When we got started homesteading the part that exhausted me the most was hauling water or hoses to the animals and constantly checking their water. Occasionally, we would accidently leave the hose on and wake up to a flooded pasture. Eventually, we developed a system that makes this chore so much less of a hassle.
This is the main hose we run in a loop around the property. Any 5/8” kink resistant hose would work. We use a variety of 25, 50 & 100ft hoses so that the terminations end up where ever we need to branch off a new hose. These hoses are kink resistant and water flows through them relatively fast. It is perfect for the main hose around the yard or for the hoses connected to high flow equipment like sprinklers.
We use these hoses to connect the pasture chickens to the stationary main hose that is looped around the yard. This hose is tough and light enough to be easily pulled from one section of the yard to another. I do not recommend using expandable hoses. This hose is much stronger and will not shrink on you when it isn’t in use. Water doesn’t flow as fast through this hose so we primarily use it for livestock watering throughout the day. The water doesn’t flow through it fast enough for the sprinklers.
We use these splitters to connect up the different rows in the garden and the different livestock watering tanks to the main stationary hose loop. This splitter has a larger opening than many of the other brands do. As a result, water is able to flow through it very fast. This is perfect for the garden sprinklers or the livestock waterers.
When you are busy outside it is really easy to forget and leave the water hose on. We use this timer to ensure that the different water lines run only as long as we need. Note: Most water timers we have used can’t handle heavy tugging on them when moving the hoses. As a result we install these right on the water splitter from the main water line.
We invest a lot of money and time into our poultry. One batch of 200 chicks can require 30-40 gallons of water a day. If they are way out in the pasture it can be a long ways to haul the water. Using the light fiber hose combined with this waterer helps a lot with taking care of the livestock. No more worrying about them running out in the middle of the day or having to carry out buckets of water twice a day.
We started out with the rubber stock tanks because they were a little cheaper. They need to be replaced so often though. Either they freeze solid and crack or the cattle are hard on them and they get cracks on the top edge. We will be upgrading our waterers to the metal ones going forward. It would have saved us a lot of cash if we got the metal ones right away in the beginning.
Make sure you put the tank on a level surface and then install this shutoff valve to make sure the livestock tank is always full.
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