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We recently constructed our rain barrel and automatic chicken watering system to create a sustainable water supply for our chicken coop and feed preparation area.
We invested a good day’s worth of work putting together the rain barrel itself, plus the stand, gutter system, and the automatic watering configuration. It was well worth the effort considering the amount of free water we’ll be collecting. In the near future, we intend to daisy-chain a few more rain barrels off the main barrel to have additional sources of water near our home. With 20 feet of gutters collecting water, I’m sure we can make a pretty interesting array of rain barrels.
For now, the one barrel is doing its job well and after a few days of light rain and an afternoon of heavy rain, I’m happy to see the barrel collecting almost its max amount of 55-gallons!
The only issue I’ve seen come out of this project was one that we foresaw happening with the poultry watering nipples we’re using on the outdoor watering station. As we mentioned in our previous video, these nipples tend to leak. That became pretty clear when water started going through the system. We’ll either have to take the outdoor system off or figure out a way to keep them from leaking. For now, we’ll simply put down some pea gravel to keep that area from getting too saturated.
Overall, we’re happy with our build out and looking forward to expanding the system in the coming months. Stay tuned for those updates!
