Category: Chicken Waterers

Last week, I summed up our previous experiments with heated bucket waterers and mentioned that we’re trying version 2.0 this year. Mark and I considered trying to make this heated chicken waterer a premade product that you can buy on our website, but we couldn’t figure out a way to make it cheap enough to be worth your while.  So, instead, Mark decided to give it away.  The video above (starting around 2 minutes and 45 seconds in) walks you through creating our new-and-improved heated chicken waterer.  Supplies you’ll need include:

• Chicken nipples
• Farm Innovators 2-Gallon Heated Bucket Waterer
  
• Drill, plus 23/64-inch and 1/4-inch drill bits (These are different from the one that comes in your kit!)
• Lid for a 2-gallon bucket (plus cabinet knob and scrap piece of wood if you want a handle)
• Wrench (or pliers) to tighten in the chicken nipple, needle-nose pliers to bend down the wire, and wire-cutting pliers to cut the wire

In addition, if you don’t drill your hole well (and this one can be a little tricky), you’ll need some kind of sealant to keep the waterer from leaking around the nipple.  Mark’s favorite choices there include plumber’s tape and Rectorseal #5 Pipe Thread Sealant. Don’t go out and buy sealant right away, though, because if you’re good with your tools, you should be able to make the heated chicken waterer without it.

I hope several of you try out this design and report back.  I’d love to hear how it holds up in different parts of the country (and world!).

Casey B. built this nice milk jug chick waterer from one of our kits.

Keeping the container small makes it easy to raise as the chicks grow.

It’s best to stabilize a light container like this. Hanging it from a string would create a considerable amount of swinging.