Rain water for my chickens

[1country]

Hi I was wondering if anybody give's there chicken rain water and if so do you treat the water like a fish tank and is it safe to do so ? I have a 250 gallon tank with rain water and it looks like allgie growing in it .

 

[ll]

I don't but I've read about others that do with success.
You can put a goldfish or snail in the barrel ~ they are vegetarians & will eat algae
You can raise guppies in the barrel in warmer climates (they are tropical fish) and then
you can feed the guppy babies to the chickens.
Some add a screen to keep debris from going in.
Keep some kind of cover on, we had to take care of an accidentally drowned squirrel this weekend

gross

 

[1country]

Thanks for the info .

 

[flockof4]

I gave my chickens rain water all the time until we moved. Now the house we're in doesn't have a rain catcher (yet). I didn't treat the water just gave it to them as it was. Never had any problems.

 

[duckinnut]

The only reason algae will grow is exposure to light,it will even grow in regular tap water if left long enough with access to light. I would think if you keep it in a light proof or light reducing barrel it would cut down on growth. Maybe accompanied with ACV would also help. But all that being said,I have come to find that chickens will drink out of the most discusting muddy,poop laden puddle they can find so dont think a liitle algae will hurt them. Personally I dont care for rain barrels as it is just another place for mosquitos to breed.

 

[gmendoza]

if you want you can process it in this fashion:

pvc or tube to a water seperator. You can find these onlie for those rainbarrel systems.
Then pvc or tube to a marine filter. (removed big items like leaf particles and such)
Then pvc or tube to a carbon filter
then to a micron filter
then tube or pvc to your barrel

your water should be "safe" for chickens to drink.

remember Ive seen chickens drink dirty duck pond water...

 

[Jay262]

I have a kids pooll setup out back of my yard and all i give my animals is rain water. Think about all the stuff that goes into the water out of our tap in comparison i think they would perfer the rain water.

 

[clairabean]

I do. I have a gutter on my coop, which runs in to a barrel.

A lid will prevent accidental drownings of creatures and keep mosquito larvae out. I pour in some apple cider vinegar to prevent algae.

 

[stormylady]

I do use rain water out of a rain barrel, I use a tiny capful of food grade hydrogen peroxide in the large barrel and I don't have issues with algea (sp) with no Ill effects.