Green Machine Farm

Ok, so this is a pretty minor update, no major overhauls or anything.

Even with the adjustments that I did last time with the Mega-waterer, we still had a problem with excess moisture making it’s way into the bedding. It’s not that the nipples were leaking, but the chickens weren’t the most efficient drinkers.  The chickens peck at the nipple to release water.  Unfortunately, they don’t drink every drop that they release, and a few drops end up falling down into the bedding.

A few drops isn’t a big deal, but multiply those few drops by 50 chickens drinking several times per day, and you end up with enough water to cause a problem. Ideally I could just get smarter chickens that would figure out how to drink more efficiently, but chickens aren’t exactly known for their mental prowess.

If only I could come up with some sort of pan to catch the drips that’s slightly larger than the (21″ diameter) barrel.

Say maybe a 24″ water heater pan?

$9 and done.

Despite the best efforts of a flock of ornery chickens, the bedding remains dry, the drain pan stays just damp.

Oh, and having just been through one of the longest Minnesota winters on record, I’m happy to report that the Mega-waterer (in all it’s iterations) performed admirably in below-freezing temperatures.  Throw a stock-tank heater in there and nary a single frozen nipple was witnessed all winter long.

So I’ve had the Chicken Mega-Waterer up and running for the past two weeks, and as I feared, a problem arose.

It turns out that with the nipple-waters at a 90° angle, there isn’t enough water pressure to keep the nipple “shut” when the water level gets low.  I filled the barrel up with about 40 gallons of water, and everything went great.  That is, until the water level dropped to 15 gallons.

With 15 gallons in the barrel there just isn’t enough water pressure to shut the valves after the chickens peck them open.  That means that once you dip below 15 gallons, the rest of the water leaks out from every nipple ’til there’s nothing left.  Water everywhere.  Not good.

So, say hi to the chicken mega-waterer v1.2.

Starting with a fresh barrel (don’t worry Tim, the old one is getting recycled into a feed-barrel).
The only difference is that I put the nipples in at a 45° angle around the bottom edge of the barrel. Same measurements, same hole size, pipe dope, easy.

The only problem is that you have to make a special stand to put the barrel on so that all the nipples are accessable.

It’s not too hard, just a 21″ circle cut out of some 1/2″ pressure-treated plywood, resting on top of some 4″x4″ legs to get it up to chicken height.

The chickens were happy to have their mega-waterer back, and it didn’t leak at all, even with only 5 gallons in the barrel.  At a 45° angle, the nipples have the weight of the internal rod/valve and all the water pressure to keep them closed.  Much better.

UPDATE: see Chicken Mega-Waterer v1.3 for the most recent version.

I’ve been using Little Giant double-wall poultry founts for several years.  They’re the best commercially-available founts that I’ve found so far, but they leave a lot to be desired.  The double-wall founts are durable, large-ish capacity (2, 5, and 8 gallon varieties) and have the ability to be used with a heated base to keep them from freezing up in the winter.   I’ve been using a 5 gallon fount with a heated base all winter, and I’m getting tired of it.

Chickens are absolute masters at finding creative ways to poop in their own water, which they do quite easily with the double-wall founts.  That big lip on the bottom must make an awfully inviting chicken-poop target because they seem to hit it with some regularity.  Getting the fount off the ground helps, but you can’t hang the bigger 5 and 8 gallon founts by the handle, per the manufacturers stern warnings.

Plus, at this point, I’m refilling the 5 gallon fount every day.  Our 55 or so chickens totally drain it when it gets cold, which makes the heated base not work so well.

To it’s credit, the heated base is only rated to keep the thing thawed to 10° which is pretty accurate if you keep the fount full of water.
However, here in Minnesota we’ve got our share of days that don’t see a high temperature of ten. On the coldest days I’ve been out trying to defrost the thing with a propane torch enough to get it open so I can refill it.  That’s easier said than done, especially at -10° when my propane torch quits working due to the cold.
Grrrr..

Anyhow, this got me thinking about making a new mega-chicken-waterer.  I used some small nipple-waterers last summer with the broiler chickens with great success.  Chickens, in spite of all their pooping creativity, cannot figure out how to poop on one of these little things.  But what vessel to attach them to?

This 55 gallon plastic barrel ought to do quite nicely. You’ll want a food-grade barrel, you know, one that used to hold some sort of food product. This one used to have Anatto food coloring in it. Back in the day I got one that had caramel flavoring from a Quaker Oats rice-cake factory. It smelled purdy.

Then get yourself a few of these bad boys.

I got 10 of them for this particular waterer. They’re supposedly good for 10-12 birds each, so that should put me at a 100-120 bird capacity with this one waterer.

So there are already some handy rings around the barrel demarcating the volume. All that’s left to do is mark 10 evenly spaced holes to be drilled.

I measured the circumference of the barrel with a string, then measured the string: 71 inches. 71/10=7.1
So if we make a mark every 7 1/8″ then we oughtta be pretty close to evenly spaced. An alcohol prep-pad totally takes off the permanent marker if you screw up like I did…

Anyhow, then you gotta drill some holes. Ten of them to be exact. You need a 11/32″ drill bit for the job. I know it’s a strange size, but don’t risk the leaking, just go get one.

Now it’s time to install those little dudes. Get them all doped up first.

Yes, pipe dope, a.k.a. Teflon pipe thread compound. It’s thick and pasty, it seals better and is generally a lot less of a pain in the butt to use than Teflon tape.

Now about getting all that water in there…
Let’s cut a big hole in the top, shall we?

That ought to help fill it up with water. But what about the freezing? That’s what stock-tank de-icers are for. I’ve got one for the pigs that I really like. It’s made by Farm Innovators and the guys at the local Co-op say they’re the bees-knees. They look well-built, and the pigs water has remained very liquid even when it’s -10° so I’d say they’ll probably work for the chickens as well.  The box claims that the 1500w heater will keep 50 gallons of water ice-free down to -20°.  That oughtta work.

To save some energy I wanted a cover for the top. Heat rises, and if I can at least insulate the top then it will cut down on the energy needed for the de-icer. I thought about making a lid out of 1/2″ plywood, but then I found this handy-sized trashcan lid just lying around.

With a few chunks of pink foamboard insulation under the lid, we ought to be in good shape. I’ll probably end up wrapping the barrel with insulation at some point like bubble-foil or just a water-heater blanket.

All that’s left to do is move it out to the barn, plug in the de-icer and start hauling buckets of water.

Lots of buckets of water…

I was a bit worried when I first started using the nipple-style waterers that the chickens wouldn’t figure them out. That’s never actually been a problem. They see the bright red nipples and their curiosity gets the best of them. The chickens actually seem to enjoy messing with the nipples, so much so that they waste a bit of water for the first few days, then the novelty wears off and they get on with their lives.

This is the first time I’ve used the nipples in a horizontal position. They don’t actually leak any water, but it seems that the chickens are wasting a little more because the water doesn’t “flow” down to the end of the plunger like it does when it’s all pointing down at the ground. I don’t want to have as much water wasted as there’s been in the past few days. It’s not enough to make any difference in how much I have to haul out to them, but it’s enough to wet the woodchips under the waterer. I’d like to keep the chips dry.

It may be a matter of raising the barrel up higher or it might call for a rebuild with another barrel, pointing the nipples down at a slight angle.

We’ll see how it goes.

UPDATE: see Chicken Mega-Waterer v1.2 for the most recent version.

Most days I’m at home alone with the baby while Callina’s at work.  This is all works out pretty well because I really kinda like the baby for some reason.  Every day at 10 and 2 I put the muchkin down for a nap and go on out to do my farm chores and projects. The days when the baby sleeps for 2-3 hours at a stretch I can actually start to get some stuff done around the farm.

Still, I’m running into a problem that keeps me from being able to do some projects: The baby monitor.

I take the baby monitor outside with me so I know when the kid wakes up.  The problem is that the monitor, despite having excellent reviews on Amazon pertaining to it’s range, is pretty limiting.  I can get it about 75 feet from the front door before it gives me the “out of range” beep.

That limits me to the garage, the upper part of the woodshed, and maybe inside the barn if I crank the volume on the monitor all the way up.  75 feet outdoors might cut it in the city, where that’s likely to be your property line, but out here on the farm 75 feet isn’t going to cut it.

So, I cracked open the case on the transmitter to see what improvements could be made.

Right away I noticed that the antenna was rather puny, just as I had suspected. As with most any radio, there are two ways to boost your range, either increase the power, or increase efficiency of the antenna.  Power is usually pretty complex to deal with, not to mention regulated by the FCC.  Antennas are completely fair game, and pretty simple to construct.

These monitors operate at 900mhz, which means that a full-wavelength antenna would be 13.125″ long, or 33.3cm (if that’s your thing).  The antenna on the transmitter is a 1/4 wavelength.  The smaller the antenna, the less gain it has (less gain = less range) up to one full wavelength.

I could probably get a decent improvement in range simply by replacing the 1/4 wave antenna with a longer full-wave one.  If I wanted even more range, I could make a high-gain directional antenna, but an omni-directional signal is pretty important here because I’m using the monitor all around the house.

All it takes is a 13.125″ length of wire with one end stripped. Unsolder the stock 1/4 wave antenna, and solder the 13″ wire in it’s place.

I had to poke a hole in the rubbery-thing to get the longer antenna wire out, but other than that it all went back together the same way it came apart.

Wash, rinse, and repeat with the Receiver part of the monitor.

Now I have a solid 100 feet of range in all directions outside the house, with an even greater range (about 200 feet) where I have a direct line of sight to the baby’s room.  Basically, I can work on or in any building on the farm without being out of range.

Hopefully, with this little modification done, I can start getting more stuff done around the farm.

At least as long as the baby stays asleep…

Oh, and one more thing: since this obviously pertains to something that’ll be around a baby, be careful.  Keep it out of your tykes reach so they won’t wrap the wire around their neck or anything.  Proceed with caution, at your own risk, bla bla bla.

So after our energy audit, I realized that I’ve got a few access doors or hatches that need to be sealed off.  I’ve got an attic access door, and the little access door to the crawlspace underneath the living room.  We’ve also got one of those old-school through-the-wall ventilation fans in the upstairs bathroom, that needs some sort of cover too.

I’ve got a method that I like for making these sorts of insulating covers. I’ve made a few in the past, mainly as attic-fan covers.  You can buy attic-fan covers in home-improvement stores, but by-in-large they are chintzy pieces of junk.  You can make one yourself for fairly cheap that seals up better and packs a lot more “R” value to it.

First up, you’ll need some foam-board insulation.  I much prefer the extruded pink stuff (it can be blue or green too, but it’s all about R-5 per inch).  Much less appealing is the white foam board, it’s less insulating, falls apart easily and is generally a pain to work with.  I used a bit of white foam board because I found a few full sheets of it laying around the garage.  If it’s free I might as well use it, right?

Anyway, measure all your openings and cut out your pieces. If you’ve got several to cut, mark the dimensions on each piece so you won’t forget what size they are later. You can cut extruded foamboard with a utility knife.  You don’t have to cut all the way through. Just cut halfway through and snap it over the edge of a table or something.

If you’re unfortunate enough to be working with the white foamboard, then don’t try to cut it with a knife unless you want those little foam pellets stuck to everything you own.  Instead, you’ll need a thin, rigid piece of metal such as a hacksaw blade (I used an absurdly long sawzall blade).  Heat up your “blade” with a torch, holding it with pliers or vice-grips so’s you don’t burn yourself.  When it’s hot enough it’ll cut through the white foamboard like butter.  It’s a pain in the butt, and it smells terrible, so cut it outside or just stick to the pink foamboard if at all possible.

Glue up a few pieces to get the profile you need to fit the particular access door you’re working on. For most attic fans and such you’ll only need one slab of foam cut a few inches bigger than the frame of the fan. Other access doors like the one to my crawlspace will need two pieces of foamboard. Glue them with either liquid nails or hot glue.

After it’s glued up, test fit it to the access door to make sure it all fits.  If it doesn’t fit, trim the offending bits with a utility knife until it does.

Next up, add some weatherstripping.  Don’t get all crazy with some high priced weatherstripping, just get the cheap foam weatherstripping.  Foam weatherstripping is nearly useless for windows & doors, but it’s perfect for this kind of thing.

After applying the weatherstripping do another test fitting to make sure the weatherstrip is actually compressed a little bit when the cover is fitted.

So, if your spiffy new cover fits tightly enough that it’ll stay where it belongs, then congratulations!  You’re done!

If you’ve got a ventilation fan, attic fan, or something that protrudes from the wall or ceiling, then you’ll need some magnets to hold the new cover on.  I like these little 3/4″ and 1″ ceramic disc magnets that I get from the hardware store.  Hot glue those babies on the back of your foamboard and you’re good to go. Don’t cheap out on the magnets.  They’re not that expensive, so put quite a few on there to hold everything. There’s nothing more annoying than a cover popping off every time there’s a gust of wind outside.

I had the little cover on the bathroom ventilation fan during our home energy audit.  The blower door test supposedly simulated a 15mph wind against all sides of the house.  I’m happy to report that the vent-fan cover stayed put through all of it without a trace of air leaking through.

To finish it all off and make it look presentable you can paint it to match the room.  The pink foamboard takes paint quite well.  White foamboard? Not so much.  And if you really want to get fancy you can bevel the edge with a utility knife, just make sure it’s a new blade so you won’t gnarl the foam up too much.

Happy insulating!

So we already built plenty of Bluebird houses, good work!
But as we discussed earlier, bluebirds mainly eat bugs that are at ground level. So while that may work great for your garden, fields or high-tunnels, it doesn’t do much to keep all those flies off of your livestock.
To get those flies under control we need a different kind of bird.
We need swallows.

Swallows, at least where I’m from, come in two varieties. There are Barn Swallows and Tree Swallows.  They both eat a heap of flying insects, and they both feed right where we need them to, from 1-12 feet off the ground.

Now if you’ve ever been around a farm much, you’ve probably seen plenty of barn swallows.  They’re the little guys who build mud nests under the eaves of barns, houses, or any other building that suits them.  Short of building more barns, we’re going to have a tough time making more habitat for them, but I’ve got a few ideas that I want to try…later.

As for Tree Swallows, they are another cavity-nester.  This means that they just need a box with a hole in it to feel right at home. So lets make them feel welcome, shall we?

First, download the plans here.

Materials:

One 3′ x 1″ x 6″ Pressure Treated board (around $2 if you buy it 12′ at a time)

One 3′ x 1″ x 8″ Pressure Treated board (around $2.50 if you buy it 12′ at a time)

Thirteen 1.75″ Triple-coated Deck screws ( around $0.80)

So materials-wise, each house will set you back $5.30, not bad for all the flies you’ll be getting rid of!

Once you’ve got all the pieces cut out, let’s start putting them together!

First we attach the sides to the back board, leaving a gap up top for ventilation.

Next, attach the bottom, with three screws, one from each side, and one from the back.

Now we attach the front, with the scratched-up side facing in.  Secure it with two screws, at the top, so that it hinges out for hanging, cleaning and maintenance.  Make sure to pre-drill and/or countersink these two holes so that you don’t split the wood.

Some birdhouse designs use a “keeper nail” to keep the front shut, but I just make sure the screws are tightened up real good.  If I have trouble prying it open, then It’s tight enough that no gust of wind or predator is going to get it open.

And last but not least, put the roof on, and make sure it’s flush with the back edge of the house.  It should overlap each of the sides by about 1/8th of an inch.

Now go hang up all those birdhouses!  Tree Swallows are apparently fairly territorial (with other tree swallows) so keep the boxes 100 feet apart, and 6-7 feet off the ground.  Remember, that you probably want to put these boxes out in your pasture, so they’re out there eating all those flies that were bugging your livestock.  Keep them away from the house to minimize problems with house sparrows!