Rain water in barrel stinks

[Soujrnr]

Hello all. We have a 55-gallon food-grade barrel set up to collect rain water off of the roof of our coop, which it does quite nicely. However, the water smells bad. It's not like a sewer smell, but it does smell pretty nasty. I can't open the top of the barrel, so all I could do is drain it and perhaps refill it with the hose and then maybe add some bleach to kill stuff before placing it back on it's stand to collect rain again.

On the other hand, my question is does it really matter? After all, they crap in their water and then drink it, so some smelly rain water from a food grade barrel may not be as big of a concern as I think it might. The chickens don't seem to be affected by it. They drink the water and don't seem to care one way or another.

What do you all think is the right course of action? I just want to do right by my girls, ya know!!

Thanks.

Mike

 

[ChickenCanoe]

If it smells, IMO, it does matter. I had 3 of those barrels but chose not to use them for rain collection of stock water because I knew anything I collected off of coop roofs would quickly sour because of tree debris which was inevitable. The only way I figured I could do it was to create an elaborate filtration system upstream from the barrel.
I ended up using the barrels for chicken water but kept them very clean using city water and not introducing anything from the roof.
I knew it would be a fiasco because all the nipple water system would quickly become clogged/

 

[Soujrnr]

If it smells, IMO, it does matter. I had 3 of those barrels but chose not to use them for rain collection of stock water because I knew anything I collected off of coop roofs would quickly sour because of tree debris which was inevitable. The only way I figured I could do it was to create an elaborate filtration system upstream from the barrel.
I ended up using the barrels for chicken water but kept them very clean using city water and not introducing anything from the roof.
I knew it would be a fiasco because all the nipple water system would quickly become clogged/

I think I may have to do something similar.

 

[Soujrnr]

So, I ended up just draining the barrel. I will spray it out thoroughly with my pressure sprayer to get the gunk off the inside surfaces, and then fill it with water from the hose. I may fill it completely, add a small amount of bleach to kill everything, then thoroughly rinse it again before filling it for the girls.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

good plan
Basically, that's what I did.
Since I used mine for automatic chicken water, I made stands that held the barrels horizontally so I could make the system gravity fed. For winter, I added a pond pump and inline aquarium heater, inline filter, flat aquarium base heater. The base heater goes under the outlet on the barrel (fine thread opening). The pump is powered all the time. That heater is powered by a thermostatically controlled outlet. It comes on at 35F and off at 45F. The inline heater outlet comes on at 20 and of at 30. The water was then pumped back into the coarse thread bung on the upper side of the barrel.

 

[Soujrnr]

good plan
Basically, that's what I did.
Since I used mine for automatic chicken water, I made stands that held the barrels horizontally so I could make the system gravity fed. For winter, I added a pond pump and inline aquarium heater, inline filter, flat aquarium base heater. The base heater goes under the outlet on the barrel. The pump is powered all the time. That heater is powered by a thermostatically controlled outlet. It comes on at 35F and off at 45F. The inline heater outlet comes on at 20 and of at 30.

I'd love to see your setup! I'd like to do something similar.

 

[McChooky]

Dump the water, remove all sediment and organic material and clean and sanitize the tank to ensure bacteria will not return https://pristinewatersystems.com.au/2021/11/24/anaerobic-levels-in-rainwater-tanks/