What do you do to make watering easier?

[drdoolittle]

What do you do to make watering easier/time-efficient? I am going back to work driving school-bus on the 23rd, and I won't be home between 5:30a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Right now I have a 5 gal. waterer for my chickens, which works well----but what about my ducks? I have been filling 4-1gal. buckets and 2- 5 gal. containers for them each morning---this will not be possible when I go back to work as it takes too much time. For winter, I was planning on filling up one really huge container and putting a heater in it, but this will be for all the birds out in the huge free-range pen, and the ducks will have it dirty within an hour! I'm thinking that I'm going to be taking warm water up to the night-time pens every evening, and then the one big container for daytime. Just wondered what everyone else was doing.

I was already getting up at 3:30 a.m. to take care of the animals last school-year, but I didn't have ducks then-----I don't want to get up ANY earlier!!!

 

[AllTheseCreatures]

My mother has her yard plumbed into sections so she has faucets to access water without having to drag a long hose or bucket. I can't afford that, so I lay down a coil of hose near the garden and near the chicken coop in a hose keeper. Then I attach a quick connect to each hose end so I don't have to struggle with that issue. I drag the main hose to were my next coil of hose it and use the water. Then put every thing back when I'm finished. My yard is long and narrow and this works well for me. I can have 200 feet of hose to use without having to deal with a huge 200 foot length of hose at one time. That saves me a lot of time and hassle. We also plumbed our waterer so we don't have to drag it in and out of the cage. We fill from the outside via a pipe that runs into the lid of the waterer.

I don't know much about keeping ducks, though. Is there someone around the house who can help you with one of the waterings so you don't have to get up so early?

 

[laughaha]

I use kiddie pools- dump and refill every couple of days. My chickens have no problem with perching on the edge of the cheap rigid plastic ones. Works great!!!

 

[racuda]

When I had Call ducks I used a stock tank. It was their swimming pool and they drank out of it. I changed the water once a week.

I am using rubber buckets for the free range chickens and guineas. They are easier to deal with than regular waterers. In the winter when the water freezes it is easy to give the bucket a little kick to break the ice and refill it. Not good for any chick or keet under about 10 weeks though - they will drown.

 

[Beekissed]

I use a rubber feed pan like the kind they make for feeding horses...this is shallow enough that all ages can access it. They are easily rinsed and are nigh indestructible...just dump, rinse, refill easily.

If the ducks are getting in the water and making messes, just place a woven wire cover over the rubber pan...this allows drinking but not bathing.

These rubber pans are great for winter for the same reason as the rubber buckets are...kick and empty, refill.

My chickens often access the dog's heated buckets in the winter also, so there is always water on hand.

 

[drdoolittle]

Thanks, everyone for your input----I always kind of "freak out" about how I'm going to manage this once school starts-----but it always works out in the end.

 

[woodmort]

In the winter I have to carry water 50 yds or so through sleet and snow as I do not have water in the coop. While I use one 8-gallon and one 5-gallon waterers that I top off every day, I got rid of my ducks because they required too much water. They'd splash the whole 13 gallons out on the floor overnight.

 

[Royd]

Quote:
Sch. 40 PVC is cheaper than a good quality waterhose. A trenching shovel or pickax, a few hours of hard labor, and voila: no more dragging waterhose, incessantly, across the yard.

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
Good idea for FL but in upstate NY one has to go down 2.5 to 3 ft to be below frost line. Not a pick and shovel job for a 70-year old that has 50 yds of rock infested glacial till to work through. Plus there is the problem of bringing the line up into the coop in a way that prevents freezing.

 

[zazouse]

I use big clear plastic tote that are 8 inches deep,place them in the shade & leave the hose with the water barely dripping in it.