I was looking for a temporary auto-waterer for my coop, as I was headed on vacation soon after my chicks moved to the coop, and I wanted to facilitate their care. Ultimately, I'll be putting together a nipple waterer, so I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a temporary system. After much trial and error (mostly error-- it's embarrassing what I don't know about physics), I came up with this: a 2.5 gallon water jug, opened into a large foil lasagna pan. I found the water level a little low, so I drilled two small holes about an inch higher than where the open spout is. It works perfectly! I threw in a few copper pennies to control algae, and I change it every 3-4 days (12 2 month-old chicks). Because there is no air exchange when the water lowers, the jug does collapse a little, but it still works great. I'll be using it in my run once the nipple waterer is set up in the coop. Total cost: $6. Thought I'd share.
I made somthing like that the other day only using a Food grade 5 gallion bucket like this http://beprepared.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_MS C101_A_name_E_5-Gallon Bucket with Lid mine was fee of course from the doughnut shop in town and a $3.00 hog pan http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...72&bih=367&tbm=isch&ei=KYvuTbS3A8-jtgfb9qm1CQ I also made a matching self feeder out of my extra bucket and another hog pan.
