Looking for ideas for an oblong chicken waterer

[justincasei812]

Good day everyone,

I am looking to see if anyone has made an oblong or trough for a watering system for chickens. I have the circular type but the coop is a little tight (4' x 8' floor plan) on space I would like to free up a little space by making a water container that will fit along the wall and allow 4-6 chickens to drink at one time. I had thought about using the cups in some PVC pipe but the cups are not cheap and a lot of them have some bad reviews. I would like something that I am not having to clean out daily. I thought of a partially open 4" PVC pipe but I can see where the chickens would stand on it, get the floor covering into the trough and anything else they are flinging around. Most commercial watering systems are round. I live in Michigan so cold weather is a concern and the nipples and cups might not work very well with the weather conditions. Has anyone made anything that works well without the chickens making a mess of it or am I limited to the commercial round, cups or nipple designs that are out there. I have checked around on BYC website and Pinterest and found little to nothing out there.



Watering cups

https://www.amazon.com/Drinker-Back...id=1476205445&sr=1-7&keywords=chicken+waterer


Thanks Justin

 

[cavemanrich]

4 X 8 coop means you don't have 50 chickens. Therefore you do not need to have 4 to 6 chickens drinking simultaneously. You can opt for horizontal nipples on a 5 gallon bucket ( 3 maximum) and your chickens just take turns. Inside your bucket you may have a heater to prevent freezing. They are called Stock tank heaters and come in a variety of wattage according to need. The cup type you linked to are prone to freezing unless the coop is heated. I myself use a small crock pot to provide luke warm water for my pets to drink out of. I achieve that by using a dimmer switch to regulate the water temperature in the crock pot. Otherwise the water would boil. Have been using this for many years now. Install a board above the pot to prevent chicken from standing on top as well as soiling the water inside.
Look at the following link.
https://www.amazon.com/Proctor-Sile...UTF8&qid=1476222380&sr=1-8&keywords=crock+pot
You still need to use a dimmer switch because even on the lowest setting water would be too warm. The inside pot is easy to lift out and clean as needed.
WISHING YOU BEST..