Chicken Coop Designs: Watering
Chickens and all other animals need water to stay alive. There are a lot of choices you can pick in watering your chickens but you must think of it first for watering them can also cause harm to your chickens. Of course one way or another you’ll likely get those chickens their water, but let’s take a look at the best ways to go about it.
It is important to have a clean water supply near the coop, and the best way to do that, is to have a hose near the coop. Some people who have big chicken coops will want to install a faucet or actual sink inside the coop. As far as chicken coop designs go, that setup is fairly sound since you won’t have to trudge across the yard several times just to get water. If you really feel like it, you could even install a water filtration device to ensure that your chickens get only the best water.
Delivering water to the chickens can be either simple, or extremely complicated. There are some who would purchase a watering device and some would just put a tub of water in the coop. The watering devices consist of a silo-like body that contains water. It has a trough surrounding it to which the water is delivered, and the chickens are able to partake of it. The water is ejected through a hole and kept from flooding out. These containers can be of any size depending on the number of chickens that you have who will use the containers. Remember that chicken also drink fast so if you’ll have small container for their water then you would have to refill it more often. They may be small, but they really can drink a lot.
A much more interesting delivery system, and one that will take a lot of time and money as far as chicken coop designs go, would be an intricate waterworks system. The system would consist of pipes to a watering bowl and a large water tank. Such systems are usually homemade and expensive to implement. With a huge water supply outside the coop, you’ll have a good way to water your chickens.
The final thing you need to consider, is whether or not you’ll have the water on the ground. If you put the watering bowl in the ground you’ll have few problems. The first issue, is that chickens are barely conscious of there they use the bathroom. This means that they could do it on the ground, or just as easily in their water supply, therefore by having the water supply high up, you’ll stop them from soiling their water. However, you’ll have to think that chickens like to scratch and if your bedding is in their way then they would likely scrape the bedding into the water. Once again, having the trough high up will solve this issue, and is one of the best chicken coop designs you can come up with.
