How To Build A Better Waterer For Your Chickens

Update August 21, 2012: I have developed a patent pending waterer that makes it super easy to keep your chickens water clean. It's now available for sale.  Check at the best chicken waterer ever.

If your using a standard metal or plastic waterer you already know that it get's pretty dirty.  That's not good for your flock and it's not easy for you to keep clean either.  In this post, I'll show you how to build a waterer that stays clean and is easy to maintain. 

I've been using a standard metal waterer like the one shown below for a while now.  This waterer is simple to use but it has two major disadvantages -- it does rust over time and the water gets fouled because chickens kick up dust when the scratch and this lands in the pan of the waterer, converting the contents to mud.  While these waterer can be hung above the ground, I find that it makes little difference.  At the end of the day, there's plenty of dirt in the water.

To resolve these issues, I did some research on the internet and discovered that commercial chicken farmers water their flocks by running water pipes into their coops and providing access to the water using a device called a poultry nipple.

A poultry nipple is a essentially a valve.  When a chicken pecks at the protruding metal stem, the valve releases a few drops of water that the chicken can then drink.  It works on a similar principle to water bottles that are used in hamster and guinea pig cages.  You can buy poultry nipples at FarmTek and other suppliers as well as on eBay.

My waterer uses a Rubbermaid Roughneck storage box as a water reservoir.  I keep this reservoir outside the coop where I can easily fill it and then run PVC pipe to the chickens.  The pipe is about 19 inches above the ground, about the right height for my chickens to reach it.  The poultry nipples are inserted into the PVC pipe by making a hole in the bottom of it using a hand drill.

I made my waterer using 1/2 inch PVC pipe, a T-shaped PVC fitting, an elbow fitting, two PVC pipe end caps, a threaded PVC male adapter fitting, a few poultry nipples, a Rubbermaid Roughneck plastic storage container, a rubber washer and an appropriately sized nut.

The actual PVC components you will need might vary from mine depending on where you want to place your waterer.  I did not seal the pipes together with any kind of cement; this made construction easier and gives me the option to disconnect the PVC pipes to clean the insides should I need to do so in the future.

The connection between the PVC and the water reservoir is made by placing a threaded male fitting to the end of your PVC pipe.  Then cut a hole in the reservoir towards the bottom of the container.  You want the hole to be just large enough to fit the threaded part of the fitting inside the container.  Finally, use a rubber washer and a large nut to fasten the PVC pipe to the container.

Here's a video of the chicken waterer in action.

 

 

Comments

[Michaele]

That is soooo cool! How long did it take them to figure it out. I have also never seen a video make this way like a scrapbook page. What program do you use?

[H. Mark Delman]

It took the chickens 3 seconds to figure out how to use the waterer. Once I set it up, I used my finger to engage the valve several times in succession. Doing so makes a clicking noise; chickens are naturally curious, so they came over to have a look and peck at the valves. They then learned that the valves would provide a drink. That was it.

The video album is made using Apple iMovie. Adobe and others make video editing programs that might do similar tricks on a Windows based computer, but iMovie is really easy to use if you have a Mac.

[Lachelle Norris]

Hey Mark, looks great! - I'm always having to clean the metal waterer ... but I'm wondering about how this will work when temps drop down below freezing ... right now I have a heated waterer for the girls, but it still gets mucky ...

[H. Mark Delman]

In my neck of the woods, it almost never gets below freezing, so I dont have a good answer for you. I think in colder climates folks put some sort of warming element in the water and the same might work here.