We make a drinker for chickens with our own hands from scrap materials
Like any other living creature, poultry needs not only food, warmth and lighting, but also enough clean water. A hand-made chick drinker will help meet all the needs of birds and save money that is never superfluous.
Today in specialized stores there is no shortage of equipment for arranging poultry houses and poultry areas. And yet, poultry farmers show a genuine interest in homemade designs. This is due to their simplicity and the availability of components used in the work.
How to make a chick drinker? What do you need to know and what to stock up on before starting work?
First of all, you should calculate the need of your wards in water and determine what type of drinkers are best made for the livestock.
The amount of water drunk by chickens depends on their age, housing conditions and feeding. The average amount of moisture consumed is usually taken as 0.5 liters. The height of the equipment is determined based on the type of drinker and the age of the chick. Read:drinker for chickens do it yourself!
Novice poultry farmers, without thinking about the consequences, sometimes put open containers of water to the bird, thereby making several serious mistakes:
- On hot days, moisture evaporates quickly and chicks may become thirsty in the evening without proper control.
- It is possible that active chicks or adult chickens will overturn the vessel and remain without water at all.
- Open homemade drinking bowls for chickens are dangerous because, once in them, small chicks can not only get wet and overcooled, but also drown.
- In open drinkers, dust and insects, particles of droppings and litter must settle, a pathogenic environment develops, which is dangerous for drinking birds.
The simplest drinker for chickens from a plastic bottle
If such a design is the only acceptable solution, then you need to try to make the drinking holes very small, suitable for one or two birds.
An example is a chick drinker made from a 1.5 liter or 2 liter plastic bottle.
Several holes are carefully cut on a vessel fixed in a horizontal position so that it is convenient for the chicks to drink from a container half-filled with water. Too large drinking holes should not be made so that a curious bird cannot climb into a hand-made chick drinker, and particles of feed and bedding do not get into the water.
Similarly, for large poultry houses, drinkers are made from 100 mm sewer pipes. A sufficient number of holes are cut along the pipe on the plastic for the birds being raised, the ends of the pipe are closed with plugs, and a homemade chick drinker is ready for wall mounting, hanging or installation on the floor. When choosing a method, the size and age of the birds being raised are taken into account.
With the incredible simplicity and low cost of such devices, nipple and vacuum designs are much safer and more practical. The water in them is in a closed vessel, protected from contamination and is supplied exactly as much as needed by thirsty pets.
Vacuum homemade chick drinker
How to make a closed type chick drinker with your own hands? Oddly enough, these designs are no more expensive or more complicated than the varieties already described.
Diagram of a self-made vacuum drinker for chickens: 1 - glass jar; 2 - water level in the vessel; 3 - tray for drinking; 4 - a stable moisture-resistant stand for the jar.
This type of vacuum structure is a stand-alone device. It is easy to install without the use of any tools, it is even easier to maintain and change if necessary.
Vacuum drinkers are best for very young chicks who live, drink and feed on the floor. You can install a do-it-yourself drinking bowl for chickens both in the poultry house and on the walk, the main thing is that the structure of the pallet and the water tank is stable.
A similar drinker can be made from cheap available plastic bottles and other disposable tableware.
An option for a home-made drinker for chickens from: 1 -misk or cut bottom from a large plastic container; 2 - plastic bottle; 3 - bottle caps; 4 - self-tapping screw securing the bowl and bottle; 6 - fasteners for hanging the finished drinker. To maintain the water level in the bowl, a hole (5) is made in the neck of the bottle below the top edge of the tray.
You can fill in water by simply unscrewing the lid. The bottom pan is replenished on its own due to the pressure difference that occurs as the moisture in the bowl decreases.
Chick nipple drinker
For older birds, nipple drinkers can be made, in which the inhabitants of the poultry house do not have direct contact with water, and drinking moisture is supplied only "at the request" of the birds.
However, there is a nipple drinker for chickens and a drawback. Since such a device can simultaneously water only a strictly limited number of chicks, on hot days or after feeding, a crush is possible at the drinkers. To avoid this, the bird's need for nipple drinkers for chicks must be carefully calculated.
From a plastic bottle drinker for chickens it is very simple. A hole is drilled in the lid into which a nipple is installed, which, for strength, is best sealed with a sealant or FUM tape. The drinker hangs in a place convenient for the bird, it is easy to clean and refills as it is empty.
A similar design is made not from a relatively small bottle, but from a bucket, canister or other large plastic container. This option is convenient in that several nipple drinkers can be made around the circumference of the bucket. For the convenience of the bird and keeping the bedding dry, ready-made or homemade drip pans are attached to them.
The largest and most expensive design is obtained from a piece of plastic sewer pipe, end caps, several nipple drinkers, brackets for hanging equipment and drip trays.
On the pipe, holes for the nipples are drilled at a distance of 20–30 cm from one another so that drinking birds do not interfere with each other. Then the installation of the nipples is carried out, the attachment of the drainage water catchers and the installation of a nipple drinker for chickens at their destination.
If desired, such a drinking bowl can be connected to the water supply network, which will facilitate its filling and flushing.
All the described varieties of homemade chick drinkers are easy to manufacture and do not require special knowledge from the poultry farmer. However, before starting work, it is better to watch a video about creating a drinker for chickens with your own hands. After that, the work will go faster, the last difficulties and questions will disappear.