Need help with waterer design.

[HSMOM]

I bought a 2 gallon Igloo cooler with spout thinking that it would be the best way to keep water cold in the summer. My thought was that I would take the spout off and sit it in a oil pan and have a gravity waterer. What I realized was that there was way too much water in the pan and that my 6 chickens wouldn't be able to drink it fast enough for it to get fresh cold water to come out. So second plan was to take the stopper part out of the spout so that it run freely and then place a bowl under the spout. Didn't work. So then I figured out a way to insert a straw in the spout opening because I couldn't find any tubing and my thought was that once the water level reached the straw it would stop just like in the gravity fed waterers. The water didn't stop. I tried putting in a rubber piece with a small hole to reduce the pressue and that didn't work. What am I missing? I can't spend a lot of money on it and I have damaged the cooler where I cannot take it back to the store now. Would love some suggestions. Thanks

 

[fried green eggs]

I understand your idea and it should be do able. Do you have the lid on tight with a rubber gasket???? It can't let air in and needs to be water tight. Gravity feed should work if it is a sealed air locked. I assume you have seen the metal gravity ones they sell at TSC. I almost bought one of those last winter thinking I could drill a small hole in the top cover to put a birdbath heater in it. I had the birdbath heater. Then Luckily, I remembered if the top let air in - it would overflow the bottom dish and just empty ou all the watert. It has to be flipped over to get the air in and work like a vaccum. Can you set it and fill it upside down & fill the water up at the spout??? Then put your oil pan over the spout and flip it over, so it has a vapor lock? Good Luck & let me know if any of my ideas worked for you.

 

[jpcode]

Unless your can seal the top perfectly you can't let it gravity feed.

You could use a nipple waterer though. Google chicken nipple and you will see what I mean.

 

[HSMOM]

I understand your idea and it should be do able. Do you have the lid on tight with a rubber gasket???? It can't let air in and needs to be water tight. Gravity feed should work if it is a sealed air locked. I assume you have seen the metal gravity ones they sell at TSC. I almost bought one of those last winter thinking I could drill a small hole in the top cover to put a birdbath heater in it. I had the birdbath heater. Then Luckily, I remembered if the top let air in - it would overflow the bottom dish and just empty ou all the watert. It has to be flipped over to get the air in and work like a vaccum. Can you set it and fill it upside down & fill the water up at the spout??? Then put your oil pan over the spout and flip it over, so it has a vapor lock? Good Luck & let me know if any of my ideas worked for you.

when I took the spout out, put the cooler in the oil pan, filled it up and sealed the top it works fine. But the problem is that the water is so deep because the oil pan is large and the water has to rise to the opening before stopping that the water will get hot and dirty because there is so much in it that 6 chickens won't drink it fast enough for it to get replenished with fresh water out of the cooler. So I though a smaller pan under it but then the space is too small for the chickens to get their beaks into. Maybe I don't quite understand the science behind it. I thought that if I put a smaller bowl under the spout that it would work the same way....that as soon as the water level reached the opening that the water would stop? But it doesn't and the top is on sealed.

 

[HSMOM]

Unless your can seal the top perfectly you can't let it gravity feed.

You could use a nipple waterer though. Google chicken nipple and you will see what I mean.

Not sure that I am crazy about the nipple waterer system but I did see somewhere something similar. It's a small red bowl that has a valve in it and can either connect to a watering hose or a hose connected to a cooler but I can't seem to find it now. Any ideas?

 

[NSDWS]

Your thinking about the watering cups. You can find them on ebay. If it was me I would try to connect to the cooler with PVC fitting and then see if you can run a leangth of PVC off the fitting and add nipples to that or cups if you like. I use nipples and have found them easy to connect and have had no problems with dripping. I just put a dab of silicone on the threds before screwing them in.

 

[fried green eggs]

I use the nipples too on 5 gal buckets but, I no longer use silicone to seal them. I now seal them with a putty apoxy that is called WaterWeld sets rock hard in a hour, used on plastic,metal etc and can be used to make a boat waterproof. On really hot days I drop a frozen water bottle in bucket to cool water.