This is what I would worry about with using nipples in the winter. Even if it stayed liquid, it would freeze when it dripped out causing a lot of mess, wouldn't it?
All that sounds awesomeAoxa...
I've long thought about the winter water issue if I had a large barn like yours with LOTS of birds to water. This is what I "think" I'd do if I had those circumstances and weather like we do.
-I've thought I'd put in a circulating water system using something like a pond pump like they use for the little waterfalls.
-I'd use some kind of trough for the actual drinking containers that is narrow enough that they aren't getting wattles into it...but long enough for the numbers of birds I had in each pen/area.
-I'd use hose or pipe to connect the troughs from "room to room" or "trough to trough" and keep the water pumping in a circle with a drum of water feeding it.
-The drum would have the heater in it...probably an aquarium heater that you can keep good and warm...
-The hose or pipe connected to the drum would exit near the bottom and I'd fill it manually from the top during winter.
Not having done this I'd have to tweak it to make sure that everything was circulating correctly, of course.
But...since I don't have a large barn and lots of birds I haven't worked on one. As always, just pondering.
PS and ETA: Seems like I remember that (Fowlman?) may have been doing something like this but his drinking station was a bucket with the nipples. Whoever it was used an aquarium heater and a pump to keep the water circulating...and whoever it was traveled so they were gone sometime a few days in a row and needed something that would keep the water without a lot of attendance on their part.
In due time.
Hey, my extremes are NOTHING this year compared to those in Minnesota!You know....
this crazy cold (especially in Canada for aoxa) drives one to extremes when you have to go to work all day and you're messing around with water early in the morning and it has to keep thawed all day long somehow.
So excited to see if Lucy the BCM/EE mix eggs will be darker as well. I don't think Edie's eggs are going to get any bigger. She is tiny so pullet size is good for her
How beautiful....
Just wanted to share my eggs. Sophie the BCM eggs are getting darker
So excited to see if Lucy the BCM/EE mix eggs will be darker as well. I don't think Edie's eggs are going to get any bigger. She is tiny so pullet size is good for her
Mine didn't drip either. Just dropped too much water when the birds tripped the triggers. They weren't able to drink everything that dropped so onto the litter it went.
I even put pans under them to catch the water and they'd get full.
But..in the end, I decided that I didn't want to use that kind of waterer whether I had that problems or not. I wanted to give them something they could drink from in a more natural position to a bird.
Just my experience...but I've heard of others having wet litter constantly under them also..and the folks in the photo above seem to be experiencing it too
