Tips For Keeping Livestock Water and Watering Systems Clean

:: Tips For Keeping Livestock Water and Watering Systems Clean ::

While it is always good homesteading practice to regularly clean troughs and waterers out, there are many approaches to decreasing the amount of debris in a watering system (thus slowing the rate at which algae grows) as well as keeping the algae causing bacteria at bay in the water.

1) Goldfish

Keep goldfish in troughs – they feed on the bacteria an debris. Place a small block or rock in the bottom to give them seclusion and security while animals are drinking. When you bring home a bag of goldfish, any that are weak or compromised can potentially die, so it’s better to get more than you think you’ll need. Leave the bag, sealed, floating in the trough to acclimate the fish. After several hours, release the fish.

(Photo courtesy of BigFoto)

2) Raised Waterers For Chickens

Keeping waterers off the ground by about 6 inches is advisable for chickens. They are famous for carrying dirt and debris into their drinking water and the lower to the ground it is, the dirtier it gets! We use a concrete block that is the perfect height and also keeps the waterer nice and level.

(That’s Cordelia that snuck in to be in the shot.) This works great for our adult flock. Please be sure your blocks are fairly level; if the waterer isn’t level, it will empty itself in a short amount of time. I grab a stick or twig if it’s not just right, placing it under the lower side, and that works great! The ground in our chicken run is always shifting and eroding so I move our blocks often, keeping the water in the shade in the summer.

This is my solution for now in a chicken tractor that was built so heavy we can’t move it. hahaha! But here we have a new bunch of young chicks (the barred rock chicks were successfully raised by our silkie as a surrogate mom since they were one day old. Read her story here and here.)  For young chicks, they cause a lot of mischief… {and poop!} by always trying to roost on top of feeders and waterers. I’ve used a half a concrete block for a reason. It doesn’t give them room to get up onto it and poop in the water.  Also, I’ve place a good sized rock in a 5 gallon bucket (centered in the bottom of the bucket) and placed it on top of this waterer. Too heavy of a rock or brick will keep the water from draining down into the tray. But if you can find something the right weight, it’s a perfect solution. They can’t roost up there, and even if they could, it overhangs the water tray just enough to keep the water clean!

Someday we hope to change to a bucket / nipple system which really keeps the wager clean!  Similar to this system, we even have the nipples we purchased online, but that’s another project for another day!

3) 35% Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide

I have never used this, but I am really excited by the research information available!  The idea being that bad bacteria (anaerobic) thrives in an environment with little oxygen, actually cannot survive in the presence of oxygen.  Good bacteria (aerobic) thrives with oxygen. Peroxide is water with an additional oxygen molecule and there have been studies not only on its use to create an environment in waterers that discourages the growth of bad bacteria (ratio of H2O2 to H2O given in link) – but also on the animals’ overall improved health over time with the resulting higher amounts of good bacteria in their systems! I will be ordering some 35% peroxide and using it in my waterers for sure! I already feed my chickens fermented feed and also homemade kefir – both highly beneficial in elevating aerobic bacteria levels.  But anyhow!– We were talking about keeping watering systems clean – how did I get sidetracked?

4) Barley Straw Bag

We use these barley straw bags also and they are really AMAZING! At first we were skeptical, but as it says – after 2 weeks in the stock tank and everything fell to the bottom leaving the water nice and clean!

Do you have any thought you can add here? Any tips you use to help you provide and keep food and water clean on the farm?