Types and installation of drinking bowls for chickens, how to do it yourself
Drinking bowls with water for chickens are an obligatory element of the internal arrangement of any poultry house. The containers can be made independently or purchased from agricultural stores. When choosing, it is important to consider a number of parameters in order to provide the chicks with comfort.
What should be the chick drinker?
Unlike drinking bowls for chicks, chick containers should be shallow to prevent chicks from choking or drowning. To prevent dangerous situations, it is recommended to use closed drinkers, which have the following advantages:
- foreign elements (feed residues, droppings, pieces of flooring, dust) do not enter the drinking water;
- broilers cannot turn containers;
- water evaporates much more slowly than in an open type drinker.
Types of drinkers
Depending on the water supply mechanism, appearance and design features, drinkers are divided into several varieties. To choose the appropriate option, you should familiarize yourself with the characteristics of different containers.
From a plastic bottle
The most budgetary option is a drinker made from a plastic bottle of any size. For manufacturing you need:
- disinfect the jar and cut off the top at a distance of more than 5 cm from the lid;
- fasten the second bottle of small volume to the container from the inside with screws;
- make small cuts at a distance of 5-10 cm from the neck of the smaller bottle;
- fix the structure to the wall of the hen house and fill it with liquid.
The main advantages of a plastic container are ease of manufacture, minimal costs and the ability to drink large livestock. Disadvantages include quick contamination and the risk of rollover.
Vacuum
Vacuum-type devices are suitable for chicks in the first weeks of development, when they live and drink water exclusively on the floor. The mechanism of action of the vacuum structure assumes constant filling with liquid due to the generated vacuum.
To assemble the drinker, you need to take a 3 L jar, bowl and stands. To build a drinking bowl, it is enough to pour clean water into a jar, fix the bottom of the bowl on the neck of the jar, and then turn the jar over and fix it on supports.
You can install a vacuum structure inside the chicken coop or on the territory of the walking yard. The container can be easily fixed without the use of special tools.Maintenance and replacement of the structure does not take much time and effort.
Nipple
Nipple varieties are considered the most modern and convenient. They are ideal for watering boilers that need a lot of liquid. To service the drip tank, you just need to regularly pour water into it.
To make a simple type of nipple design, you need to prepare a plastic container and drill holes for the nipples in it. Then it remains to make the thread, screw in the nipples and press the junction with Teflon thread. They attach the finished structure at the level of the chicks' head so that they reach the nipples with their beak.
Autodrinkers
In automatic drinkers, it is possible to fill the container as it is emptied. As soon as the chicks drink some of the water, the volume will be filled from the bottle. To create automatic varieties, use a shallow tray, a 1.5 L plastic bottle and fasteners to fix the structure. To build a device, you need:
- fasten the clamps to the walls of the tray, which will further hold the plastic vessel;
- fill the bottle with liquid and insert into the clips with the neck down so that the distance to the bottom remains 0.5 cm.
Thanks to the ease of use, drinking bowls are widely used on private farms and on an industrial scale. When manufacturing the device, it is important to correctly size the tray. It should not be too wide, and the sides should not be too low. Otherwise, the chicks will be able to completely crawl inside.
DIY making
The ability to make a do-it-yourself drinker for chicks allows you to make any variety, taking into account your own requirements. The manufacturing process directly depends on the type of construction and the method of water supply.
Tools and materials
The list of materials and a set of tools required for the manufacture of homemade drinkers is compiled depending on the required version of the device. To build a standard variety, it is enough to prepare a couple of plastic bottles, fasteners and a knife for making holes. If you want to make more complex devices, additional devices may be required.
Step-by-step instruction
The creation and installation process varies for each drinker variant. Since many private households use a siphon subspecies of a vacuum design, an example of creating such a device can be considered.
The instructions for creating include the following steps:
- A bowl is placed on the floor and 2 sticks are placed in it, the length of which depends on the dimensions of the neck and the dimensions of the container itself.
- The bottle is filled with water and covered with a bowl on top, opening the neck of the container with chopsticks.
- The plastic bottle with the bowl is turned over and fixed to a vertical surface. You can use wire or strong ropes as an attachment.
Frost protection, how to insulate
In the cold season, the drinking bowls need to be heated so that the water is not covered with ice. To do this, you can use a cable that is usually used in heated floors. The cable is wrapped around the container, all connections are carefully insulated and connected to the network.
Drinking chicks
Chickens are curious and at an early age begin to peck at everything. When using nipple drinkers, chicks are attracted to shiny nipples. It is important to install suitable nipples that respond to every touch and deliver water.
It is recommended to add tea leaves to vacuum structures, which will attract the attention of chickens. Having tried to glue the tea leaf, the chicken will understand that liquid can be drunk from the container.
In micro-bowl constructions, a ball is thrown to the bottom, which ensures the minimum opening of the valve and the dripping of water. This method also helps attract chicks.
Selection errors
Novice farmers with little experience in raising and keeping chickens often make standard mistakes when choosing drinkers for chickens. Common mistakes include the following:
- the use of containers that are too deep, due to which the chicks are completely immersed in water and, as a result, freeze or drown;
- purchase of drinkers with a small volume, which is not enough for the farmed livestock;
- installation of drinkers without a heating element in an unheated room, as a result of which the water freezes;
- purchase of a structure that is not suitable for installation in a poultry house due to design features.
