips the better. Usually a little dirty water won't hurt, they eat dirt and stuff off the ground. if they are adult birds why not put straw on the ground under the waterer?

 

[teach1rusl]

You may think you have your waterer elevated, but is it at their back level??? I kept getting bedding in my feeder, which WAS elevated, but when I watched them eating, I realized that it was nowhere near the height of their backs. I raised it, and it almost never gets bedding pieces in it any longer. So take a look at that first.

 

[imh]

Great ideas, thank you!

 

[BankerJohn]

I made a home made waterer using a 5 gallon bucket, a length of 3/4" PVC pipe, a few T's and a few Elbows, some end caps and drilled the end caps to hold the FarmTek Supply 360 flow nipples. I am very satisfied with the simplicity and that I no longer have to worry about clean water. I can now go about 10 days without worrying about the water supply.

Here you can see the 5 gallon bucket used to hold the supply of fresh, clean water (I add a little bleach to the water)

On the left side of the picture, you can see the PVC pipe with the downspouts to the water nipples:

 

[wcasey911]

How did you attach the pvc to the bucket?

 

[Debob]

Anyway to hang it up? I use a small link chain to hang the one in the coop, and it stays clean. The one in the run is always getting dirty,I just change it then.

 

[Airplaneguy57]

Banker, I like your coop. Is there some way to get more pictures? I have an area that is not protected by a fence and yours looks like it would be easy to secure. Thanks

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
Check out trilyn's nipple waterer page. I made mine based on her instructions and they were inexpensive and easy, to say nothing of keeping the water supply clean!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=27917

 

[BankerJohn]

Quote:
Here ya go... Hope this helps.