Poultry water trough

[Frank S]

Having any kind of pets farm animals or livestock of any kind means you give up many freedoms. You can not simply wake up one morning and decide that you are going fishing for a month or what ever. Without first making preparations for your animals
Well I'm not making any plans to be away for any extended period of time but having to fill the chickens 3 gallon water can twice a day is getting a little old. And with these 100+ ° days I sure don't want them to run out of water.
My solution was a little pricey but not much more than another 3 gallon water thing would have been
I used a 5 ft section of 4" SCH 40 PVC pipe 2 end caps and a compact low pressure float valve.
Then to further simplify the daily watering task I re-purposed a 55 gallon barrel and an old frame from a generator set to serve as a storage tank.

I cut a small grove in the end caps then used RTV sealant instead of cementing them on the pipe the grove serves as an o ring grove I can hammer off the caps and reinstall them if need ed without them leaking

The water tank is now portable being mounted on the generator frame so I can move it out of my way when IF the grass ever needs mowing again.
I could also use the cart and the tank to transport water to anywhere I need a few gallons of water or mount my pressure sprayer underneath with a 5 gallon chemical container for spraying insecticides herbicides or fertilizer
So additionally to being an onsite water storage unit it can be used for multipurpose.

[rossbotics]

Ingenuity, that should give you a little break

Doug

[Frank S]

Thanks Doug, I can refill the tank by a hose plus the tank is connected to the trough by a washing machine hose so if there comes a time when we know we are going to be away for an extended period of time all I have to do is stretch a 100 ft garden hose out there and connect it to the hose on the trough then just leave the hose turned on to a trickle the float valve will do the rest.

[DIYer]

Thanks Frank S! We've added your Water Trough to our Farm and Garden category,
as well as to your builder page: Frank S's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Water Trough by Frank S

tags: drum, portable, farm tools

[Frank S]

This has been in continuous use for a year now but I have had to replace the float valve twice I think a lot of that is the pressure is so low coming from the storage barrel that allows it to gum up and fail. Plus chickens have to be the nastiest creatures on the planet. but their droppings makes nice fertilizer