question on well-water

[duckielove]

A co-worker of mine brought up a question to me today that made me think. How many of you have well water and how do you deal with not having it get contaminated with E-coli from the bird feces? I hadnt thought of that.

 

[wegotchickens]

Mom doesn't have critters of any domestic variety on her land and she was told not to drink the well water and to add bleach to it to kill the bugs that are there. Best thing you can do is have your water tested regularly.

 

[chickenfever]

We drink well water and I don't think having chickens is an issue. Most water comes from deep underground aquifirs. You're more likely to get contamination from your septic system than the chickens. Do you know where the well is located on the property?

 

[patandchickens]

Most places I'm familiar with, zoning requires you to keep yer livestock (and septic systems) some distance from the well - it is 60' for livestock and 100' for the leachfield where we live now.

This is a precaution because not all wells are deep and not all wells have an impermeable casing (and not all wells that are deep and were built with an impermeable casing are *still* totally impervious to surface or soil-water-table water).

It also depends a lot on how many chickens and what sort of sanitation you've got going and what kind of soil and well you have.

Pat

 

[duckielove]

the well will be roughly 25 feet directly to the left of where we plan on having the ducks, they are both on a downward slope that heads towards the house. the well is roughly 500 ft below ground.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

We have well water too and I never thought it to be an issue either. We have a 3000 dollar soft water system so not sure if that helps with contamination but I feel safe with having that.

 

[dacjohns]

Here is a place to start.

http://www.des.state.nh.us/well_testing.htm

 

[Beekissed]

I would expect, unless there was a continual runoff from large and constant amounts of fecal matter, that any bacteria is usually filtered out into the soil long before it hits the water source of a drilled well. If it were that easy, anyone fertilizing or using chemicals on their garden or lawn each year would be in danger of contaminating their drinking water.

 

[chickenfever]

Quote:
That's what my thoughts are too.

 

[Jaimi]

Dont test your water if you are not completly OK with having it caped off. If the lab shows ANY amount of comtaminants, even one that can be easily fixed with a lil' bleach, they will send someone out to permantly cap your well, even if humans arn't drinking from/using it. Our farm neighbor works for the water dpt. (who tests the water) and he told us under no circumstances should we send the water in. He said he could get it tesest under the table if we really wanted to know, but even that was risky.
Unless you live near a nuclear plant or have a dirt-floor chicken plant dirrectly over you well and a monsoon comes, the water will be safe enough for at least livestock to drink from. If it's deep (25' and lower; ours is a hand dug 55'), it should be safe for people and domestic pets to drink from because the ground will filter contaninants out. If you REALLY wanna be sure, add 2 tbs of reg. uncented household bleach to every 5 gallons of well water you pull up.