Suggest how to use igloo cooler for chickens to have cool water

[mojojojojo]

Hi everyone, my old waterer broke, the plastic bucket had cracked being outdoors and 2 years of use. We had ideas on insulating the bucket for summertime when it gets too hot.

I recently bought an igloo cooler and i’m thinking of using that to water the chickens. i do not have a stable supportive “roof” over the run so the waterer will not be hanging, it is going to be placed on 1-2 levels of cinder blocks, so i will not have nipples or cups installed on the bottom If i install nipples, i want them to be horizontal. also, multiple ppl have said the horizontal nipples are better

i saw other people using the BriteTap which is a sort of adaptor that connects to nipples for the birds to drink. my girls have been drinking out of refillable cups. i am not opposed to training them to use nipples, i imagine it should be much cleaner since dirt used to collect in the cups.

the BriteTap is about $25 USD and seems pretty pricey for the mixed reviews on amazon, i don’t want to rely on such an expensive but unreliable product.

Questions:
1) Does the metal on the nipple become hot if the weather is hot, and prevent the chickens from being able to peck at it?
2) will the water that comes out become hot because of the hot metal?
3) please give suggestions on how i can make an adaptor to add the drinking cups on there, i’m thinking of drilling multiple holes in the side of the cooler to attach multiple cups but have concerns about leakage over time. Also not sure how the insulation between the cooler will hold up.
4) when the birds are pecking at the nipple, do you find that more water leaks out than makes its way into their beaks?

So far, the refillable cups i have, have a cup on the outside with a rubber washer, and on the inside of the bucket there is something i can screw the cup to. the size of the part that goes into the bucket is like 1/3” diameter, but the igloo cooler spigot hole is like 1”.

I also saw suggestions on making a pvc pipe and attaching nipples/refilling cups on there, but not sure how that will work. I am not very handy here is an example picture with the pvc pipe

please be patient with me and explaining things. thank you everyone!

 

[Stravager]

1) Does the metal on the nipple become hot if the weather is hot, and prevent the chickens from being able to peck at it?
It might get hot, but I can't imagine it would get that hot... Don't have any experience with it though. I would assume that as they would start pecking at it the water would cool it down fairly quickly.

2) will the water that comes out become hot because of the hot metal?
Not unless the water inside the container itself was hot - otherwise, as it comes out the heat exchange would cool down the nipples. Similar to how if you use a glass straight from a dishwasher and you put cold water in it, the warmth from the glass dissipates very quickly.

3) please give suggestions on how i can make an adaptor to add the drinking cups on there, i’m thinking of drilling multiple holes in the side of the cooler to attach multiple cups but have concerns about leakage over time. Also not sure how the insulation between the cooler will hold up.
If you drill holes in it, you probably could seal the insulation with silicone of some sort? But if you wanted something similar to the BriteTap I imagine you could likely just silicone together a PVC pipe with a cap on the end and then drill through to thread the nipples on. The cap would keep water from leaking out the other end, and the pipe would feed water to the nipples. The pipe could then be threaded into the existing tap hole if you had the right size pipe...?

4) when the birds are pecking at the nipple, do you find that more water leaks out than makes its way into their beaks?
Depends on the chicken I think. Some of them don't have an easy time using nipples and others are absolute pros.

Hopefully there's someone else with actual experience with this kind of setup who can offer more advice.

 

[Jmcintosh23]

Hi everyone, my old waterer broke, the plastic bucket had cracked being outdoors and 2 years of use. We had ideas on insulating the bucket for summertime when it gets too hot.

I recently bought an igloo cooler and i’m thinking of using that to water the chickens. i do not have a stable supportive “roof” over the run so the waterer will not be hanging, it is going to be placed on 1-2 levels of cinder blocks, so i will not have nipples or cups installed on the bottom If i install nipples, i want them to be horizontal. also, multiple ppl have said the horizontal nipples are better View attachment 3583567
i saw other people using the BriteTap which is a sort of adaptor that connects to nipples for the birds to drink. my girls have been drinking out of refillable cups. i am not opposed to training them to use nipples, i imagine it should be much cleaner since dirt used to collect in the cups.

the BriteTap is about $25 USD and seems pretty pricey for the mixed reviews on amazon, i don’t want to rely on such an expensive but unreliable product.

Questions:
1) Does the metal on the nipple become hot if the weather is hot, and prevent the chickens from being able to peck at it?
2) will the water that comes out become hot because of the hot metal?
3) please give suggestions on how i can make an adaptor to add the drinking cups on there, i’m thinking of drilling multiple holes in the side of the cooler to attach multiple cups but have concerns about leakage over time. Also not sure how the insulation between the cooler will hold up.
4) when the birds are pecking at the nipple, do you find that more water leaks out than makes its way into their beaks?

So far, the refillable cups i have, have a cup on the outside with a rubber washer, and on the inside of the bucket there is something i can screw the cup to. the size of the part that goes into the bucket is like 1/3” diameter, but the igloo cooler spigot hole is like 1”.View attachment 3583569

I also saw suggestions on making a pvc pipe and attaching nipples/refilling cups on there, but not sure how that will work. I am not very handy here is an example picture with the pvc pipe View attachment 3583570

please be patient with me and explaining things. thank you everyone!

We just bought cups for a waterer we just made recently and I do like the taps instead bc the cups do get really dirty since it's right next to their roost...so I think we'll have to put it in a different spot. Never tried that.. looks good. Good luck. Can't wait to see it.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I do have experience with horizontal nipples and they work great. They don't disperse as much water as the cups do, so I like cups in summer. You could put both on PVC pipe though.
As for the cooler it looks like they drilled the spigot out to make a bigger hole then attached a PVC to the cooler there. From there it's pretty easy (with a helpful hardware person) to get you what you need to attach that horizontal pipe to it.
The problem I run into is putting a flat nipple on a round pipe, it can be done but they can leak. I myself put nipples on a heavy trash can and have never had a problem. I have also mounted them on small PVC pipe and had to go in after the fact to add JBWeld to stop leaks. It freezes here so there's that to consider.
1 no metal does not get that hot
2water coming out is temp of vessel water.
3 see above
4. Some water falls on ground but it pools on cup which entices them to poke for more water.
I hope I've helped give you some things to think about .

 

[Tram]

I use an old cooler sitting up on egg crates. Drilled 4 holes and installed these. https://a.co/d/gOrutMZ
I would recommend using a small tube of silicone to stop any water leaking by.


I have two one gallon jugs full of water. I alternate them daily into the cooler and one in the freezer.

 

[Jmcintosh23]

I do have experience with horizontal nipples and they work great. They don't disperse as much water as the cups do, so I like cups in summer. You could put both on PVC pipe though.
As for the cooler it looks like they drilled the spigot out to make a bigger hole then attached a PVC to the cooler there. From there it's pretty easy (with a helpful hardware person) to get you what you need to attach that horizontal pipe to it.
The problem I run into is putting a flat nipple on a round pipe, it can be done but they can leak. I myself put nipples on a heavy trash can and have never had a problem. I have also mounted them on small PVC pipe and had to go in after the fact to add JBWeld to stop leaks. It freezes here so there's that to consider.
1 no metal does not get that hot
2water coming out is temp of vessel water.
3 see above
4. Some water falls on ground but it pools on cup which entices them to poke for more water.
I hope I've helped give you some things to think about .

Thank you it's definitely helpful!

 

[Cluckminster Fuller]

Hi everyone, my old waterer broke, the plastic bucket had cracked being outdoors and 2 years of use. We had ideas on insulating the bucket for summertime when it gets too hot.

I recently bought an igloo cooler and i’m thinking of using that to water the chickens. i do not have a stable supportive “roof” over the run so the waterer will not be hanging, it is going to be placed on 1-2 levels of cinder blocks, so i will not have nipples or cups installed on the bottom If i install nipples, i want them to be horizontal. also, multiple ppl have said the horizontal nipples are better View attachment 3583567
i saw other people using the BriteTap which is a sort of adaptor that connects to nipples for the birds to drink. my girls have been drinking out of refillable cups. i am not opposed to training them to use nipples, i imagine it should be much cleaner since dirt used to collect in the cups.

the BriteTap is about $25 USD and seems pretty pricey for the mixed reviews on amazon, i don’t want to rely on such an expensive but unreliable product.

Questions:
1) Does the metal on the nipple become hot if the weather is hot, and prevent the chickens from being able to peck at it?
2) will the water that comes out become hot because of the hot metal?
3) please give suggestions on how i can make an adaptor to add the drinking cups on there, i’m thinking of drilling multiple holes in the side of the cooler to attach multiple cups but have concerns about leakage over time. Also not sure how the insulation between the cooler will hold up.
4) when the birds are pecking at the nipple, do you find that more water leaks out than makes its way into their beaks?

So far, the refillable cups i have, have a cup on the outside with a rubber washer, and on the inside of the bucket there is something i can screw the cup to. the size of the part that goes into the bucket is like 1/3” diameter, but the igloo cooler spigot hole is like 1”.View attachment 3583569

I also saw suggestions on making a pvc pipe and attaching nipples/refilling cups on there, but not sure how that will work. I am not very handy here is an example picture with the pvc pipe View attachment 3583570

please be patient with me and explaining things. thank you everyone!

Can you drill a hole the right size?

 

[Farm-momma]

I have the Brite Tap and replaced the nipples with those same refillable cups. The nipple pieces pop out easily and the cups fit just fine!

 

[Happy hen lover]

I found these to avoid leaks. Just fyi

 

[Mouthpear]

If you still need information, this is a link to where I posted information about using a cooler. Same thread just more info.

I would never use cup "nipples". They get dirty fast and build up grime. Too much maintenance.

Last thing about the cups. It is a minor thing but still. They are more wasteful than the other nipples. Seems ode right? Since the other nipples drip a little. However the cups lose water when you have to clean them out, and the cup will allow the water to evaporate.