Although their cleanliness is a bonus, I have
to admit that my favorite part of Mark’s automatic chicken waterer
invention is the way they allow us to take trips away from the farm
without worrying.  When we used traditional chicken waterers a
couple of years ago, I was afraid to leave our girls unattended for
more than a day at a time.  Now, we have no problem spending up to
four days away from home.



It’s pretty simple to
know how long your Avian Aqua Miser will last.  Each chicken
drinks a little less than half a cup on a cool day, but I like to
figure a cup or two a day apiece just to be on the safe side.  A
pre-made Avian Aqua Miser holds 16 cups, so it will safely water one
bird for at least 8 days.  We throw an extra waterer in each
tractor when we’re heading out of town, but if you’ve made a bucket waterer
you may not need to add any extra water at all.  Wouldn’t it be
nice to make those holiday visits without worrying about your chickens
going thirsty?

Here in zone 6, we’re able to
leave our chickens out in their tractors all year.  We have a
water- and wind-proof section where they can roost at night (or during
drippy days), and we never see any sign of our chickens being too
cold.  In fact, tractor life seems to suit them — their yolks
are still as orange as summer eggs even though it’s the middle of
December.



We do make a couple of
changes to prepare our chickens for winter, though.  As the days
get chilly, we flip our tractors 180 degrees around so that the sun can
shine directly in.  (During the summer, we put the solid side to
the sun so that our birds have some shade.)  We are also more
careful to move the tractors every day, since cold, wet soil can
quickly be churned into a morass of mud.



And, of course, we have
to be a bit more vigilant to
prevent our chickens’ waterers from freezing.  Still, care of our
nine hens probably takes no more than ten minutes a day, thanks to our automatic chicken waterers and Mark’s handy
tractor-building skills.  I always recommend that folks make the
switch from coop to tractor as soon as possible!