# Experience with hog waterers



## WV Joe (Nov 15, 2010)

Hi, we have a Mulefoot trio and keeping clean water for them is quite a chore. Right now we have a couple of 3 gallon buckets that we clip to the panel separating their pens, but they love to dump them or rub their muddy chins on them.
I got some 55 gallon plastic barrels with lids that had contained food products (so they are safe to use). I am trying to decide to purchase gravity fed nipples or water cups to put in the barrels. I think the company is Trojan Livestock that sells both. I thought that the pigs may adapt to the water cups, where they have to hit a plate to release the water, easier than the nipples. 
Anyone have experience with either?


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

We use nipple waterers and love them. No drinking from contaminated water bowls or buckets. We just get the metal waterers from Tractor Supply or any other feed supply store. 

Welcome to HT Joe.


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## stifflej (Aug 11, 2008)

I use the nipples to, they learn to use them fast, and is very easy to take care of, plus it is hard for them to move a full 55 gallon drum...


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## WV Joe (Nov 15, 2010)

Thanks, sounds like they learn to use the nipples quickly, which was my main concern. Another advantage is that they are much cheaper than the cups, so starting with them is a lot less monetary risk.
I guess my only remaining concern is the durability since the drum is plastic - I heard that they like to play with the nipples as well, but I'd probably have the same issue with the cups.
How high off the floor do you have the nipples? My hogs are almost a year old.


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## cooper101 (Sep 13, 2010)

I just set the barrel on 4 cinder blocks arranged them 2 high. That seemed about right. I didn't even have to secure the barrel. I tried to keep it pretty full and they never learned they could tip it over and play with it. I had 4 pigs and only one nipple. That's too low of a nipple ratio. I'll add another nipple when I get the next batch. They would occasionally fight over it when they were all thirsty. At first, I didn't realize the nipples are adjustable and it was set very low which would have been fine for a pressured system. Make sure it's adjusted for the highest flow so they don't have to suck on it forever like mine did. Also, those blue plastic food grade barrels are thick enough that I just turned the nipple right into it. It sealed fine and the pigs never dislodged it. Didn't need a nut or anything inside the barrel. Drill holes smaller than you think until you can force the nipple threads in and start turning.

Another thing I've done was to attach the nipple with a coupler to a small piece of pipe and stick that into the pen. Then use various connectors and tubing to attach the pipe to the barrel. That way the barrel can be out of the pen. Nice if you need to use a de-icer, if the kids do the filling and you don't want them in with the pigs, keeping your feet clean, etc.


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## stifflej (Aug 11, 2008)

I only have one connection coming out of the barrel, it is steel threaded pipe, and it T's to 4 nipples. The only time I had an issue with it is when we let it get to low, and they could knock it over. One thing you can do is set the barrel outside the pen, and just run the steep pipe into the pen with the nipples on the ends (you could put as many as you feel necessary just add T's) and they make straps to put over the pipe to hold it secure so that if they do play they can't damage anything. With a little Teflon tape, I haven't had any leaks yet.


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## WV Joe (Nov 15, 2010)

Thanks for all the great info, think I'm ready to order nipples and put this together (and cut some time off the daily chores!).
Does anyone out there put apple cider vinegar in their livestock water?
We do, and I know we can't use galvanized steel items with it. I assume the nipples would be ok since they aren't galvanized. I'm more concerned about de-icing the barrel in the winter. Seems the heater of choice is made of cast aluminum - not real crazy about aluminum in their water anyway and I'm not sure how the vinegar would react (as I remember some recipes specify a non-reactive pan, I don't think that meant aluminum).
Anyone have any recommendations?


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

I've used several. They clog easily. Put a filter on. Winter is awful with freezing. I stopped using them.


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## stifflej (Aug 11, 2008)

highlands said:


> I've used several. They clog easily. Put a filter on. Winter is awful with freezing. I stopped using them.


I haven't used them over winter, so Highlands is right, I can see them freezing. I only raise feeders from spring til fall.


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## HeritagePigs (Aug 11, 2009)

"apple cider vinegar"

Never heard of that. Why do you add it?


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## Troy (Oct 11, 2010)

HMMM , yep thats a new one. I thought I'd heard them all. Don't understand why. Intrested in knowing why also.


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## Welshmom (Sep 7, 2008)

I've used a sinking de-icer inside a plastic water barrel with two nipples in freezing temps and it has worked fine for me. However,this was inside an unheated barn. YMMV.
If using aluminum, galvanized, I'd discontinue the cider vinegar.


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## RW kansas hogs (Nov 19, 2010)

we use a 55 gallon plastic barrel with a nipple bolted into the barrel, my hogs figured it out in about ten mins. we plan on using a electric stock tank stlye heater to keep it from frezzing in the winter,plus move it somewhere out of the wind helps alot to. the only thing i did wrong was putting the nipple high enough, i had to place cinder blocks under the barrel so the adult hogs could use it without kneeling on there front legs. im making another one but this time im using a float type water valve so the water is always fresh


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## WV Joe (Nov 15, 2010)

Sorry, hadn't realized there were questions on the vinegar. The vinegar is supposed to be good for animal health in general, particularly the digestive system. Need to use raw vinegar (will probably only find it as organic), not the typical one in grocery stores. Rumor also has it that it results in more female offspring.

Joe


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## WildernesFamily (Mar 11, 2006)

Definitely nipples. We tried the cup (after using the nipples) and the pigs never did get that figured out, the nipples they figured out real quick. For the less bright pigs we put some peanut butter on it and then they caught on


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## Curtis B (Aug 15, 2008)

WV Joe said:


> Sorry, hadn't realized there were questions on the vinegar. The vinegar is supposed to be good for animal health in general, particularly the digestive system. Need to use raw vinegar (will probably only find it as organic), not the typical one in grocery stores. Rumor also has it that it results in more female offspring.
> 
> Joe


I use it for newly hatched poultry, but hadn't heard of it with pigs.


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## Pam in KY (Jul 26, 2011)

I have a couple questions re: big barrels of water....

1. Even if there is a lid on the water barrel, doesn't algae grow inside the bottom?

2. If I decide to keep pigs during the winter, how can I keep their water from freezing? I don't have electricity that far away from the house and an extension cord isn't an option.


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## RW kansas hogs (Nov 19, 2010)

We switched to a garden hose attached to a nipple for the summer months, Only down fall is the water in the hose gets hot but they at least the pigs have plenty of water when its hot out.
Pam, We ran into the algae problem to, They make a stock tank treatment for algae but we havent tried it yet. 
One option for ya is to move the pigs feed & water close enough to your house so you can use a tank de-icer, We bought some heavy duty elec cord and maid our own extension cord for a tank de-icer and wired it directly to a outlet.

Or carry water every day to them
Another idea that im going to try is to convert a solar fencer panel to run a tank de-icer


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## Pam in KY (Jul 26, 2011)

If sunlight is what causes the algae to grow (as far as I know) would painting the water barrel & lid black stop algae growth? 

Since I'm only going to have 2 pigs, I'm thinking of maybe only having a 5 ga water bucket for them..especially since we have to carry water to them anyway. I could have two buckets with nipples and just exchange one for the other with fresh water daily. Would 2 pigs drink more than 5 ga of water in a 24 hour period?


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## cooper101 (Sep 13, 2010)

Pam in KY said:


> If sunlight is what causes the algae to grow (as far as I know) would painting the water barrel & lid black stop algae growth?
> 
> Since I'm only going to have 2 pigs, I'm thinking of maybe only having a 5 ga water bucket for them..especially since we have to carry water to them anyway. I could have two buckets with nipples and just exchange one for the other with fresh water daily. Would 2 pigs drink more than 5 ga of water in a 24 hour period?


If it's hot, they probably will. Plus, only about half of what comes out gets swallowed, the rest just runs out of their mouth. Save the cost of a nipple, just use one bucket with a nipple, the other to carry water. You just might have to check twice a day. Also, if they can wiggle the bucket at all and make it splash out, they will, because that's fun to a pig.

What I found with a 5 gal bucket is that the plastic is too thin to screw the nipple into; it will get knocked out easily. This works:

nipple -- metal fender washer -- rubber washer -- wall of bucket -- 1/2" pipe coupler

Drill a hole in the bucket, there's a size of metal fender washer that the nipple fits perfectly into, the rubber washer makes a seal against the side of the bucket. The pipe coupler acts as a nut on the inside of the bucket to hold it all tight. Worked great and never leaked.


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

We only raise feeders from Spring to Fall, but we run a hose between two t posts and attach the water nipple tight. They cannot get to the hose. The Spring fed water source is then outside of the pasture area. Gravity does the rest for us. Never had clogging.


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## Pam in KY (Jul 26, 2011)

Oh I get it now. I had to look at a picture of a metal nipple at Tractor Supply's web site. I've now added your nipple assembly instructions to my pig notes Cooper101. Thank you!

RW Kansas Hogs - would a solar fence panel have enough power to run a water heater for the length of time needed, what with short days & long nights? They suck an awful lot of power don't they?


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## RW kansas hogs (Nov 19, 2010)

Pam, I'm sure they do use alot of power. Solar fencers need a car battery hooked up to them as well, That way at night there is still power to what ever your running and during the day the solar panel recharges the battery.
I havent tried this idea yet but plan on it when it gets colder out


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## farmmom (Jan 4, 2009)

I didn't read all of the posts, so this may have been mentioned, but I trained mine to the nipples using marshmallow creme. They loved it and learned really fast.


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## Pam in KY (Jul 26, 2011)

RW kansas hogs said:


> Pam, I'm sure they do use alot of power. Solar fencers need a car battery hooked up to them as well, That way at night there is still power to what ever your running and during the day the solar panel recharges the battery.
> I havent tried this idea yet but plan on it when it gets colder out


Definitely keep us posted when you get set up. You've got me cur-ee-ous! :thumb:





farmmom said:


> I didn't read all of the posts, so this may have been mentioned, but I trained mine to the nipples using marshmallow creme. They loved it and learned really fast.


Heck, you could train me to drink from one of those nipples if you're gonna use marshmallow creme!:nanner:


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## Catalytic (Sep 15, 2010)

farmmom said:


> I didn't read all of the posts, so this may have been mentioned, but I trained mine to the nipples using marshmallow creme. They loved it and learned really fast.


We used peanut butter, took about 5 minutes. If ours freezes, we'll just run water in a rubber feed pan until it thaws, fortunately I don't think we'll get cold enough to completely freeze 55g of water. We don't have electric close to our pigs, either.


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## Brady (Jun 23, 2011)

They make nipples that come with a rubber gasketed nut that is made for conecting directly to tanks, buckets, ect. I used a 5 gal. bucket with the nipple attached for a short time. There did not seam to be enough flow with the model I was using. I eventually ran some 3/4" plastic pipe down to the pig pen and plumbed it to the well. We had a lot of freezing temps and snow last year with 2 pigs left. Carrying 5 gallon buckets though 12-16" of snow morning and evening gets old fast.


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