I just thought I’d put up a few photos I took of our homemade chicken waterer, MK2, while I was sorting out the rhubarb champagne the other day. Now I know this is nothing particularly revolutionary, but given that the equivalent commercial product can cost anything up to £40, I thought I’d share just in case it’s helpful to somebody.
The MK2 is, funnily enough, the successor to the MK1, which was really just a 5 litre bottle with an 8mm hole drilled in the bottom!:
The bottle sits in a plastic tray, and due to the effect of a vacuum building in the bottle as the water drains out, the water level magically stays just below the rim of the tray, and tops up automatically as the hens drink.
So, although the MK1 was meant to be a temporary measure until I sorted out something better, in the end it lasted for almost a year, until the MK2 was born!
This was made very easily from an old home-brew pressure barrel, which was being thrown out because the CO2 injector on the lid was broken.
To change it into a chicken waterer, I first removed the CO2 injector, and sealed the hole in the lid with a nut, some penny washers, and a tap washer, and then replaced the original wire handle, which was also broken:
I then unscrewed the tap on the bottom, and fitted a reducing bush from a hose kit into the hole (it’s a standard pipe-thread). I drilled a hole in a copper plumbing plug to act as the water outlet, and then fitted this through a small plastic tub with a hole drilled in it, sealing with rubber washers both sides, before screwing the whole assembly into the barrel.
And there you have it! A deluxe poultry drinker, for half an hour’s work, and at a cost of less than a pound.
This principle can be followed with any container rigid enough not to collapse under the slight vacuum produced. The small tub is easily cleaned out by running a finger around the inside to dislodge any dirt, followed by pouring a litre of water into it from a height to flush out any debris. Best of all, it only needs to be filled up every couple of weeks, and because it’s black, there aren’t the same issues with algae growing inside as there are with many commercial versions.
All in all, a perfect bit of wombling!! 🙂
By the way, if you liked this, also check out my idea for an automatic peck trigger feeder for poultry.
An Outdoor Life 
cool idea. I love it.. will see if my handyman can made one or two for our hens.
thank you for sharing your billians.
I LOIVE this! I am going to have to find the things and make one or two!
Great idea! Is it easy to fill back up, or do you have a nifty trick to stop the water flowing out the bottom as you’re pouring it in the top?
Hiya, Actually because the outlet hole is quite small, water flows in from the tap far faster than it empties, so it’s not usually an issue. You could always put your finger over the hole whilst it’s filling though.
Wonderful idea I hope I can make it!
Does it get mosquitoe larva in it ?
Not that I’ve noticed Anna. Really the only place for them to get into is the small cup part, and that’s so small I don’t think they’d survive (or else they’d quickly be slurped up by a hungry hen! :-))
Reblogged this on Old Green Pastures and commented:
I’m re blogging this just found it – what a great idea.
[…] By the way, if you liked this post, check out my idea for a home made chicken drinker. […]
Thank you for sharing this!! Ive been looking everywhere for a larger, more efficient waterer for my birds, and this is EXACTLY, what I had in mind!! : D
Would this work with a large pvc pipe?
As long as you can seal the ends, yes of course. Basically it will work with any sealed container that is rigid enough not to ‘suck in’ under vacuum.
Where did you buy barrel?
This is great,I will make 2,thank you so much for sharing.
What about rust from the nut in the water bowl? I think I have seen plastic pieces like that….great idea though!! I wish I could find a container like that!!
Hi, The nut I used was brass, so no rusting issues. Plastic would work fine too 🙂
Quick question… what prevents the higher water level in the barrel from causing the water in the container from overflowing? Is it just that the barrel is airtight?
Pretty much, yes! Without getting too technical, when you fill it up and seal the lid, a little bit of water does glug out of the hole, but that then pulls a vacuum in the barrel, and the flow stops. When the hens drink, the level in the little pot goes down, and eventually reaches the top of the hole. At that point, a little bit of air will suck into the barrel, the cup re-fills and it starts all over again.
So, for this to work, the container has to be both airtight and reasonably rigid. If you were to use too flexible a container, the sides would suck in and it would dribble much more before it started working properly.
I could try a more scientific explanation, but hopefully that’s a straightforward enough way to explain it. You’ll just have to trust me! 😀
I thought it might have something to do with the vacuum created under pressure but just wanted to confirm… it’s the first time I’ve seen the physics implemented in such a fashion
This is great! Thank you so much! I have been filling up drinkers about every other day. This will help so much. 😊
Thank you so much for posting this. I just made one using a regular 10-gallon bucket, a piece of pipe used for the sprinklers, and a small food container; drilled a 3/4″ hole on the bucket and on the bowl; don’t have the washers so i just put some of the white threading tape between the bucket and the bowl because it was leaking. Thank you so much! I finally seem to have a permanent solution for watering my chickens.
H Ana, do you have a picture of this by chance? I can’t think of what to use to create the whole that drains the water from the bucket to the container. Thanks!!
Hello!!!
Im so glad I found you to talk to you about the Beer Barrel Water feeder, I found your picture on a google search and couldnt find the owner! I was wondering if you could please help me Im desperate!! I have mimicked your idea of the Beer Barrel waterer for the chickens, however despite tightening the lid on on the I still have issues whereby the water keeps overflowing in the water container at the bottom. I have photoes for you, but I cant seem to find a way to send them on here, do you have an email I can please send you for some advice. I cant seem to find what Im doing wrong unfortunately. Glad I found you!!
Hi Sam, no problem – I’ve sent you an Email.
Would a regular igloo cooler work? It has a spout? Please advise
Hi Michele, Basically anything will work as long as it is firstly airtight (i.e. the lid doesn’t leak), and secondly rigid enough not to suck in as it empties, like a regular soda bottle would. I don’t know if your igloo cooler meets those criteria, but if it does, it’s got to be worth a try!
Michele Bennett what a good idea.. I would love to know if it worked.. I hope you check back in .. my email is tprice1061@yahoo.com .. to anoutdoorlife. I was wondering if my 55 gallon drum would work. It is a high grade plastic.. I read above of why if works.. so I would really need what ever I am using as a water dish set at a certain level .. as I noticed you have yours set pretty close to ground.. ( the barrel) and dish is low enough for chickens to get into.. I REALLy like this idea. Tami
Hi Tami, A 55 gallon drum will work just fine as long as the lid is airtight, the sides are stiff enough not to ‘suck in’, and as long as you can make the drinking tray part seal to the drum without leaking.
Mine was set close to the ground just because that’s the height the outlet was set at. In practice, I either put it up on a couple of bricks, or hang it from the handle. (There’s less chance of it getting bedding or poop in if it’s raised up a little.)
Great concept. Thanks for sharing. Could you go into detail please about the pieces you used?
A tap piece and another copper piece? Pictures at all?
Thank you so much
Hi Amy,
If you’re using a pressure barrel like this one, you just need a male threaded stop-end which will fit into the female thread where the beer tap was removed. In my case the only stop end I had was too small, so I fitted a reducing bush to reduce the hole size so that it fitted. Then it’s just a matter of drilling through the stop end so that the water can dribble out into the cup, and also sealing everything with the rubber washers so that it doesn’t leak onto the floor.
Let me know if that makes sense to you. If not, I’ll take everything apart and post some photos.
anoutdoorlife – can you use a regular barrel with a locking lid? Would that still work? Then drill a hole to fit a reducing bush, etc?
Hi Tiffany, You can use absolutely any container, provided it has an airtight lid of some sort, and is also rigid enough not to ‘suck in’ under the slight vacuum formed inside. I hope that helps!
I purchased a bucket that had an air-tight lid and copied your design but all the water just poured out of the attached tupperware – not sure what I’m doing wrong! So frustrated 😦
OK, two possibilities: If the water all ‘glugged’ out (i.e. sometimes there’s water coming out of the hole, and sometimes there’s air glugging back into the container), then that means that the lip of the small drinking container isn’t high enough relative to the hole.
However, if the water just pours out without glugging, that means that air is getting in somewhere. Try covering the lid with cling film (food wrap) before putting the lid on, or by smearing grease around the top to help it to make an airtight seal.
Let me know how you get on – I don’t like to see people frustrated!!
Eight years out from the post and still working…..good job. Sideways though it was your comment about rhubarb champagne which we made ourselves 6 weeks ago… yum for Christmas with our heat here at the moment… no would like to compare your recipe -barb
Hi Barb, it will be a few months before we have any rhubarb here, but if you’ve got a different (and maybe better?) recipe, do leave it as a comment on the other post – I’d be keen to give it a try! 🙂
Boa noite,
Faz muito tempo que procuro um bebedouro econômico e funcional para nosso criatório de galinhas. De todos que fiz experiência, esse foi a melhor opção. Parabéns pela criação e funcionalidade.
Não tem problema, estou feliz que você tenha achado útil!
I have little plastic cups that screw into 20 litre BLACK plastic jerry cans. The cups have a little tongue that the hens peck when they are drinking which releases water into the cup. Unlike your drinker, we must not screw the jerry cans tightly, otherwise water will not be released into the cup. We have never had a problem with algae forming in the container, because the jerry cans are black and don’t let in light. Why the poultry drinker manufacturers continue to produce white plastic drinkers baffles me.
Another way to prevent dirt in the cups is to raise the the whole drinker about 8 to 10 inches off the ground, depending on the size of your birds. We set ours on breeze blocks. Works a treat!
[…] you should be worrying about is whether your chickens have adequate water. Fortunately with this DIY chicken drinker, you don’t have to. The drinker can be made from any container strong enough not to collapse […]
[…] over $5 and the DIY waterer can be built in just a few hours without expert skills, according to An Outdoor Life. It is designed where the water in the container will be let out to an attached smaller container […]
[…] you should be worrying about is whether your chickens have adequate water. Fortunately with this DIY chicken drinker, you don’t have to. The drinker can be made from any container strong enough not to collapse […]
Merci pour ces idées très intéressantes et économiques. Thank you
Andrée
How do you check the water level in the barrel?
@Philip – that’s the one disadvantage with this design. I just pick the barrel up once in a while and refill it when it feels empty. Any other design that lets you see the water level tends to grow algae inside.