post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Sylvester017]

Everybody seems excited about auto feeders, my pet peeve is cleaning and filling a waterer that has to be turned upside down to fill. Who has an auto-waterer? BTW, I agree with full size house doors for access to the coop areas. I enjoy my project much more since I added that feature.

We have 3 Brite Tap 2-gal Rubbermaid nipple valve waterers from chickenwaterer.com and we love them. We have one in the coop, one in the backyard, and one for the indoor hospital pen. I got tired of chicken poops, ants and bugs, wild bird droppings, and all sorts of debris floating in the chicken drinking water and got tired of refilling and cleaning bowls 2 and 3x a day. With the 2-gal nipple valve waterers the water stays cool in the insulated Rubbermaid, I can use bottled water instead of chlorinated tap water, and I can toss ice cubes into the jug on really hot days. What's nice is that I can go up to two weeks without having to clean and refill the water - it stays CLEAN and unpolluted! In the photo of our garden a couple doghouses for the chickens and the Brite Tap red jug is under the pop-up canopy where the chickens hang out most of their day. Following instructions and having Mark at chickenwaterer.com advising me we made the transition from open water bowls to all the hens learning to use the clean nipple valve waterers! I also got the Sun Covers to fit over the Brite Tap to protect and keep the water from warming up. Brite Tap is not the only nipple valve buckets available. There are other websites of other pre-made buckets but we like how this one looked in the yard and that it was insulated.
http://www.chickenwaterer.com/

 

[gpeters3]

Perchie.girl, thank you for the support! I am just starting out in the field but yes the trades di need more people.Never stop learning. I am in my 40s and getting my feet wet. Dad tried to get me to learn machining in school and I fought it, duh me.

 

[gpeters3]

Perchie.girl, thank you for the support! I am just starting out in the field but yes the trades di need more people.Never stop learning. I am in my 40s and getting my feet wet. Dad tried to get me to learn machining in school and I fought it, duh me.

Sorry, accidentally hit reply with no text...anyway, I was a tool and die apprentice for 2 years until i had it out with my boss who was only critical of eveything. I was young and sensitive but I've regretted not finishing. I spent the last 20 years of my Ford career as a CNC cutter grinder which was interesting enough. I did all the executive programming for a 4 axis and an 8 axis grinder. Tough it out and you won't regret it

 

[lynnehd]

Thanks for your post latestarter, I too live in Colorado, new to raising chickens, nice to see how others deal with the sub-zero temps we get here. I currently have a 4" pvc pipe waterer with a vertical nipple. Although I have a birdbath de-icer in the pipe and the water in the pipe isn't freezing the nipple seems to be and it hasn't even got cold here yet, lol. Got some horizontal nipples on order, should be here by end of week, will be making some adjustments.

I have the Chicken Fountain which I love. In the deep of winter, I'll disconnect the hose and just add water to it using a plastic gallon jug. Mine holds about a gallon.

For winter, you can add a bird bath de-icer to this too, but they also have you insert solid copper rods into each vertical nipple waterer. This is how they winterize them.

I wonder if you could add these to your vertical nipples too?
I'll include the link so you can see what I am talking about.

http://shop.chickenfountain.com/Heater-Accessory-Kit-HAK.htm

 

[ShrekDawg]

Was going to reply but I see others already have.

But yeah, most people just plug a stock tank heater in, like this one:

And/or they put get a heated dog bowl to I think set it on top of or take the element out so yeah. Not impossible, though it does require electricity or an extension cord.

Some people just have a bowl or another water and bring the frozen one in and the thawed one out daily but that's somewhat a pain.

As for the nipples, that's easy! Most learn within minutes. They just learn to peck at the nipple and water comes out. They learn pretty fast since the nipple is shiny and they're likely to peck at it anyway haha

I've seen some with a small cup type thing instead of.nipples but not sure where to get those, I saw on Craigslist.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Forgot the link. http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-All-In-One-De-Icer-250-Watt-Removable/dp/B002QXN1H8

 

[Chipper Chicken]

I have the Chicken Fountain which I love. In the deep of winter, I'll disconnect the hose and just add water to it using a plastic gallon jug. Mine holds about a gallon.

For winter,  you can add a bird bath de-icer to this too, but they also have you insert solid copper rods into each vertical nipple waterer. This is how they winterize them.

I wonder if you could add these to your vertical nipples too?
I'll include the link so you can see what I am talking about.

http://shop.chickenfountain.com/Heater-Accessory-Kit-HAK.htm

Great idea! Thanks for the link. I believe that besides the big box stores, welding supply stores would have the solid copper. I'll have to get some and try it. :cd

 

[lynnehd]

Great idea! Thanks for the link. I believe that besides the big box stores, welding supply stores would have the solid copper. I'll have to get some and try it.

Sure, glad to help.

I've attached a pic of the stainless steel rods that were removed in order to insert the copper rods, so you can remove one and take it in with you.
To remove:
*grab dripper at tip using only finger and turn counter clockwise.
*the dripper will split in half, the bottom part will come off.
*there are 3 pieces in the dripper: a long stainless steel (ss) rod pointing to the pipe, a ss ball, and a short ss rod pointing to the chickens.
*you are replacing the long stainless steel rod.
*replace dripper, making sure ss ball, short rod are in place, and O ring is seated properly, do not over
tighten

Hope it works!

 

[bruceha2000]

... I can use bottled water instead of chlorinated tap water .....

Save yourself some money Sylvester. Chlorine dissipates when open to the air. Just fill a gallon bucket and leave it on your counter overnight. There will be no chlorine in the morning.

Sure, glad to help.

I've attached a pic of the stainless steel rods that were removed in order to insert the copper rods, so you can remove one and take it in with you.
To remove:
*grab dripper at tip using only finger and turn counter clockwise.
*the dripper will split in half, the bottom part will come off.
*there are 3 pieces in the dripper: a long stainless steel (ss) rod pointing to the pipe, a ss ball, and a short ss rod pointing to the chickens.
*you are replacing the long stainless steel rod.
*replace dripper, making sure ss ball, short rod are in place, and O ring is seated properly, do not over
tighten

Hope it works!

So they are basically replacing the preformed SS pins with copper pins? Presumably because copper conducts heat better than SS. If so, just any old piece of copper isn't going to do anything but leak. It has to be the exact dimensions and shape as the original pins.

 

[lynnehd]

Save yourself some money Sylvester. Chlorine dissipates when open to the air. Just fill a gallon bucket and leave it on your counter overnight. There will be no chlorine in the morning.


So they are basically replacing the preformed SS pins with copper pins? Presumably because copper conducts heat better than SS. If so, just any old piece of copper isn't going to do anything but leak. It has to be the exact dimensions and shape as the original pins.

Yeah, that's why you can use just any copper. You'd want to find copper rods similar in width/length to the one you remove, which is why I would suggest taking one in.
I'm pretty sure they didn't have the copper rods they used custom made just for this, so hopefully one can find them at hardware or welding stores, as @chipperchicken suggested.