chicken waterer--must it hang?

Hey y'all. New to farming. Will be getting day-old chicks in a couple of weeks. Concerned about the structure of our mobile coop's stability. Feeling pretty comfortable about our design's stability when it comes to moving it, but wondering...

does anyone know a design that makes use of a nipple/bucket waterer that does not hang?

We are low on cash for building materials, so we're trying to make something light & cheap & sturdy. We will have to do something stronger than planned with the top of the coop if, indeed, we need to hang the waterer.

Thanks!

Beth Daughtry wrote:Hey y'all. New to farming. Will be getting day-old chicks in a couple of weeks. Concerned about the structure of our mobile coop's stability. Feeling pretty comfortable about our design's stability when it comes to moving it, but wondering...

does anyone know a design that makes use of a nipple/bucket waterer that does not hang?

We are low on cash for building materials, so we're trying to make something light & cheap & sturdy. We will have to do something stronger than planned with the top of the coop if, indeed, we need to hang the waterer.

Thanks!

We used a black rubber feed bowl in the run and changed the water every day. It sits on the ground in their run on a concrete paver. We put a couple of them out in the summer and drop a bird bath heater in it in winter. It easily takes care of 16 birds. I have friend who does the same thing with 2 coops with 30 to 60 birds in each coop.

Kate Muller wrote:

Beth Daughtry wrote:Hey y'all. New to farming. Will be getting day-old chicks in a couple of weeks. Concerned about the structure of our mobile coop's stability. Feeling pretty comfortable about our design's stability when it comes to moving it, but wondering...

does anyone know a design that makes use of a nipple/bucket waterer that does not hang?

We are low on cash for building materials, so we're trying to make something light & cheap & sturdy. We will have to do something stronger than planned with the top of the coop if, indeed, we need to hang the waterer.

Thanks!

We used a black rubber feed bowl in the run and changed the water every day. It sits on the ground in their run on a concrete paver. We put a couple of them out in the summer and drop a bird bath heater in it in winter. It easily takes care of 16 birds. I have friend who does the same thing with 2 coops with 30 to 60 birds in each coop.

I do the exact same because of ducks, though in the winter I do have an automatic, heated waterer.

I've actually tried about 6 different kinds of poultry specific waterers and have not found a single one that didn't leak after a little use.

I haven't done the PVC pipe with nipples in it, bought the nipples and just never got around to doing anything with them.

If you use horizontal nipple waterers (http://www.amazon.com/Horizontal-Side-Mount-Poultry-Nipples/dp/B00JXUAD0K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438095033&sr=8-1&keywords=horizontal+nipple+waterer) you can screw the nipples right into the side of a container (we use old kitty litter jugs, like this: http://www.amazon.com/Premium-Choice-Carefree-Unscented-Natural/dp/B0002AQS8G/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1438095151&sr=8-8&keywords=kitty+litter+jug).

Then you just set the jug on top of a block of some sort so that it is at beak height.

Also, I've been using one waterer for over a year and have had no leaks. I suspect the leaks occur if you drill the accepting holes a little bit too large for the nipples, or if you try to screw the nipples in too far and the threads become stripped.

The nipples are really one of the best chicken investments I've made. Instead of changing the water everyday, you can change it once a week. Plus, no poop in their water.

If there is enough bedding in the run there will be bedding in the water so it has to be raised. I have my steel waterer raised on a piece of an old grill. It's like a flat table. Too tall for little chicks!

I think it's very important that chickens have plenty of bedding material so they're not living in bare dirt and poop.

There are cup waterers available that are similar to the nipples but are affixed to a water source horizontally. These could be attached directly to a 5 gallon bucket or what we did was attach them to a pvc pipe, attached to a hose attached to a 5gallon bucket. We put the 5 gallon bucket on a cinderblock and the pvc pipe with the cups on the ground. I don't have a picture of our set up but I've attached a picture of one of the cups. We made this waterer specifically for chicks with their mother hens as the typical chick waterers would get drained by all the adults halfway through the day. The bucket lasts a couple days, although it would probably be longer but there is a tiny leak in it.
Ours are free ranged so bedding getting in the cups isn't an issue for us but if it is for you, you could easily zip tie the pvc pipe to something to raise it up a bit.

One option that might work is a wide bucket ontop of a semi-wide [no more than 2-3 inches narrower diameter than the wide one] platform of some sort, with the nipples placed around the excess.

Thus the reservoir is still elevated above the chickens, but it's resting on a platform [possibly even another bucket with a few sticks stuck through the bottom of the wall to extend its 'floor' for stability] rather than suspended somehow.

EDIT: I really like that pipe method the person just above me used. Very cool.

Just repeating here what others have said but basically, no, water does not need to be elevated. Water on the ground will have to be changed more often because of dirt and bedding that they drop into it, while raising it keeps it a LITTLE cleaner for a LITTLE longer.