My wife's design for Watering system...

[The Kibble Goddess]

I'm gonna have to try that fly trap. We've always been swamped with house flies here, even before I had a compost heap and chicken house. I have fly traps up, but they stink to high heaven and don't even trap many flies.

 

[SanctusPullus]

We use it along with the Vanilla Christmas trees, VERY effective combination.

 

[Egg Rookie 2010]

That womans a genius! Im building one of those this weekend. It would be so so much easier- I can fill it from OUTSIDE the coop and run where the water is instead of going inside there, unchaining the hanging waterer and lugging it all over creation to fill and getting it all dirty in the process. WHERE did you get the nipples? Would Home Depot carry something like that? Im stoked! Oh yeah and the frozen jug fits in there opposed to NOT fitting in my hanger. Sheesh! Ok so where to get the nipples. Im going to town tomorrow!

 

[SanctusPullus]

Quote:
Awesome! We ordered it online, got it pretty quick, I think from here .

 

[5Leepy!]

No, I ordered the nipples from QC supply. There are two kinds of nipples for us backyard flock owners. More kinds for larger production type operations. I used the screw in kind because lots of posts on here said they didn't leak as bad. The other kind just sticks in through a hole. I believe I also read that the screw in kind are for thicker/stiffer grades of plastics. We used our in both PVC and a Gatorade bottle lid for the chicks. The push in kind are supposed to be better for flimsier plastics such as a milk jug.

Couple of pointers... Mine leaked until I wrapped them in plumbers tape and it was pretty difficult to screw them in. You have to have a special sized drill bit that I couldn't find so I had to improvise. It was also difficult to stop the leaking where the pipe went into the bucket. Marine grade epoxy was the final solution.

I love these nipples and the lack of dirty water HOWEVER the chickens don't love it as much as I do. They prefer to take big gulps of water. I realized this after putting pans of water out for them to stand in when the temps hit 102 here. Whenever I let the hens out to free range they go running for the pans of water and take long drinks.

So, I think the nipples are great and your chickens get the water they need but they may prefer to have pools of water to drink from. Just an FYI.

And the fly trap... I really like it but it needs fresh bait often. Chicken poo works if it's fresh but the banana was by far the best. We also have the 2 liter bottle fly catchers but they seem to only work so so. Maybe my bait isn't sweet enough, I don't know. But between the various traps and the vanilla trees, the flies are bearable now.

 

[ducks_rcool329]

my chickens can't figure out hoe o use the Nipple watterers

, They grew up with duck water troughs. That is a very cool design! and the milk jug idea...... genius.