- Thread starter
- #251
The past two days my little darling ducklings have used over a gallon of water. That is perfectly fine, but today I had to go to the doctor and I was afraid their little one quart container would not last them till I got home, which was almost 4 hours later. Luckily, there was still water in the trough part, but no more in the container.
I made a catch basin to go under the one quart waterer, which BTW has been a godsend...and a lifesaver. So it wasn’t as easy as just plopping in a large waterer. As soon as I got home and refilled their water I got to work on another catch basin to fit a 5 quart waterer.
Here is what I did in case anyone else would like to try it.
Found an old piece of 1/2” plywood and traced the feed pan (catch basin) on it. I marked a 1/2” line on either side of the ‘pan measurement line’ and drew each of those lines around parallel to the first one. I cut this ‘circle frame’ out with a jig saw. This gave me a one inch circle board that I could use to staple hardware cloth to that would sit nicely on top of the feed pan. I did not place screen wire on top of the hardware cloth on this one like I did on the first one. I didn’t want them to possibly get their bills stuck in the squares of the HC.
But they are a bit older now and hopefully that won’t happen. After I cut the plywood I sanded the edges and top really well so there would be no chance for splinters. And then I stapled the HC to the bottom side.
I had to find something that would sit underneath the waterer that would hold its weight instead of the HC. This brick was the perfect size.
Of course I had to move it to the center of the pool so the little boogers didn’t try to escape. It was a little bit taller than my previous one, so I placed two bricks up next to it for a little boost.
My smallest duckies had no problem getting up there. Now I don’t have to completely fill the waterer up (because we all know it’ll need cleaning out before they use/spill it all), but if I ever need to be gone several hours I won’t be worrying the entire time.
I made a catch basin to go under the one quart waterer, which BTW has been a godsend...and a lifesaver. So it wasn’t as easy as just plopping in a large waterer. As soon as I got home and refilled their water I got to work on another catch basin to fit a 5 quart waterer.
Here is what I did in case anyone else would like to try it.
Found an old piece of 1/2” plywood and traced the feed pan (catch basin) on it. I marked a 1/2” line on either side of the ‘pan measurement line’ and drew each of those lines around parallel to the first one. I cut this ‘circle frame’ out with a jig saw. This gave me a one inch circle board that I could use to staple hardware cloth to that would sit nicely on top of the feed pan. I did not place screen wire on top of the hardware cloth on this one like I did on the first one. I didn’t want them to possibly get their bills stuck in the squares of the HC.
But they are a bit older now and hopefully that won’t happen. After I cut the plywood I sanded the edges and top really well so there would be no chance for splinters. And then I stapled the HC to the bottom side.I had to find something that would sit underneath the waterer that would hold its weight instead of the HC. This brick was the perfect size.
Of course I had to move it to the center of the pool so the little boogers didn’t try to escape. It was a little bit taller than my previous one, so I placed two bricks up next to it for a little boost.
My smallest duckies had no problem getting up there. Now I don’t have to completely fill the waterer up (because we all know it’ll need cleaning out before they use/spill it all), but if I ever need to be gone several hours I won’t be worrying the entire time.
