New coop, small, street legal :P

[sailtexas186548]

no one has been eaten yet! Working hard to get Lexi to leave them alone

 

[sailtexas186548]

Which kind of nipples, Horizontal or Vertical?
'Training' can be tricky, some of them don't 'get it' right away,
beware of dehydration during the switch from open waterer to nipples.

the are horizontal “side mount” from heritage acres.It is extra hot right now so we are leaving the current waterer in the coop and will try to train them in the evenings until they get the hang of it. We have had good luck training so far this could be a bit tougher

Drilled some 3/8” holes and screwed them in at a couple different heights since our chickens are all different heights. I used potable water safe pipe sealant instead of Teflon tape since it was on hand, no leaks. I would guess u could get away without any sealer the way these install on tapered threads into soft plastic

I put the bucket (5 gallon, yes there’s a lid just no pics) on a piling cutting to space it up. As the chicks grow I can space it up further with some other pieces I have laying around.

finally I Installed an
auto filler and shut off float valve that’s tied into my drip irrigation system. I will monitor the water level and see if I need to add a separate circuit to keep everything balanced and the waterer full.

 

[aart]

Drilled some 3/8” holes and screwed them in at a couple different heights since our chickens are all different heights. I used potable water same pipe sealant instead of Teflon tape since it was on hand, no leaks. I would guess u could get away without any sealer the way these install on tapered threads into soft plastic

Yep, 11/32 hole, cleanly drilled, won't need any sealant.
Something as hard as PVC will need to be drilled and tapped.
I've put them in all kinds of containers.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...nipple-waterer-for-wire-crates-by-aart.72704/

 

[sailtexas186548]

Chicken pirate! This is the one that was sick, climbed up all on her own

 

[sailtexas186548]

Well nothing really new to report, I guess that means things are going right. Working on training the girls to use the nipple waterer but it’s so hot we are reluctant to pull their normal waterer for any real length of time. That’s ok, maybe on a rainy few days we will try a little harder.

They have started jumping up on us and will perch on shoulders/arms and let us carry them around like that, it’s pretty funny.

I expect to let them free range the whole yard this week, they are easy to get herd back into the coop so I’m not real worried about them running too far if they slip through the fence.

We have zero tree cover and already had a hawk swoop in and yank a little finch or something out of the palm tree while the chickens were out. They ran for cover in the coop, but we are a little nervous leaving them out unattended. I am thinking about building a Light weight covered run “chicken tractor” style and a flexible Chunnel so I can move it around the yard and let them have more space while we are at work. Also a fixed location run in the yard will be too small to keep them from killing the grass in that area so that option is out

 

[sailtexas186548]

Well no luck with the new waterer, it’s too hot to pull the one they are using to force them to learn. We will try in the fall when it cools down.

Everyone is healthy and roosting together at night, I guess the coop is Ok for 5 chickens.

they have free run of the yard without supervision these days as long as we are home. We put them In The run when at work, they haven’t strayed too far down the street yet but I’m sure they would

 

[sailtexas186548]

Well there is a hurricane in the gulf so we hauled the coop out! Worked perfectly

a quick stop for some seafood!

And safe inside the warehouse:

 

[Folly's place]

Drive far, and be safe out there!
Mary

 

[3KillerBs]

Glad that all your careful planning is panning out now that it's been tested.

I'll bet the other people on the road with you were staring hard to figure out what what going on!

BTW, I finally got my chicks trained to use their nipple waterer by wedging dried mealworms and random kitchen scraps like cantaloupe seeds in under the nipples. They'd take the treat and realize that it was wet there.

Then I pulled the other waterer last thing at night and didn't put it back until mid-morning or later.

It was a month until I actually *saw* one use the nipple waterer though -- even though I knew they had to be doing it because the water level was going down.

BTW -- the lids on my waterers seal airtight so I had to put a tiny hole in near the rim to prevent a vacuum.

 

[paintedChix]

That's awesome. Glad that it worked for you.

Don't know how storms will affect NC. I'm currently in MT, checking family property out w/ daughter & granddaughters. We will be here a while. But keeping tabs of storms @ home.