Water dispenser for chickens

I decided to make my own waterer for my chickens after having  to replace many UV damaged store bought ones.
I was also very annoyed having to fill the waterer up everyday, thanks to the chickens running around and knocking into it.
The one I made works by the same principle as the store bought ones, by maintaining a vacuum.  

Step 1: Parts!

For this version I used:
4 2" elbows
2 2" T's (one 2"x2"x 1/2", one all 2")
2 Ball valves
2" PVC pipe
1/2" PVC pipe
1 1/2" cap
1 4" cap
1 Uniseal (http://www.aussieglobe.com/index.htm)
PVC glue

Comments

[magilla57]

Here's an idea that I've used for hydroponics that might work for you. Take an old toilet tank, with the float assembly intact, and plumb the outlet end (the bottom of the tank) to one side of a watering timer valve, and the other end of that to the inlet of the watering trough (a length of plastic rain guttering with endcaps works well). Plumb a water line into the intake side of the toilet tank (as you would normally do in an in-house installation). Now, you set the timer to whatever length of time you want the water to 'change out' in the trough. When the timer 'opens', water rushes down from the tank into the trough; and, when the water level drops in the toilet, it automatically refills and awaits the timer to dump the water into the trough again. If you hook up a separate water timer to the outlet end of the trough, you can coordinate the opening/closing sequencing so that the trough's outlet opens and drains the trough moments before the inlet timer allows water to fill the trough. That's it in a nutshell, but you can see that the potential benefit is that you never have to touch the watering system again as it automatically drains and fills itself...forever.

[Skip]

could you rig the water feeding bowl to a much larger water storage device (rain barrel/ water tank, etc...?) so you wouldn't have to fill it up as often?

[JavaLady]

Good work. I've made a similar one for my coop. I used a 5 gallon bucket for my water holding tank, and those pet fountain ends where they have to tap-tap for water. Great minds think a like !

[jrossetti]

Interesting design. How long does the cup stay clean? How will you keep it from cracking when the water freezes in the winter?

[ravenc83]

it stays relatively clean for about 3 days, when ever I have to fill it up I usually flush out the bowl. As far as the freezing, our winters really don't get that bad, we might get some ice on the surface. I would assume you could use some pipe insulation and/or paint it black.