automatic watering system

[SterlingSatin]

i'm thinking about putting an automatic watering system in my 18 hole rabbitry because the crocks are messy and hte bottles are expensive. barely gotten started and i may have already found a few problems.
1. i am not able to run a hose out there in the winter so i'll have to use a bucket. the logistics of hauling a 5 lb bucket full of water to and from the barn every day seems like its almost more work than cleaning crocks or hauling a bunch of bottles out there. is there a solution to this?
2. my ceiling is only 8 feet high and my cages are 3 stacks with trays. i've heard you are supposed to put the bucket 5 to 8 feet above the top of the cages but i won't have room for that. will 3-4 feet above be high enough?
3. i'm on well water and its EXTREMELY hard. i'm thinking i'll be having issues with sediments and stuff clogging the lines constantly. any suggestions to prevent this?

 

[Demamma]

The rabbit breeder I got my rabbits from had gravity waterer. He had the bucket sitting only a few feet high and it seemsed to work. Each bucket was set up for about 8 rabbits.

 

[ollitos]

As for height issues, we prop buckets on top of the pasture pens with a line down to the nipple. It's maybe a foot in height and works fine.

You can kinda see it here

We do the same thing with our chicken pens but it's an even shorter hose distance.

 

[skysthelimit]

I don't have a way to get water to the barn as well, and it's gonna freeze soon. I had been taking the bucket down and carrying it to the hose as well, so far I have not found a solution so I abandoned the project until spring.

 

[SterlingSatin]

I don't have a way to get water to the barn as well, and it's gonna freeze soon. I had been taking the bucket down and carrying it to the hose as well, so far I have not found a solution so I abandoned the project until spring.

i have a hose across the driveway from the barn, but we have to disconnect it every winter or the pipes freeze. how do you keep a hose out there all winter?

 

[skysthelimit]

i haven't. There are heated hoses, but they are expensive, and I have not found one long enough to make it from the spigot to the barn.

 

[trinityoaks]

I can't answer the hose issue, but if it were me, I would be looking into heated hoses, although I hear they're pricey.

Regarding the height, our bucket is sitting on top of our upper row of cages, supported by 2x4s across the top of cage rack (6ft height). Our shed has an 8-ft ceiling, so that gives us about an 18-20" drop, but it works just fine that way. There's not a lot of extra room, though, so it would be a bit of a hassle, I think, to take it down and refill it every day or two. It seems to me, though, it would be less hassle to do that than to haul unfrozen bottles/crocks to them twice a day. Of course, you would want to have a recirculating heater in your bucket.

As for the hard-water issue (which presumably you would have with bottles, as well), you might be able to filter it. We had a sediment filter for our washing machine and dishwasher when we were on well water. I'm wondering whether apple cider vinegar in the water (1/4 to 1/2 cup per gallon) would help with the minerals, and it's sure good for the rabbits.

 

[Dragongreg]

Hello,

While I'm still sorting out a few fine tuning items on my system, I installed a low pressure pump in my bucket at first and then just pushed the water through and returned it right back to the feed bucket. I'm running just over 130 feet of piping that 1/2" PVC on two levels and it crosses over to the opposite side and then back again. The first upgrade was to trade the 5 gal bucket out for a 35 gal plastic drum and that's been even better. Every couple of days we bring a few buckets our via the four wheeler and that helps with the heavy hauling part. This weekend we'll be adding a bucket heater just to be safe againt freezing as winter sets in.

Will post an update in a couple of weeks as we improve on the setup.