Thanks for the questions, Abigail. I actually don’t live there anymore, (but I got a really nice lift in the home’s purchase price, specifically b/c of the coop) =) But in the 5 years that I lived with the system, The watering system worked really well. The only thing I had to clean was the bowl, since the hens always created a big dust storm within the coop itself. The nipples never needed cleaning, although I did flush the pipe twice per year. (just unscrewed the 1/2″ cap at the end. The only real issue was potential freezing (but I solved it with that Arduino triggered lamp to boost the temp a little. Cheers!

Thank you for sharing your water set up. I am brainstorming for the watering system we will install in our new coop this summer and I have been imaging something similar to what you have described here. I would love to have a system that is connected to our in coop water source that I can easily flush/clean the piping and have fresh water for my flock, with minimal effort. I’m all about more work upfront so things can be efficient later. Its been 5 years since you posted this. Do you still like your water system? What, if any, issues have you come up against? What is the cleaning process like (my biggest concern)? Do you get a bio film accumulating in the pipes and how do you solve if this does happen? If you were starting over what, if anything, would you do anything differently?

Thank you again for sharing.

Best,
Abigail

Thanks for the nice words, James.

I’d love to see what you’re doing… I’ll definitely check out your site and get in contact.

Thanks again, brother!

WOW, you’ve really outdone yourself here. Everything you’ve done is nothing short of amazing my friend. I can’t wait to start building my own!

I’m James, a food growing educator and fellow nerd.

I’ve been doing front-end dev for years and my friends have been getting me into Arduino.

You’ve already saved me probably hours if not months of trail and error when it comes time to automate my coop.

Listen, I’ve got a few ideas to help share this with more people.

Shoot me an email and we’ll chat!

Thanks Dave,

James~