water storage

[Hillsvale]

So I have 12' times two roof ridges to collect water..... my intention is to make home made gutters and run the rain into a container into the coop around 20 to 25 gallons into a self feeder given to us from the fella who sold me the windows.... where in Nova Scotia might I find a holding tank such as this... one piece storage please.... I can adapt..

Thoughts

 

[Ernie]

Out of curiosity, do you need to be concerned about what the roof is made of in terms of contaminants making it into the water?

 

[dacdeihl]

I don't see how that's any different from chickens drinking rain water in puddles in the run. They eat rocks for the crops. I would not be concerned about what the roof is made of unless it's a really old rusty metal.

 

[dacdeihl]

Sounds like a great idea. I'm going to talk to my husband about that. Maybe that would work for us.

 

[hrdwrkgrl]

I love this idea.. gonna see what i can do ..... xoxox

 

[Hillsvale]

Quote:
No ashpalt shingles are going to be used.

thanks

 

[patandchickens]

This isn't going to be for wintertime use, is it? B/c you would have problems with the plumbing, and to some extent the tank itself, freezing and busting open as a result and then flooding the coop.

For warmer-weather use, sure, sounds like a good idea; a heavy-duty plastic trashcan would work (but I'd suggest building a sort of 'box' that it fits very snugly into, as extra support against possibly breaking from the pressure of the water in it when the plastic of the trashcan gets older). Or one of those big blue 55-gal barrels that various agricultural products come in, just make sure to get one that has had something nontoxic. Either way, you can install a spigot at the bottom if you have the appropriate plumbing fittings, and also (very important!) a *very large diameter* overflow outlet near the top. The very large overflow outlet is essential b/c it won't take much rain to fill the container and you don't want it flooding the coop.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[gsim]

I have been able to get free empty 50-gallon soap drums from car washes. They have to be rinsed and the soap has to be sooooo very politically correct and all to please our masters at the EPA that surely all that has to be done is to rinse them out 3 or 4 times and leave inverted to dry. They come capped with two threaded openings around 2" dia or more, so should be easy to run line into it from gutters.

Easy to use a hole saw to cut a hole in side near bottom to drain via pvc pipe to collection place in coop or run. Standard fill valve for commodes could be used to regulate flow for chooks. I would put it in the run and not in the coop. Only time water was in my coop was when I was imprinting them regarding the coop as their home after letting them out of boxes we raised them in. In really cold climates, may be necessary tho. Not so in Tenn.

Look into the pvc house guttering. Fast , easy, foolproof to install.

 

[Hillsvale]

Quote:
Hi Pat

thanks for your thoughs... I intend on the water catchment being inside the coop which will be well insulated for our Nova Scotia winters and would likely consider insulating the water catchment (whatever that may be) but the ones I have looked at are quite thick approximately 1/4 " (not a garbage can) and my young fellow mentioned the availability of a stainless steel keg which is also insulated... and you are quite right a large over flow would be necessary because getting an inch of rain an hour is not unheard of around here!

what are your thoughts on that?

Failing that I could likely come up with something that I could "shut down" the water catchment for Jan through March. I would love to have this work year round though... and I am just stubborn enough to figure out how!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Unfortunately I doubt that insulation alone will solve your problem. All insulation does is slow down heat loss. An insulated 20 or 50 gallon tank will freeze more slowly than an uninsulated one, but the difference is likely to be in terms of days, not weeks or months. Even in the maritimes, I am pretty sure that winter lasts more than a week <vbg> so unless you had a way to thaw the frozen parts and heat the water back up at regular intervals, you would still be frozen solid after not very long.

The outflow hose will freeze up first, too, unless you have a heat lamp pointed at it or something (which comes with its own risks and $$$), so that fairly soon you will still hve liquid water IN the reservoir, but without a mechanism to keep the outflow line flowing, the birds will not have *access* to the water there.

I suppose in principle you could drop a water-trough heater or bucket heater into the reservoir every few days (or whatever it takes) and run a bunch of wattage through there to warm it back up... but I am not recommending this, because a) you'd have to be really attentive to do it before things froze up too much, the timing varying with the weather, and moreover b) most of those heaters are a bit of a menace and not to be used except with supervision and caution, especially in a plastic container and especially if there is ANY possibility of a leak running the tank dry.

I am not saying don't insulate. Insulation *will* extend the season in which you can use the water reservoir. I think by preference what you'd want is something very sturdy in case of freezing accidents, and ideally something NOT keg-shaped -- that is, something with no constriction anywhere around its circumferance and preferably slightly wider at the top than at the bottom. That shape withstands some freezing better than keg shapes, because as more and more water freezes, the top ice can just rise up rather than getting stuck and building up pressure that cracks the container. (even in a garbage can, which is a good example of the desirable shape, you can still crack the bottom if it freezes too much; but not nearly as soon as if it were a shape that narrows on its upper half, does that make sense?)

All I'm saying is, there will still be a fair chunk of winter during which you need to either have a way of electrically warming the reservoir and its outflow, or decommission the unit til warmer weather

Failing that I could likely come up with something that I could "shut down" the water catchment for Jan through March. I would love to have this work year round though... and I am just stubborn enough to figure out how!

The best year-round no-electricity-and-high-safety solution I can think of (and I shouldn't say "solution", since I am not guaranteeing this will necessarily do the job 100% for you) would be if you could use solar heating to warm the reservoir each day (er, in the maritimes, DO you get sun during much of the winter? that might be a problem...). If you get sun on many or most days ("if", LOL), you could make the reservoir container something metal, painted black, insulated only on one side. Put a pane of glass on the south-facing wall that it sits right next to, with that forming a small enclosed greenhouse chamber that will build up heat to warm the reservoir during the day. As the sun gets low in the sky, or on cloudy days, you manually cover the glass panel with an insulated cover to minimize heat loss, then take it off next time the sun comes out. You would still have the problem of ensuring the outflow did not freeze, but at least the *tank* is going to stay thawed a lot longer, possibly all winter if you get enough sun. Just a thought, anyhow.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​