My New Heated Waterer

[COChix]

Welsummer cockerel.
Welsummer pullet.
2 Lt Brahma pullets
2 EE pullets(one blue and one green layer)
Olive Egger pullet (EE over amberlink)

2 Lt Brahma hens
and 6 mixed mutt hens of Aussie, Cochin, Wynadotte origin....one of whom is broody.

Nice combo of birds, we have a couple Welsummer's and love them. Ours are not super friendly but lay the prettiest eggs. Brahma (buff) are a bird that I would like to get someday, that breed is so pretty.

So got the HN yesterday and will be working on getting my buckets set up, any words of advice? The heaters we ordered are on back order so we cancelled that order and purchased through another vendors should be here next week. I am so excited that I won't have to haul them water anymore.

 

[Ballerina Bird]

Hi Aart. I'm wondering if you would be able to give me some advice about how to attach these nipples to a bottle so that they don't leak. I've been using a small waterer that my chicken breeder made for me, and it has one horizontal nipple attached to a largish clear plastic bottle (but not as large as the kind of bucket or jug most people used). From what I can tell, it was sealed by wrapping Teflon tape around the tapered screw on the nozzle and then stuck to the bottle with plumber's goop or some kind of silicate. It worked great until it fell apart today, and when I tried to fix it with plumber's tape, it wouldn't stay together (I don't have goop on hand and am trying to figure out if there's something less toxic I can use). I'm wondering if you have any other thoughts about materials and techniques for sealing. The less toxic, the better, though I know that may not be feasible with this kind of stuff. I can post a separate thread if you don't have time to reply; just thought I'd start here since it's a relevant and recent thread, and you have been very helpful in the past with questions I've posted elsewhere. Thanks.

 

[aart]

Hi Aart. I'm wondering if you would be able to give me some advice about how to attach these nipples to a bottle so that they don't leak. I've been using a small waterer that my chicken breeder made for me, and it has one horizontal nipple attached to a largish clear plastic bottle (but not as large as the kind of bucket or jug most people used). From what I can tell, it was sealed by wrapping Teflon tape around the tapered screw on the nozzle and then stuck to the bottle with plumber's goop or some kind of silicate. It worked great until it fell apart today, and when I tried to fix it with plumber's tape, it wouldn't stay together (I don't have goop on hand and am trying to figure out if there's something less toxic I can use). I'm wondering if you have any other thoughts about materials and techniques for sealing. The less toxic, the better, though I know that may not be feasible with this kind of stuff. I can post a separate thread if you don't have time to reply; just thought I'd start here since it's a relevant and recent thread, and you have been very helpful in the past with questions I've posted elsewhere. Thanks.

I don't use any sealant at all...I drill a 5/16" hole very carefully, hole must have a clean edge with no little boogers of plastic on it. Then just thread it in, but not all the way, just until it's pretty tight. You have to push kind of hard to get it started.

The directions call for a 3/8" hole but I tried a smaller one and it worked great.

You can kind of see in this pic how much of the nipple is inside the bottle....even when they froze solid I didn't have any leakage.

 

[Ballerina Bird]

I don't use any sealant at all...I drill a 5/16" hole very carefully, hole must have a clean edge with no little boogers of plastic on it. Then just thread it in, but not all the way, just until it's pretty tight. You have to push kind of hard to get it started.

The directions call for a 3/8" hole but I tried a smaller one and it worked great.

You can kind of see in this pic how much of the nipple is inside the bottle....even when they froze solid I didn't have any leakage.

Thank you! I knew you would have the answer.

 

[aart]

Removed the heater from the jug, after unplugging it for a day.
It was great to know the chooks had warm water to drink 16/7 without me hauling it out there.

Tho I did end up swapping thawed for frozen waterers for the broody and chicks that were segregated this winter<rolleyes>....
......some days that happened hourly, it was a brutal winter.

 

[RonP]

Has anyone simply tried putting these horizontal nipple waterers, into a 5 gallon water bottle, on top of a cookie tin heater?

Or do I have to wait in anticipation for freezing temperatures again to report my results...

 

[aart]

Has anyone simply tried putting these horizontal nipple waterers, into a 5 gallon water bottle, on top of a cookie tin heater?

Or do I have to wait in anticipation for freezing temperatures again to report my results...

I don't remember reading of that particular scenario Ron...might work, you'd need a pretty big cookie tin tho.
Not sure it would keep the water and area around nipples warm enough to counteract the metal pins conducting the cold.
Guess you'll have to wait......or, how big is your freezer?

 

[RonP]

My thoughts are that the heat source in the center of the bottom of the bottle, would cause the warmer water to rise, creating a continuous "current" as warm water is displaced with cold.

Thus circulating without assistance.

No need to have a "large" tin or surface area, just sufficient energy to keep 5 gallons above 32F regardless of ambient temperatures.

I know a 38W bulb works just fine on ~2.5 gallons till at least -9F using a metal double walled waterer.

Opinions??

 

[aart]

The metal waterer conducts the heat...a plastic water bottle won't do as good of a job at that.

Might be good to start new thread "Plastic 5 gal Bottle with Horizontal Nipples on Cookie Tin Heater" to discuss the concept and possibilities.

 

[RonP]

The metal waterer conducts the heat...a plastic water bottle won't do as good of a job at that.

Might be good to start new thread "Plastic 5 gal Bottle with Horizontal Nipples on Cookie Tin Heater" to discuss the concept and possibilities.

Thanks, I did just that. Click Here.