My chicken automatic waterer idea

[chickennerd1]

New to BYC but i figure this is the right place to post this.
This is an idea I have had in my head for awhile so I decided to see it through finally. Its a 55 gallon drum cut in half so it is able to catch rain water, detachable piping so it can be rolled away and cleaned, and a faucet to be able to clean hand and other items. I am in the process of building a screened top so they cant poop in the water. Let me know what yall think and any other suggestions.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I love those drinker cups they are easy to spin off and clean with the swipe of the finger.

I have a similar system using an entire 55 gal. drum. I thought of using rainwater but I have a lot of trees and the water would constantly get tainted.

I have one drum set up at a breeder house with 5 units and a drinker cup in each attached with the 5/16 tubing.

I'm experimenting with 3 other kinds of drinkers in 2 other buildings with one drum feeding both. That is all PVC (1/2 inch PVC is cheaper than the tubing). It has the vertical and horizontal nipples as well as the drinker cups that have a float and stay full.
I'm not fond of the vertical ones because they don't work well with birds of different heights. Perfect for hens would be too low for a rooster and too high for young birds.
I'm still struggling with the horizontal nipples because the seal can get a tiny bit of debris and leak. I have those in a building with roosters. I watched them use them and the water poured on the floor as they drank.
The cups with the float are nice for chicks but they are hard to remove for cleaning.

 

[chickennerd1]

Yea the nipple drinkers are very prone to leak from my research, but on the other hand it help keep water cycled in outdoor applications. Inside of a coop causes mold and just an out right mess. I forgot to mention that I am adding an aquarium submersible heater in my tank to keep it from freezing during the winter.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I'm considering the same thing. I probably won't get it done this year because it's getting into the low teens this weekend and I will need to drain tanks.

I'm going to put in a return line with an inline pump and an aquarium heater in the tank.
I think if I do that I will be able to keep the system running through the winter.

 

[KPhomestead]

I have a similar system, I used a large 40ish gal. rubbermade tote and vertical nipples.

It gets cold here so I used heat tape on the pvc pipe and a extra stock tank heater in the tank to keep everything liquid. I had thought of using a small recirc. pump to keep the lines from freezing, but heat tape seemed to be the simpler route.

I see in your pics that you have your pipes wrapped in foam insulation. Have you had any problems with the chicken pecking and breaking it up? I used it as well but covered in in duct tape to deter the chickens from destroying it.

 

[bellschick]

If u had some kind of pump on this system to keep the water from freezing up...would that b any good? Sometimes we let our water run just a little bit so it wont freeze up and bust the pipes.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It depends on the temperatures. If cold enough, it won't matter if heated or unheated. It will seize up. The water will freeze against the sides of the pipes until completely blocked.
The Niagara Falls froze solid before.

 

[KPhomestead]

Flowing water freezes at a lower temp than standing water. So that means you might have a little leeway by keeping the water moving if it just dips below freezing, say down to 20F at night or so.

My plan was to use a low flow 100-200 gph. fountain pump to recirculate the water from the tank through the insulated lines back into the top of the tank. Now the trick for this would be to use some sort of heat source in the tank, aquarium heater, stock tank heater ect.

Between the flow of the water and the continuous warmth of the tank heater, I would think a system like this would be good down to so very low temps.

 

[bellschick]

Haha never thought about niagra falls freezing. Funny stuff.