Domestic chickens must be provided with clean drinking water. Birds should always have access to it, but the owner sometimes cannot control its presence and cleanliness. Here, an auto-drinker can help a lot, which itself refills the water as it decreases. We learn how you can make a car-drinker for your farm yourself, what requirements it should meet and how to choose it when buying.

Chicken Drinker Requirements

Whatever form you choose, there is a list of characteristics that these products should have.The list of requirements for drinking bowls for chickens is as follows:

1. Providing birds with clean water. The available volumes of drinking bowls should be able to water all the chickens of your farmyard and at the same time to exclude as much as possible the external factors that pollute the drink - garbage and the possibility of chickens getting into the water.
2. The convenience of use - ease of installation, washing and replacing water.
3. Reliability. The product must be resistant to overturning by birds, made of durable materials and have a trouble-free device.
4. Safety. We need drinkers made of high-quality and environmental materials that do not adversely affect water quality. It is also important that the bird could not injure itself on the part of the product or get stuck in it with limbs. Food plastic drinkers are preferred, as the metal can react with some compounds that are part of the medications that are sometimes added to chickens. The use of glass is not recommended, as it may break and cause personal injury.

Important! It is strictly forbidden to use containers for paint and varnish products and chemicals, as well as non-food plastic, as drinkers.

The main types of car drinkers

The following types of car drinkers are available:

1. Siphon They are a simple device from a tank with a siphon system and a water tray. The liquid from the inverted filled tank is poured into the pan only when the water level in it reaches the open tap. It does not allow the surface tension of water to pour out.
2. Vacuum They consist of a tank and a pallet, between which there is a small distance. Water from an inverted vessel with water does not pour into a pan sufficiently filled with water due to atmospheric pressure.
3. Nipple. Used in large farms and crashed into a water pipe with a slight water pressure. Nipples are mounted in the water pipe - connecting pipes with a one-way valve, operating on the principle of a button. When the chickens are thirsty, they press the nipple, as a result of which the shutter opens and there is a flow of water. In order for the water not to fall down and not to create excess moisture, as well as for economic reasons, a droplet eliminator is often installed under the nipples.
4. Float. They consist of a tank and a tray and operate on the principle of a toilet float system.

How to make a do-it-yourself car drinker for chickens

For your farmstead, it’s quite possible to make a car drink yourself. It will save you from constant monitoring of the cleanliness and fullness of bowls, which are often used as drinking bowls for chickens and chickens. Such a water container rarely pleases the owners with its cleanliness and is often turned over by birds.

We will consider how to make a variant of a vacuum auto-drinker from an ordinary plastic bottle and a nipple - from a plastic pipe, syringes and nipples.

Important! During the hot period, it is necessary to change the water in the drinking bowl more often, as well as to clean and rinse the container in order to prevent the appearance of harmful fungi and infections that can cause intestinal diseases in birds.

Vacuum from a plastic bottle

Making this drinker will not take much time and can be made from waste materials - an ordinary plastic bottle.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Take the pallet and glue the lid from under the used plastic bottle in its center.
2. Make a through hole in the center of the lid and pallet.
3. Screw the screw into the hole using a screwdriver and tighten the nut onto it.
4. Seal the joint with sealant.
5. At the bottom of the thread, make 3 small holes for water to exit.
6. If the pan and structure are unstable - securely fasten them so that the chickens could not turn over.
7. Pour drinking water into the plastic bottle for the birds and screw the lid together with the tray.
8. Turn over a home-made drinker. Water will run from the holes into the pan, but it will stop flowing when it covers the holes.
9. Place the drinker in place (in the house or on the paddock). It is recommended to arrange the installation of our device so that the chickens could not step on their feet in a drinking tray, but that it would be convenient for them to drink from it.

Video: how to make a do-it-yourself vacuum drinking bowl

As the water decreases, when its level drops to the holes in the bottle, the liquid will pour out of them and the tray will always be filled. You just have to periodically pour water into the bottle.

Did you know? 10 billion plastic bottles are produced annually in the world. Their boundaries of heat resistance are in the range from -40 to +200 ° C. They begin to lose shape at +85 ° C.

Plastic pipe nipple

With a convenient location of the water supply system, you can make a nipple system with your own hands and save yourself from controlling the presence and purity of the drink.

The step-by-step manufacturing is as follows:

1. Insert the syringe into the edge of the pipe of a suitable size and heat the joint with a construction hairdryer or hold it above the gas burner to connect them. This syringe will be used as a plug.
2. Do the same at the other end, only cut off the soldered syringe, leaving about 2 cm.
3. Select a proportionate hose with a tee or corner at the end and pull it over the piece of the syringe that acts as a connector.
4. Insert tee with hose into existing water pipe.
5. Mark and drill 8 mm holes in the pipe for nipples in increments of 20–30 mm.
6. In the holes made, cut the thread by 10 mm.
7. Screw in the nipples and, if a leak is detected, unscrew the nipple from the leak and wrap with electrical tape to eliminate the leak. Then screw it back.
8. Hang the clamps on the pipe and install in the chosen place.
9. Under the nipples, it is recommended to install drop eliminators, which you can make them a cropped plastic bottle or buy.

Video: how to make a nipple drinker from a plastic pipe

Did you know? This system can be connected not to the plumbing system, but to a spacious tank.

Drinking Tips

You can not bother to make homemade products, but simply buy the finished product. When choosing drinkers for chickens, you should pay attention to the following:

1. Any product for drinking and eating must withstand the onslaught of chickens who have escaped to drink water and eat. The design of the drinkers should not contain sharp corners and parts that could be injured. It is necessary to carefully consider all the edges, the connection of parts, so that there are no chipping, sharp protrusions that can injure the bird.
2. The device should be easy to use.
3. It is necessary to dwell on options with closed containers so that debris does not get into drinking water.
4. It is necessary to calculate the number of nipples and take into account that when the birds are kept in cages, 1–15 nipples account for 10–15 birds, while for non-cell keeping in poultry farms in production rooms, 1 nipple can provide up to 30 individuals with drink.
5. When buying a vacuum version or a similar design, you need to consider that, on average, a 5-liter tank is enough for 10 chickens per day.
6. Pay attention to the presence of heating. In winter, when the temperature drops, the water freezes or gets too cold, which can lead to colds in birds. Special heaters for drinking containers can solve this problem.
7. It is optimal to choose a product from food-grade plastic; therefore, product labeling should be studied.

Did you know? Food-safe types of plastics are marked PEND / HDPE / HDPE (high density polyethylene), LDPE / PELD / PVD (high pressure polyethylene), PP / PP (polypropylene). The safety of other plastic products is poor.

The best manufacturers of automatic drinkers

On sale there are various types of car drinkers from different manufacturers, but the following are most noteworthy:

1. Novital (Italy). It produces high-quality zootechnical equipment, including plastic auto-drinkers of all kinds, various displacement and various modifications. The company uses high-quality raw materials and innovative technologies. The products are not cheap, but there are also budget options, for example, a chicken drinker in the form of a small tray for a plastic bottle.
2. Olba (Netherlands). Produces equipment for keeping and breeding poultry and rodents. At the company you can find car drinkers of various types and not very large volumes (up to 8 liters) made of high-quality plastic.
3. River systems (Italy). It is engaged in the manufacture of small-sized equipment for the maintenance of the courtyard of small private farms. They have on sale siphon and vacuum drinkers for birds of different displacement.
4. Arion fasoli (Italy). Specializes in the manufacture of plastic products for poultry farming. It produces vacuum drinking bowls for birds with a capacity of 3.5 to 15 liters.
5. Mili (Turkey). It makes car drinkers from food-grade plastic of various types (vacuum and nipple), which are components for nipple watering, which are excellent for a farmyard. A 5 liter vacuum drinking bowl often comes complete with a hopper feeder. This company produces inexpensive sets of nipple drinkers with different numbers of nipples. This whole nipple system requires assembly.
6. VolTera (Russia). It specializes in the production of household appliances and livestock products. It produces drinkers for chickens in the form of a lid, in which you can install a regular glass or plastic jar of water and you get a vacuum auto-drinker. This is somewhat dangerous (glass!), But a budget option.

Important! When choosing and installing a nipple system, it should be borne in mind that chickens need 3600 nipples that work in different directions, and for adults - 1800, working up and down. Height adjustment is also necessary depending on the size of the bird.

Closed-type drinkers are an excellent choice for supplying chickens with clean water. It’s easy to make them yourself and save the budget, but you can buy a quality product from a well-known brand specializing in the manufacture of equipment for poultry farming.