water butt water

[Hilary B]

Main problem I can imagine with water from the rain butt is if it has been 'stored' for a while, it gets pretty horrible. FRESH rainwater is probably fine, but sometimes the stuff that has been in the barrel for a couple of weeks is pretty rank!

[Capsid]

Not chicken I know but when one of our cats was ill the vet asked if he was drinking and although freash water is always put down for them they very rarely drink it prefering to drink dirty water outside, we told the vet this and he said thats the answer I wanted. So it must be ok for all animals isnt it.

I'm not sure I follow you. The vet thought your cat was ill because it drank dirty outside water.

[chicken_house_man]

i'd say it wouldn't be any different to what they come across if they freerange although it's one of the things that would have to stop if there was AI in the area

[vicky]

Mine are on water butt water and seem to be fine (looking at the rubbish I've seen them eat they are pretty tough!)

[Snadger]

I have a feeling (and I might be wrong) that Snadger's birds have water-butt water and his seem to be thriving ok.

You are correct in your asumption Maureen. 4 years old some of them, fit as lops and laying there arses off............ and they have never tasted mains water.
My water butt is under a lean to, in the run, and is filled from the chicken coop roof. I have a slate roof on the coop and the water is sparkling clean. The butt also has a lid on it so I have no problems with algae and even though the water has had a thin film of ice on it in the coldest nights, I've always been able to supply the chooks water needs from it.

Its getting down a bit now though cos I have built four other coops & runs which are also being supplied from it.

Eventually I'll have a barrel for each.

[jackie j]

I'm not sure I follow you. The vet thought your cat was ill because it drank dirty outside water.

lol no, the fact that he was drinking water outside but not nice clean water that we put down, Animals as far as I know will drink any water, we always have water inside and out side. The outside water is mainly rain water. The cat was ill but not cos of the water. Hard to explain but when the vet asked if he was drinking we didnt know how much cos the cat always drank outside even when we took the water away from outside he would find puddles etc.

[Bramble-Poultry]

i wouldnt give my birds stored water. i can see the attraction and normally i wouldnt disagree with what seems common sense. however, i have to follow some stupid DEFRA guidance, but it does actually make sense.

- Stored water, kept at ambient temperature, has the potential to develop legionella bacteria. Whilst birds may have an inbuilt resistance to it, they could become carriers for it.
- stored water in a barrel can encourage the growth of algae. however, as snadge says, excuding light by the way of a lid will helpp no end.
- stagnant water (for that is what it is as its not moving) can de-oxygenate and therefore encourage anaerobic bacteria
- stagnant water also attracts mosquito ( and other biting insects) to lay their eggs in it. the eggs will develop into larvae which may or may not get ingested by the birds. if they dont ingest them, they hatch and develop into more biting insects.

whilst i dont want to cause a panic, its biting mosquito larvae that transmit blue tongue in livestock. whilst chickens dont seem to be affected by blue tongue, who knows what else these mosquito can carry?

i would personally prefer to use chlorinated, potable water. if its not safe for me to drink, why get my birds to drink it??

each to their own i know, and i dont mean to get peoples backs up, but these are my thoughts

[matthew2riches]

i would personally prefer to use chlorinated, potable water. if its not safe for me to drink, why get my birds to drink it??

Exactly my view

[its hilly]

Mine are on rainwater, no choice cos theres no water at the buildings.
BUT, I have a lot of smaller tubs which are used in turn, rather than big ones and as I have horses and geese too the water is rarely more than three days old at worst. And my tubs are covered, for safety and cleaness. TBH I drink it too, so if it was old or mucky it would get tipped into the geese bath.

If you are really worried couldnt you use those sterilising tablets they use on camping and mountaineering expeditions? After all sterile is sterile whoever its for, try an outdoor shop..or a boy scout..to find them.

[BUFFS]

Mine are on rainwater, no choice cos theres no water at the buildings.
BUT, I have a lot of smaller tubs which are used in turn, rather than big ones and as I have horses and geese too the water is rarely more than three days old at worst. And my tubs are covered, for safety and cleaness. TBH I drink it too, so if it was old or mucky it would get tipped into the geese bath.

If you are really worried couldnt you use those sterilising tablets they use on camping and mountaineering expeditions? After all sterile is sterile whoever its for, try an outdoor shop..or a boy scout..to find them.

those sterilising tablets you get from the outdoor shops,they will sterilise the water so that its okay to drink ,but from experience of them in the army ,they leave your mouth tasting like youve licked the chooks backside, mmmm really appetizing???????,id stick to covered water butts..

[Snadger]

....................i would personally prefer to use chlorinated, potable water. if its not safe for me to drink, why get my birds to drink it??

each to their own i know, and i dont mean to get peoples backs up, but these are my thoughts

Adam and Eve managed without chlorinated water? I was brought up on spring water without a hint of Chlorine. Freezing cold and sparkling even in the middle of the summer, we didn't call it water............... we called it Adams Ale!

[BUFFS]

Adam and Eve managed without chlorinated water? I was brought up on spring water without a hint of Chlorine. Freezing cold and sparkling even in the middle of the summer, we didn't call it water............... we called it Adams Ale!

distilled from pure newcastle brown????

[Bramble-Poultry]

spring water is different snadge! its bottled pure as it comes out of the ground after filtering for years through bedrock. if i had a safer way to drink water than the cr*p that severn trent pump out i would, but i cant afford to give my girls evian water every day!

by all means, adam and eve drank pure water from a spring, in the victorian times people were still drinking water pumped from aquifers under london - and courtesy of the less than sanitary conditions that it was kept in due to stagnation and pollution - cholera was rife in the east end!

again personal choice. as long as you can be certain the water is safe and clean and clear then feel free to use it. i would personally go with the safe bet of chlorinated water for the birds, much as it grieves me to draw it from severn trent

[Hilary B]

You can tell whether water from the rain butt is really stagnant. Stagnant water STINKS. If it seems clean, I would use it, but I do know where Bramble-Poultry is coming from!
If you plan on using stored rainwater for such a purpose, is there any way of filtering it before use?
Our Spanish hideaway has no mains anything. There is a big underground tank beside the house. We don't use it for drinking, but only because of the 'flavour'. No harm has come to us from rinsing cups etc in it and using it for tooth cleaning, or our dogs (who do drink it when they are there), but we have a filter thing, the sort sold for fishponds....

[Paul Wagland]

I think rainwater is quite close to sterile, until it hits the ground/roof. If you have a clean collecting surface (with no overhanging trees for wild birds to perch in) the water you collect should be quite high quality. I have seen devices that catch the first few litres of rainfall from a roof and then dump it, diverting any further rain (from the freshly-washed roof) into storage.

You could filter the rainwater with a simple sand and/or charcoal filter, but then of course you'd still need to store the water. A UV filter (such as those used in some pond pumps) would also help to kill bacteria and algae.