Watering chickens sounds simple enough, huh? Well, it’s not simple at all. When Josie(Mom) first received Ramey’s photo props as pets (aka baby chicks) we used a bowl for watering the chicks, which was emptied a few times a day. As the chicks grew, the water bowl did too- with dirtier water. Mom soon purchased a one gallon poultry waterer. Problem solved, so we thought. But while checking the water hours later, it was either completely filled with bird poo, food and dirt, or all gone. We were so worried. We knew that the chickens had to have water and fresh water at that. A little time researching and thinking out loud in our “Fairbanks” farm circle, the gang came up with a few ideas (with the help of social media).
The first idea was to install the chicken nipples into a five gallon bucket.(On the underneath side). We had seen this idea online and with a few modifications, we decided this might be ideal for our chicken runs. After putting them all together, we found that refilling the 5 gallon bucket was troubling so back to the family circle we went for more brain storming. We then came up with chicken nipples installed into 2″ pvc tubes being connected to a 5 gallon bucket with a bulb activated automated water coming through. The bucket was elevated which made it easy for gravity to push water into the pvc pipes. The problem of filling up that 5 gallon bucket was still a bit of a hassle so like before, we circled up again deciding to run a water line to the chicken pens and tapping into the water system. We then connected the already designed pvc tubes with chicken nipples, to the 5 gallon elevated water bucket then simply added a toilet float to manage the water level to the bucket. Thanks to KristieMiss, and DaddyRabbit, we ended up with a hassle-free watering system. Thank heavens!
Checkout out this magic
Now,this is what thinking in a circle gets you!
Make sure to checkout the how-to find Chicken Nipples
Katie Girl