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Automatically Water Your Chickens - It's EASY
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May 21, 2024
This simple project has increased my enjoyment of having chickens by at least 10 fold. What takes minutes and maybe $30 to assemble saves me time every single day. I hope you find it helpful too! Here's the list of materials you'll need for this project. 1 in. PVC Cap: https://www.homedepot.com/p/VPC-1-in-SOC-Schedule-40-PVC-Cap-27-447-010B/317246375 (Home Depot) 1 in. x 24in. PVC Pipe: https://www.homedepot.com/p/VPC-1-in-x-24-in-PVC-Sch-40-Pipe-2201/202300506 (Home Depot) 1 in. x 3/4 in. PVC Schedule 40 Spigot x FPT Reducer Bushing Fitting: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Charlotte-Pipe-1-in-x-3-4-in-PVC-Schedule-40-Spigot-x-FPT-Reducer-Bushing-Fitting-PVC021080800HD/203811581 (Home Depot) 1 in. PVC Coupling: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Charlotte-Pipe-1-in-PVC-Schedule-40-S-x-S-Coupling-PVC021001000HD/203811385 (Home Depot) 3/4 in. PVC MPT x Slip Adapter: https://www.homedepot.com/p/LASCO-Fittings-3-4-in-PVC-Schedule-40-MPT-x-Slip-Male-Adapter-436007BC/317654571 (Home Depot) Poultry Waterer Drinker Nipples: https://amzn.to/3PaAVB3 (Amazon) 3/4 in. ID O-Ring: https://amzn.to/44NWRHY (Amazon) 3/4 in. Hole Saw: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-3-4-in-HOLE-DOZER-Bi-Metal-Hole-Saw-with-3-8-in-Arbor-and-Pilot-Bit-49-56-9658/313347418 (Home Depot) 5 Gallon Bucket: https://goto.walmart.com/c/1723429/565706/9383?veh=aff&sourceid=imp_000011112222333344&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fip%2FUnited-Solutions-5-Gallon-Round-Utility-Bucket-Comfort-Handle-Plastic-White-PN0149-1-Each%2F407475628%3Fathbdg%3DL1102%26from%3D%2Fsearch (Walmart) Bucket Lid: https://goto.walmart.com/c/1723429/565706/9383?veh=aff&sourceid=imp_000011112222333344&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fip%2FEncore-Plastics-Snap-on-Lid-for-5-Gallon-Pail-White%2F20703098 (Walmart) Pantry Preparedness is a trademark of Income School LLC, an Idaho Limited Liability Company
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hello, my friends. I hope you're having a wonderful day
0:02
Today I want to share with you the thing that probably saves me the most time when it comes to taking care of my chickens
0:08
And that is this watering system that I've set up. It's super cool. It's based upon something that some friends of ours over in eastern Idaho built for their own chickens
0:17
But they have a lot more. So I adapted it to our chickens. Right now is actually a great opportunity for me to make a little bit of an upgrade to hopefully prevent the little nipples from freezing up in the wintertime
0:28
We'll see how it actually performs. but that also makes it a perfect opportunity for me to rebuild mine and show you exactly how I did it
0:36
For this project, all we're going to need is exactly what you see here on the table
0:40
I will use two pairs of pliers simply just for screwing a couple of these together
0:44
It's nice to have two pairs of pliers. We're going to need some nipples that we can use for the chickens to actually get their water out
0:51
These ones are supposed to be freeze resistant, right? It's not going to work if you live in a like super cold climate
0:59
But here where it freezes, it should help quite a bit, especially because I do put a warmer inside of the bucket
1:08
that helps keep the water itself from freezing up. So the only real problem we have is right at the nipples
1:14
where they would freeze up and no more water for the chickens. Then I'm out there every day refilling their water
1:19
and cleaning poop out of it, which kind of sucks. Anyway, this also comes with the drill bit that's the exact right size
1:25
I'll link to this exact set. it comes with, I don't even remember how many of these
1:30
We're going to have to open it up to find out. More than what I need. I'm going to put four on mine
1:35
It says use two to three nipples for up to six birds. I've got four on my current setup, and that's working just fine for me
1:43
So we're going to go with that. All right, there's a drill bit. Okay, this came with five, which is plenty
1:48
So, yeah, these are a little bit different than the ones I currently have on my feeder. In fact, the ones I have are right here
1:54
These ones kind of hanged downward, and then as they bump this, It lets another drip of water. It just always keeps like a drip of water right there on the tip of it
2:02
These ones, they come bump that and they get their drip of water right there, but you put them sideways like that
2:06
We're also going to want to use a one inch hole to drill a hole. I'm not going to need to drill the hole
2:11
It's already have a hole in my bucket. I'm rebuilding the one that I already had. Speaking of, you're going to want a bucket or some kind of water container
2:18
You can use any like water container that you want to. You could use those five gallon watering containers if you want to
2:24
This is just a cheap five-gallon bucket and it's been working great
2:29
We're going to use a drill because we have to drill some holes. And then let me tell you what I'm using for my pipe
2:36
This is just a 24-inch section of one-inch PVC. It's schedule 40, so it's the thicker stuff
2:43
You can see, it's not like the really, there's the really skinny PVC. I like the thicker stuff holds up a lot better
2:49
It doesn't crack as much in the sunlight nearly as quickly. I'm going to use a one-inch coupling
2:53
Now the specific components I'm using here to attach it to the bucket. I've tried a
2:58
couple different ways and this one worked absolutely the best for me. The coupling is
3:02
going to attach to one end and then the next thing that we're going to do is add
3:07
this one inch to three quarter inch bushing adapter So what that does this one inch adapter fits inside of a one inch coupling but then it comes out to a 3 quarter inch inside our female thread And then on the other side we going to use a regular 3 quarter inch threaded to
3:24
not threaded adapter. With copper, we call it sweat, but I don't remember for PVC if it's called something
3:30
else, but it's like what you would glue on. So the bucket is going to connect between here, okay
3:36
And I found this to work perfectly and then this opening that's here on the end is going
3:40
to be perfect for the water coming in. and flowing. Now, I do kind of let this, I don't totally let it hang. I rest to this other end on
3:48
something, but I do let it slope a little bit downward. So, I mean, I'm showing it to you
3:53
not really sloped downward, but to the side. But here, there you go. You can see now it's
3:58
sloped a little bit downward, maybe not quite that much, but I do want the water to be able to
4:02
flow and fill the pipe. On the end, we're going to put a cap. Now, I'm just trying to give you
4:08
the materials list, but I've basically shown you how to do all of this. I also, I also
4:11
I'm going to use a, this is a one inch O ring. That O ring is something I'm going to put right here
4:17
when I actually put all this together and that's going to help seal this and prevent water from
4:22
just pouring out the bottom. The other thing you could use if you can't find a one inch O ring or
4:27
you already have some laying around, you could use some silicon, just some silicon calk
4:33
Right. So I would use probably like window or kind of bathroom, something that's made for heavy
4:40
moisture and something that's really water repellent. I wouldn't use like your regular
4:45
paintable, what you would use on the outside of your house to fill in gaps, that kind of stuff
4:49
A little bit different kind of call. All right, let's go ahead and put this thing together. It's actually quite simple. Like I said, I've already shown you basically the whole thing. With one
4:56
exception, I haven't shown you actually putting these little nipples on. So let's start right
4:59
there. When we do this, we want to keep a few things in mind. One, that while this, this far end
5:05
with the cap on it is going to be resting on something. And so, you know, for me, it's resting on a
5:10
stick and so I need the closest one to not be right at the end. Okay. Likewise, this is going to be
5:16
coming through kind of the fencing in my case about right at the this end of the coupling. So if I
5:23
put one about a couple of inches in from where this coupling ends, I'm going to be in pretty
5:27
good shape. So that's kind of my space. So I'm going to put one here, one here, and then just
5:32
kind of space them evenly between there. I also am going to put them all on the same plane because
5:37
in my chicken coop that makes sense. This is going to be running kind of a long, the back of the coop. If it were kind of more out in the middle, I might put two on one side
5:46
and two on the other side. Just do it however makes the most sense for you
5:55
And you'll see I'm clearly not like overly obsessive about the spacing
6:06
Now I could have done this on a drill press. I could have done that with a jig or something that would hold this in place, but we're keeping it simple, folks. Simple. No need to complicate
6:18
All right. If I were making these like all day every day, I would probably do that. But I made like
6:23
this is my second time making this. You just don't need to do it very often. All right. The way that
6:28
these work you can just screw them right in If it like something with a thicker wall which this might kind of be the recommendation is to actually use this on the back
6:42
But of course, I can't get my fingers inside the PVC pipe to attach this little nut on the back
6:48
So we're just going to screw it straight in. The tricky part I found the last time I did this was getting them to start
6:55
These PVC's, you know, it's thick and hard. So getting those threads to start is tricky
7:04
There you go. Once we get it going, no problem. Now again, I'm coming in this direction
7:12
So for you, it would be this way. And I want this part that sticks out
7:17
Right there. I want that to be on top. So just as I'm tightening it down
7:21
that's something to keep in mind. Okay, that's looking. Good. I'm going to put the other three on and then I'll show you just finishing it up and putting it all together
7:32
Cool. Now, I may have to actually, because the way I do this, I run it kind of through their fence
7:40
I may end up having to actually finish assembling it for real there in person rather than here. But I'm going to assemble it right here now for you just to show you
7:51
First of all, there's the cap on the end. I'm going to press it on and give it a bit of a twist
7:55
and that's going to hold it on pretty tight. I'm doing that and I'm just not gluing it
7:59
And that gives me flexibility in the future to reuse these parts if I want to make it change to the system
8:05
But also, it's not under pressure. And since it's not, I mean, okay
8:10
it's under 12 inches of water, maybe 15 inches of water of pressure
8:15
It's just such a low amount of pressure. I don't really get leaking out through the ends
8:20
If you do get a little bit, just kind of twist it on a little like that. And that's on there pretty good and tight and solid
8:25
Likewise here, we can do the same. If you want to glue it, you can. We use PVC glue on water pipe all the time
8:33
Run some water through it after it's dried so that, you know, you rinse it out and that way the drinking water is to be clean for your chickens
8:42
And that's totally fine. Totally up to you. I just, I haven't and it hasn't been an issue so far
8:47
And that's allowing me to reuse the parts when I'm just replacing this PVC section so that I can replace
8:55
the nipples. And really I probably could have used the same PVC pipe if I wanted to as long as the
9:00
holes were either smaller or about the same size. Okay next we're going to take this bushing
9:07
adapter and we're going to stick that in and it can go all the way in. And that's going to be
9:15
in there pretty good. Like that's kind of tough to get out. I had to use both sets of pliers to
9:19
separate those before. This seems to want to come off most easily. This is probably the one I'd be
9:25
most likely to screw on there. Plus these couplings are super cheap. All right. Next, I'm going to take the
9:31
three quarter inch adapter and I'm going to just put my O ring on it. Again, you could do without
9:38
the O ring and you could just put it all together and then just put a bead of silicon calk on the
9:45
inside You could do it on the outside too and that be just fine Basically I just going to stick that through And the cool thing is by drilling in my hole right at about one inch it gives me it makes it so I can literally kind of screw this through
10:00
It doesn't leave a ton of extra space, which is pretty cool. Now, I probably could have gotten by with one set of pliers here
10:11
maybe even zero, because I can hand tighten that pretty taint-tight. but I can also use the pliers here to have one hold this on the inside and the other on the
10:33
outside and really tighten that down and that's gonna tighten down on that
10:38
o-ring and prevent leaking that joint right there is probably the It definitely from my experience has been the spot that's most likely to leak on you
10:50
Again, this is loose enough. I may end up just having to glue this one in
10:54
And that's okay with me. So I'll go ahead and do that when I set it up at home
10:58
But now we're good to go. So at this point, I could put it in place, fill this up with water, and test it
11:04
And it should work just fine. There is one more piece here. And that's just a lid for your bucket
11:08
Obviously, we don't want a bunch of crap falling in here. So I fill up the bucket. For the three chickens I have at my own house
11:14
This lasts a couple of weeks. Obviously, you're going to want to check on it fairly regularly, but it lasts a long time
11:20
But the bucket, you'll notice I just cut, I think I just use the utility knife, but I cut a slit, two slits here
11:28
And that allows me to have this little flap. What this little flap allows me to do is I can leave that closed, but I can run the cord out of it for the heater that I have
11:36
Here's a warmer that I use. It just sits right in the bottom of the bucket. And here in Idaho, I mean, this last winter
11:44
it got quite cold. I mean, I'm in the Treasure Valley, so it's not like incredibly cold
11:51
not like it gets in some parts of the state. But I never, ever, ever had any issue with the water freezing
11:58
except right, like I said, at these metal nipples where, I mean
12:04
there's no water flow through here very well. It's very slow flow, and these are going to get really cold
12:09
because they're completely exposed to the outside. So I'm hopeful that these ones
12:14
that are supposed to be resistant to freezing, they fix that and that they allow this one warmer
12:20
that I have in here to be enough and not have to figure out like some sort of pipe wrap or something
12:25
There's a bunch of options out there, but nothing that I've totally, that I love
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So I may have to keep looking if this doesn't work. I will say there are other ways to do this
12:34
My parents have done something similar, except they just put these literally on the bucket
12:39
That works great, too. The only issue with that is then the bucket is inside the chicken coop
12:43
So to refill it, I have to go inside. Not a big deal, but this is just so convenient that I like it this way
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