# pig waterer from a rain barrel?



## meganwf (Jul 5, 2005)

We are getting two feeder pigs in two weeks. Got the meadow mowed so now have a place to put up the electronet. Getting the calf hutch put together soon... now about the water: I have a 55 gal drum and I have a rain barrel. I have a very very very long hose going uphill from the house to the meadow. I've read about nipple waterers and it seems like once they learn than you are good to go. The farmer we are buying from doesn't like them and doesn't think they get enough to drink. Opinions? But back to my main question: how do I turn one of these barrels into a waterer? The rain barrel is like this one 

http://www.easycart.net/FiresideGallery/images/blue60gal106_lg.jpg

and it has a place to screw a hose near the bottom... is a nipple waterer the same diameter as a garden hose? I need someone to explain this to me like they were talking to a very young child because I don't have any engineering smarts at all! Would I put the rain barrel up on blocks, put a hose from barrel to waterer (that would be gravity, not pressure fed), clip it (with what?) to one of the hog panels that will be around the calf hutch? 

Or do I just make a hole in the 55-gal regular drum and put a waterer into it? How do I do that? What size and how do I not make it leak around it? If I could just get step by step instructions like a recipe I would be so grateful. Otherwise I do have a small stock tank. Thanks so much!


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## Ed Norman (Jun 8, 2002)

We use a regular 55 gallon barrel. One bung has a small threaded hole in the middle of it. That should be 1/2" pipe thread. I'm going from memory. We lay the barrel on it's side and block it so it can't roll. It sits on a pallet for some elevation. Then screw a piece or 1/2" galvanized pipe, 2 feet long or what have you, into the a pipe coupler. Then screw the nipple into the coupler. You want to put white teflon pipe tape around each male threaded part before screwing them together tight. Then screw the pipe into the barrel bung. Be careful if it is plastic, it will strip easily. We run ours thru the panels into the pen and the hogs can get a drink. We fill thru the top bung hole then loosely put the bung in, but leave it loose so air can get in. 

Take your bung and your nipple to the hardware store to make sure you get the right size pipe. They can build you any adapters needed. They might even screw it all together for you.

There are also garden hose to pipe thread adapters so you could put the nipple right on the end of the hose and tie it to a stake or something.


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## FreeRanger (Jul 20, 2005)

Go for the easy route. Remove the drain plug from the stock tank. Screw pipe in there. I recommend getting a T-fitting so you can run two nipple waters at the same time. this way if one plugs the other is still working until you notice the problem. Otherwise I recommend testing the nipple daily. 

For my stock tanks I come out a short distance to a reducer then to a tee. From the T add six to twelve inches each way before using an elbow to point out, at that point I use the nipple. 

Last winter I kept the stock tank inside the chicken coop with a floating heater, went six inches out the side wall, then down about two feet to an elbow with one nipple water. Wrapped the two foot peice with electric heat tape. Worked GREAT, two gilts plus a feeder, all gained weight just fine....


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

Look at the second item from the bottom on the list of gravity waterers.
http://www.trojanlivestock.com/Waterers-Gravity Flow.html


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## Welshmom (Sep 7, 2008)

I used basically the Gravity Barrel Nipple Kit on the same page that Agmantoo just referenced. Cut a hole about 3" from the bottom of the barrel, and install. I filled the barrel form the open top. Kept it over half full at all times, to keep it heavy enough that the pigs didn't jostle it around too much.

I put mine on a pallet, to get it up off the ground, and bring it a little closer to pig head height. I think next time I am building one, I might put of the same nipples on one barrel, a perhaps about 18-20 inches apart, so more than one pig can drink at a time. I raised 6 at a time, and they do all seem to play follow the leader, and they want to eat and drink all together.

I liked the screen on the end of this pipe. Since bodies of water tend to attract all types of flotsam, I kept a lid on my water barrel, but after a few months there always seems to be a build-up of dirt, etc. in the bottom of the barrel.


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## meganwf (Jul 5, 2005)

You guys are so helpful thank you so much. I called the folks at the Trojan place and they were helpful too. Now I just need to decide.. cup or nipple???


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