Water from rain barrel

[bjdam2014]

I have my coop at my property with no water access so I installed gutters on coop and ran them to a rain barrel. I recently noticed that there is green alge starting to grow in the barrel. Is this still safe to give my chickens??? If not any suggestions on how to prevent the alge???

 

[PD-Riverman]

I have my coop at my property with no water access so I installed gutters on coop and ran them to a rain barrel. I recently noticed that there is green alge starting to grow in the barrel. Is this still safe to give my chickens??? If not any suggestions on how to prevent the alge???

What color is the rain barrel? Darken it. I have used regular bleach in the water for about 30 years with no problem. A bleach cap almost full in 5 gallons(did know how many ml that was---have to re-measure?

 

[redsoxs]

I'd hate to steer you wrong but I don't think it would hurt them....mine have fresh water but I will frequently see them drinking from standing containers of water that are green with algae and they are fine. Here's some old links where it is discussed - you might get a better idea: https://www.backyardchickens.com/newsearch?search=algae+in+water

 

[bjdam2014]

Barrel is white. Should I simply paint it brown or black to prevent sun light from getting to water??

I am using a 55 gallon drum so I can add 11 bleach bottle caps of bleach to it and it won't hurt my chickens??!

 

[PD-Riverman]

Barrel is white. Should I simply paint it brown or black to prevent sun light from getting to water??

I am using a 55 gallon drum so I can add 11 bleach bottle caps of bleach to it and it won't hurt my chickens??!

Yes paint the barrel black/dark or cover it with a dark---no light cover----if it has a lot of green in it now I would treat it with bleach to kill the algae----for a day or two----then drain completely---make the barrel dark----then let it refill from a rain---you should be good then. You might have to haul a little water till a rain. If its only a little green in it---then a little bleach should clean it up. Sure there is other things that you can use for the algae but I have never had a problem with using regular bleach and with 30 to 40 5 gallon buckets in that many chicken pens---shooting I think 10ml of bleach into these 5 gallon buckets every few weeks has never caused a problem.