do you want a chicken water that is
completely hands-free and totally
autonomous if you do stick around with
us and we'll show you how to make one
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so we all know the drill right carrying
water from a far away source to water
your chickens your ducks
whatever you got and its pain especially
in the wintertime I'm so fortunate I'm
here in Texas I don't have to do that in
the freezing cold but I feel for you
guys who do so hopefully this will help
you out I'm gonna show you today how to
put this completely hands-free chicken
water together if you're new here
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alright let's get back to the build
alright you're gonna need three main
components one of those is some sort of
chicken watering cup or nipple we chose
these cups and I'm gonna tell you why we
chose these specific ones toward the end
of the video but these are really
fantastic
alright to is a five-gallon bucket now
you can use something bigger if you have
more chickens but this is plenty for our
flock of eight and number three is this
this is a float valve this we're gonna
connect a water source to we're gonna
connect it in our bucket that water
source will be continuous but the float
valve is going to make sure that our
bucket doesn't overflow in the coop so
that is going to help us to be
completely hands-free right we're gonna
run it back to the water in our barn
here we've put the chicken coop in a
strategic location so that we can pipe
and get the water over there now those
of you again in a winter area there
you're going to need to insulate the
pipe yes we don't have that problem too
much here a little bit but we'll still
be insulating the pipe that's running to
this float valve let's show you how to
put this thing together the cool thing
about this float valve is that it comes
with this adapter this adapter is gonna
allow us to attach a garden hose to it
and actually that's what we're gonna
start with first we're not gonna hard
plumb everything in to begin with we're
gonna do a little bit but we're gonna
run a hose from the end of that hard
plumb to this adapter here this adapter
just screws on this elbow here that they
give you all three of these come in the
package so that
elbow comes with it the adapter for the
garden hose and then the float valve
itself and then just attaches on like
that got your garden hose float valve
turns on and off done so these cups are
really easy to put in let's get moving
on that and then we can put the float
valve in so attaching these little cups
is really easy what we're going to do is
measure one inch up from the bottom of
the bucket now we've got this lip on the
bottom so the instructions don't specify
whether we count that lip or we include
it or we put it up a little bit farther
than that to account for the lip so that
lip is about a quarter-inch so actually
I'm going to account for it and I'm
going to go up an inch and a quarter
from there it's simple 3/8 inch drill
bit drill your whole installation is
really easy just take the plastic nut
off the back make sure your washer is on
the outside of your bucket now you can
clean this up a little bit with some
sandpaper I don't think it's that
necessary we're gonna Snug this down and
feed it through here now the hole is
tight enough where you might have to
screw these in and kind of thread them
in there no problem let's write them in
now that we've got our watering cups in
it's time to put in that float valve so
the float valve requires a 7/8 inch hole
I don't have a hole saw that's 7/8 inch
I don't have a drill bit that's 7/8 inch
so we got to figure something out we're
gonna drill a pilot hole probably and
then use our Dremel to cut out the rest
of the hole so we've got these series of
lips on our bucket and that's kind of a
pain we're gonna have to put our float
valve down here so we've got room to put
in the entire thing and get everything
screwed together properly actually it's
not that big of a deal because it's
gonna be an automatic water so it's
always gonna keep this full it's gonna
have probably 4 gallons in it instead of
you know filling it all the way up to
the top which is not that big of a deal
so actually I lied I do have a 7/8 inch
bit it's a wood bit and that'll go
through plastic just fine but it's my
old antique from my great-grandfather
bracing bit we can do this we can give
it a shot
it might be a little easier to use the
Dremel in the drill but hey why not use
the tools you have and give them a try
then we're going to put our float valve
on to do that we just go on the inside
of the bucket stick the threaded portion
through the side here leaving the gasket
on the inside / this manufacturer's
instructions and tighten it with this
nut then we're going to test the elbow
that came with it onto the threaded
portion of the float valve what we're
gonna do when we install this is we're
gonna put some pipe sealant in here so
that we don't get any leaks coming from
this valve now we're gonna attach our
hose adapter onto that we're gonna use
some pipes link sealant on that as well
all right here we got our float valve on
the inside of our bucket and our hose
connection on the outside now you're
asking Eric what if that float valve
fails you're gonna have a soggy chicken
coop and potentially some sick chickens
and that's not good here's what we're
gonna do
that's simple we've got some clear
rubber tubing here and we're gonna poke
a hole up here near the top of the
bucket we're gonna run it out and that's
gonna be our overflow drain we're gonna
run it outside of the coop so it's
really important that you have a top for
your bucket you don't want anybody
jumping in so buy that top along with
the bucket all right we're gonna poke
our hole in the side for our overflow
hose here
and that one doesn't really need to be
strategically located wherever you think
is best for that
so we're in our coupe we got the chicken
water in here we did put it on a block
you can see our watering cups on the
sides there and I'm going to take you
around the back we've got our float
valve connection and you can see right
there where we've got it our garden hose
run through the side and like I said in
the future we're going to hard plumb
this but we got our garden hose we run
through the side right there and
connected to our bucket around this side
you can see our overflow valve and
that's connected up so I want to talk a
minute about these Renta coupe chicken
watering cups so I'm gonna leave these
down in the description below along with
the float valve because those are hard
to find I'm gonna leave this Amazon
links down there for them obviously the
bucket you can get anywhere so that
won't be down there but both of these
will now the reason I chose these I
chose these because I saw too many
accounts of the other style cups where
you've got a little valve that the the
chickens pecking or push with their beak
and it lets water down and also the
nipple waterers I saw too many accounts
of those of them failing all right
so white house on a hill if you know
that channel go check out his video on
those little nipple waterers his
chickens almost died and they died
because those little nipples corroded
and they got sediment built up in them
and they failed and there was no more
water coming out of them or one part
stuck up and you can go check it out it
was crazy as poor chickens almost died
I'm not all about that so that's the
reason I chose these cups it's a simple
mechanism there's one spring in here in
the weight of the water pushes the cup
down and seals the the hole so no more
water can get in as soon as those
chickens drink the water cup goes up
valve goes on puts more water in pushes
down done totally simple I'm all about
these we hope this video was helpful for
you in building this hands-free chicken
water and then now you've got more time
to go and do other things on the
homestead if you're interested in more
homesteading how-to videos I want you to
click on this video right here also
head on over to our video page and check
out all of our gardening videos because
we've got a lot there and a lot of great
information for you
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