Since I’ve been making a few of them this week, I thought I’d share my method of making a pasture chicken waterer. It’s very clean (very important with meat chickens), cheap, easy to use and pretty excellent in any above-freezing situation.
First up, we start with a 5′ length of 1″ PVC pipe. I mark 3″ from the end, then another mark every 6″. That ought to add up to 10 marks, on which to drill ten 11/32″ holes.
After threading in ten nipple-style poultry drinkers, glue on two 3/4″ Male thread adapters (one on each end).
Next up, drill a 15/16″ hole in the bottom of a plastic bucket, and screw in a 5/8″ barbed fitting. The barbed fitting in the photo is pretty grungy because I literally found it lying on the ground. Lucky me, I saved $0.87 but the found fitting leaks, so lets just call it a wash.
Then attach a short length of hose to the barb. Add on a 3/4″ female hose bib so you can attach it to the PVC pipe with all the nipples.
At the very end, add a 3/4″ hose cap to stop all the water from flowing right out through the end. That should make it easy to flush out if you should feel the need. Also, it should make it possible to daisy-chain several waterers together with another length of hose, sorta like Terrell Spencer is doing at Across the Creek Farm. There’s a pretty good explanation of Terrell’s setup somewhere buried in this webinar (now on youtube).
Anyway, how much does one of these bad boys cost? Right at $14.60 and a half hour of your time. Not bad for a 5 gallon waterer that stays clean and can handle 100+ birds.
