Do-it-Yourself Chicken Waterers

Chicken waterers can be expensive when you buy them at a feed store. Consider making your own waterers to save money and to provide as much water as your chickens need. A self-watering design works best, because it enables you to minimize the number of times you have to refill the waterer. Self-watering means that as the chickens drink, the water replenishes itself for a while and then stops until the chickens drink again.

Things You'll Need

  • 2-gallon bucket
  • Planting pot saucer
  • Black marker
  • Electric drill
  • 1/4-inch drill bit
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Instructions

    • 1

      Remove the lid from a two-gallon bucket and place it upside-down in a planting pot saucer. The planting saucer should have a diameter two inches wider than the diameter of the bucket. Place a black mark on two sides of the bucket, directly across from each other about one inch below the lip of the saucer. The saucer needs to have sides on it that are about three inches high.

    • 2

      Remove the bucket from the saucer and drill two quarter-inch holes through where you placed the black marks. Use an electric drill equipped with a quarter-inch drill bit to accomplish this.

    • 3

      Fill the bucket with water and place the saucer upside-down on top of it. Hold the bucket and saucer together in between your hands and then quickly flip it over so that the saucer is at the bottom and the bucket is upside-down. Keep pressure on the bucket and watch as water squirts out of the two holes you've made. As this happens, a vacuum sucks the bucket and the saucer together. The water will keep coming out of the holes until the water in the saucer is the same level as the holes. At this point the water will stop squirting out until a chicken takes a drink and lowers the water level in the outside-of-the-bucket portion of the saucer.