Watering set up constantly breaking

Wifeygirl

Chirping
Jul 2, 2019
16
45
54
Sarasota Florida USA
We have a DIY set up that DH made. The feed tubes are fine :) The water tube however... we started with the red cups with yellow paddle. The cups were hardly ever wet then, 1 broke from the horizontal pvc pipe. Now, I put gravity waterer cups like you can see in my pics (ignore the silver bowl). They are constantly dirty and I have to unscrew them a smidge to dump out the yuck water, wipe out the cup, then turn tight again so it will fill with clean water. Then, today my newly discovered rooster (who needs a new home) was trying to rule the run and broke 2 of the cups off. No need to replace with the same cups since I wasn't pleased with them to begin with. I'd love to read your suggestions. I would prefer that whatever method used doesn't take up too much space so my 6 hens have as much space as possible.

If anyone in the BYC knows people in the Sarasota County Florida area - I have a bantam silkie and blue maran who turned out to be Roosters that I have to re-home...pass it on :)

disclaimer ---- don't judge me for the nasty ground of the coop - we've had a torrential down pour today LOL
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Hey, your ground looks fine! We're all poultry folks, we get it.

I use a hanging bucket with little nipples. The chickens took to it right away, and because it's lidded, they never get the water dirty. I bought mine, but I know you can buy the parts and make it. Because it's hanging, it doesn't take so much space. Mine came from Tractor Supply, but I can't find it on their site right now. Here's one on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004TZK9AI/?tag=backy-20

Good Luck!
 
Hey, your ground looks fine! We're all poultry folks, we get it.

I use a hanging bucket with little nipples. The chickens took to it right away, and because it's lidded, they never get the water dirty. I bought mine, but I know you can buy the parts and make it. Because it's hanging, it doesn't take so much space. Mine came from Tractor Supply, but I can't find it on their site right now. Here's one on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004TZK9AI/?tag=backy-20

Good Luck!
Thanks for that. I wondered if my hens would adjust to that type of nipple since the cup type is all they have used. The girls are 6 months now.
 
I recently switched from the cups you used - with the yellow paddle -to the bigger gravity fed cups from rentacoop. Really like them so far.

With the yellow paddle cups it took a lot of time for the birds to get enough water it seemed. And some never really got how it worked. It’s too hot here to mess with birds not getting water easily. So I put out dish pans of water too and they all preferred that much more.

But I still wanted clean water and more of it. So I researched and found the rentacoop cups. They got really good reviews so I tried it. So far so good.

To clean the cups every few days I simply take a 1/4 sheet of paper towel and wipe the dirt out. When I totally change the water I hose the cups out when I’m hosing out the bucket. Easy. The cups have not leaked and stay full.

The company also gets great reviews for customer service. Haven’t needed that but it’s nice to know. I did order 6 cups and they sent 7 with a note that one is ‘just in case’. I thought that was a nice touch!
 
I used a horizontal PVC arrangement. I think that maybe the vertical orientation of your tank is increasing the water pressure the nipples are experiencing, leading to leaks.

I have both the horizontal nipples (6) and the watering cups with the yellow paddles (2). The lowermost cup gets the most use and also is the only one that leaks (also has most pressure behind it). But it leaks slowly and keeps the cup full for the birds, so I am not messing with it right now while it is hot out. I put a concrete block and a brick under it to spread out the moisture.

You can see the basic setup in the background here. To the right of the frame, there are 3 more nipples and one more cup, in that order.
 

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Do you think that would work with the current pipe being that close to ground? Should I raise that part of the t-bar up? hope not, DH is already over all the remodels LOL
I believe the thread size is the same for most of these nipples. Just remove what you have, wrap Telfon tape on the threads of the horizontal nipples and thread them into your system. If they leak a little, back them out, apply food grade silicone to around the perimeter of the hole then put them back in until they are snug, allow the silicone to cure and refill the waterers.
 
It doesn't look like it would be all that difficult to raise the waterer up 6" ...

BTW ... gravity water pressure is 1 psi (pound square in) for every 2' (feet) of elevation ... so, if your waterer is 4' tall ... and full of water ... you would have 2 psi of pressure at a maximum. It would gradually be reduced as the water level goes down ...
 

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