{"id":511,"date":"2013-08-19T21:16:48","date_gmt":"2013-08-20T04:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amosfamily.net:8181\/?p=511"},"modified":"2013-08-19T21:16:48","modified_gmt":"2013-08-20T04:16:48","slug":"chicken-watering-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/?p=511","title":{"rendered":"Chicken Watering System"},"content":{"rendered":"

After having the chicks for a while I needed a way for them to have fresh water for a few days at a time so we could go on vacation. \u00a0I used a 5 gallon bucket, inverted and placed in a planter base. \u00a0I put a few small holes for air\/water to pass through just where I wanted the water level. \u00a0This worked for a while. \u00a0I didn’t mind the splashing, nor the cleaning it out every few days. \u00a0Then something red and nasty started to grow on the bucket, so I bleached it and it stayed clean for a while. \u00a0But it came back. I went through the cycle a few times of bleaching it, but that red stuff got thick and nasty pretty quickly. \u00a0So I decided something else needed to happen. \u00a0The chickens needed water and I needed to not have to deal with that nasty red stuff. \u00a0Besides growing tired of the drudgery of cleaning out the bucket every few days.<\/p>\n

The solution was watering nipples. \u00a0Small little pieces of red plastic over a metal swivel valve. \u00a0I put some in a piece of 3\/4 inch pvc pipe and attached them to a 5 gallon bucket. \u00a0A valve at one end of the pipe allowed me to drain the tank every few days and refill it with fresh water. \u00a0This worked wonderfully. \u00a0My solution to most everything involves 5 gallon buckets and pvc pipe.<\/p>\n

\"2013-07-11_19-45-46_230\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"2013-07-11_19-46-29_62\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Even with the improved watering system, manual labor was required and this became drudgery. \u00a0Not because I dislike being outside, but mostly because summer came. \u00a0In Mesa, summer is the worst time of the year. \u00a0In addition to this, the water in the bucket became so hot it would almost cook an egg. That isn’t fair to the chickens.<\/p>\n

So I purchased a swamp cooler float and some pvc pipe and ran a new water line to the coop , put the float valve into the bucket and attached the new waterline. \u00a0Of course I don’t enjoy being outside in the summer, so I decided to replace the manual valve with an automatic one. \u00a0I decided that since the garden always wanted more water, and the chickens wanted cooler water the valve could release the hot water a couple times per day \u00a0staying open until cool water flowed into the bucket. \u00a0The hot water being expelled into the garden.<\/p>\n

Here is the new pvc piping complete with a shutoff valve, these are invaluable when things go wrong at the automatic valve.<\/p>\n

\"2013-07-11_19-47-32_415\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Here is the automatic water valve and the float valve.<\/p>\n

\"2013-07-11_19-47-40_118\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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I learned the hard way that the automatic sprinkler valves need to have back pressure to open or close depending on the valve design. with only 2 feet of head the valve didn’t work. \u00a0I looked all over the place and couldn’t find a reasonably priced valve that would work with very low pressure\/flow. \u00a0The other option was a pump. \u00a0I found a cheap inline sump pump at Homegrown Hydroponics (I think hydroponics\/aquaponics will be my next adventure).<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20130819_181752_993\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pumping the hot water to a tank that either goes to the garden or the sewer depending on how I have things set up. \u00a0So now I have a timer running the pump twice a day, once in the early afternoon and another at sunset, giving the chickens cool water all night and during the hottest time of day. \u00a0They seem happy with this setup. \u00a0Summer in the desert is all about survival, for myself and for the hens. \u00a0Once fall comes again I think the extra time I have not dealing with feeding and watering tasks can be spent in the garden, growing yummy treats for my family and of course the hens will get some as well. \u00a0Maybe I will even have some time to get a hydroponics system setup, using the hot chicken water to grow veggies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After having the chicks for a while I needed a way for them to have fresh water for a few days at a time so we could go on vacation. \u00a0I used a 5 gallon bucket, inverted and placed in a planter base. \u00a0I put a few small holes for air\/water to pass through just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[105,22,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":517,"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions\/517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amosfamily.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}