Rain barrel chicken waterer system

[KiwiMaverick]

I am currently designing my first coop, it has room for 6 hens, I plan to start with 4. I want to have a rain water collection barrel to water my chickens, but have seen a lot of mixed advice about barrels, algae and cleaning. My options are either a single 200L drum (55gal) or 2x 25L water totes. I am questioning whether to get the big drum or not, because the water would be sitting for a long time before 6 chooks can get through it, and I live in a relatively temperate part of New Zealand, winters don’t get below freezing for more than a few hours, and the summers are very warm. How much of an issue would algae be with the big drum, and is it worth going with the smaller containers until I have the use for a larger volume of water (planned drip irrigation, maybe a duck pond, we’ll see.)
Thanks in advance

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

We use a plastic rain barrel with a screen top to keep out mosquito. We don't see much algae growth. When we used a wooden barrel it did get nasty, and full of mosquito very quickly. So I recommend something that sunlight can't penetrate, either through the top or sides. We have used rainwater for decades to water in the warm months here. You may occasionally have to dump and scrub, but if done right, not too often.

 

[KiwiMaverick]

We use a plastic rain barrel with a screen top to keep out mosquito. We don't see much algae growth. When we used a wooden barrel it did get nasty, and full of mosquito very quickly. So I recommend something that sunlight can't penetrate, either through the top or sides. We have used rainwater for decades to water in the warm months here. You may occasionally have to dump and scrub, but if done right, not too often.

I might stick to the original plan then, thank you!

 

[Debbie292d]

We have a strange kind of algae here that we've tried vinegar and copper tubing; neither worked. We then found one product, RV water freshener, that a few drops of will keep the waterers crystal clean.

We have five 5-gallon nipple buckets indoors and three heated ones outdoors. The larger ones last for a month, and if we didn't treat the water, it would have teal green slithery things all over the top of it. The outdoor ones get the typical algae lining on the bottom and growing upward. This does the trick!

 

[SourRoses]

Algae can't grow without light. But it only needs a tiny, diffused amount.
So plastic containers should be black... Wood can work because it's thicker, but you have to cover the top in a light-fast way. Any component that stays humid, like pipe and tubing, should be black if possible.

Gardeners have known this for a long time, but whoever did the first poultry water projects left it out, and people have struggled since.

The only reason we don't have a similar setup is that our climate is too hot to have anything but cool water available for the birds most of the year. And the black plastic functions as a water heater unless it's in all-day shade. So I'm still on the lookout for insulated options (and inexpensive, lol).

 

[Debbie292d]

Algae can't grow without light. But it only needs a tiny, diffused amount.

And even florescent lights (that are in the coops) count. It's worse outside in the sun, and we can't use dark colors, as in the summer they'd end up with hot water. Yes, we could change it daily, but we're older and trying to simplify things.

On very hot days over 90°F, we add a frozen water bottle to them. We freeze empty water bottles so we have several on hand when needed.

 

[KiwiMaverick]

Algae can't grow without light. But it only needs a tiny, diffused amount.
So plastic containers should be black... Wood can work because it's thicker, but you have to cover the top in a light-fast way. Any component that stays humid, like pipe and tubing, should be black if possible.

Gardeners have known this for a long time, but whoever did the first poultry water projects left it out, and people have struggled since.

The only reason we don't have a similar setup is that our climate is too hot to have anything but cool water available for the birds most of the year. And the black plastic functions as a water heater unless it's in all-day shade. So I'm still on the lookout for insulated options (and inexpensive, lol).

This is the other side of the problem here, we have some of the worst sun in the world here in NZ, so anything black and uninsulated will turn into a water heater.