The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: bekka@dh on July 18, 2014, 11:47:08 am
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Hello again!
My lovely pigs seem to have taken to playing with the water buckets recently and tipping out all the water. I was wondering what you use for watering your pigs for some ideas?!
Thank you!
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Automatic watering trough. Its small and is attached to the fence and fills up again as they are drinking.
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we bought an old plastic trough at a farm sale for a fiver- dug a hole and buried it in about a foot. meant they couldn't tip it over and also that they could reach when they were small. no water supply to connect up so we invested in lots of hose. pigs drink a lot !!!!!!!!!
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I use the old stone troughs as my pigs seem to be able to move mountains and those were the only things that I managed to stop them from tipping over unless you go with the automatic watering system, I do have this available as was originally put into the farm but never used it as someone had cut all the piping and the troughs were easily managed.
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They're most likely trying to make/enlarge their wallow (with it being warmer they need them more, so if you fill a good big hole for them they might stop misbehaving ;))
I use tyre bowl drinkers which work better than anything else I've tried - they're not so easy to tip, have a good rim to let little 'uns drink easily and they're light and easy to lift for rinsing and cleaning out.
You can get them online from 'Supplier for Smallholders' but some agri/equine places sell them too - the last ones we bought were around £12, but that was almost 4 years ago so they might have gone up in price since (the ones we bought then are still more than serviceable even after daily use - they withstand serious frosts/bright sun/full grown sows and boars without any issues)
They're fab, we've never had one broken yet :thumbsup: (and no, I'm not on commission ;D)
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A tyre- what a fab idea! :idea:
Will defiantly give that a go, we have a few lying around at the mo! Thanks!!
Does anyone use a bath tub? More as a wallow/bath I guess rather than drinking - I would be worried about them getting stuck with the high sides though....
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I will give a +1 on the tyre idea. If they are still trying to tip it I normally stick a couple of bricks into the base of the bucket or into the inside of the tyre to give it a bi more weight. I think garages have to pay to get old tyres taken away so should be only too happy for you to take some.
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i have a 205 litre blue drum with a normal brass tap on the bottem and a 3ft piece of hose connected to an automatic drinker which cost £25.00 best thing i have ever bought just make sure the drum has water in it so they have a constant supply of water
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we used a long plastic sheep trough. indestructable and not easy to tip, and as its 8ft long, it holds enough water.
we have had pigs trying to wallow in it, its really a case of "does my bum look big in this" :roflanim: :roflanim:
it sound like they really want a wallow to cool down :thumbsup:
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I use a butler sink but have had to hunt for the plug in their enclosure a few times after they have got it out :D
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Nah, you don't want to give them a bath............this happens ;) ;D ;D ;D
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Old belfast sinks seem to be the only thing ours don't tip over. Well not very often anyway.
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Karen, that's a fab picture :thumbsup:
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Karen's is not the only one...
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Brill pics!
So would a bath be a good idea for a wallow then? What do you do to make a wallow? Our ground is quite steep!
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We have tyre drinkers too,they're great. Although Lumpy does manage to move it around and tip it occasionally , which is why I got two.
Easy to clean too.
We did have an old Belfast sink but it wasn't very portable and difficult to clean out.
And one of our hens drowned in it. Aw xxxxx
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We also use Tyre drinkers and found them to be great. Our pigs do work out how to remove them from the tyre though so we often have to wander around the pen to retrieve them. The bigger pigs can turn them over when full. I've considered putting concrete in the bottom of the tyre but never got round to trying it.
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This afternoon one of our sows has not just tipped over her belfast sink, but has moved in into her wallow and half buried it, upside down. I had to use a crow bar to prise it out of the mud. She watched me sweating and cursing and was clearly amused.
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Sounds like you all have as much fun as me with the water situation!
I tried the tyre with a bucket- they tipped it over
I tried the tyre with a different type of bucket - they grabbed the handles and threw it around and then played with the tyre
I tried the tyre with bricks... still no joy!
Next step is concrete inside the tyre...
Next step is abattoir!!
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Two sorts, these stay in the tyre once placed in http://www.countrywidefarmers.co.uk/pws/ProductDetails.ice;jsessionid=D459E0D708ABFDEC3804BCE1DF45BDEC.CountrywideAS2?ProductID=17376 (http://www.countrywidefarmers.co.uk/pws/ProductDetails.ice;jsessionid=D459E0D708ABFDEC3804BCE1DF45BDEC.CountrywideAS2?ProductID=17376)
and these remove for cleaning http://www.rideaway.co.uk/tyre-feeder (http://www.rideaway.co.uk/tyre-feeder)
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The one and only type that worked for us was the tyre drinker shown in Supplies for Farmers, £12.99, cat. no. S6PTB (as I have no idea how to do links). The bowl has a completely flat rim that the pigs can't get their noses under, and it sits in a deep tyre which tends to get pushed around rather than turned over, for reasons unknown. We too had a sow who could shift and turn over an enormous Belfast sink full of water, simply because there was space for her to get her snout under it to give her the necessary leverage. They always had huge, deep, filled up wallows as well, so all the weight lifting must have been just for fun, or because there was the most tempting piece of mud just under where the belfast sink was.
Loved the two photos of pigs cooling off in baths.
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Buttermilk I love the paxton drinkers but I'd have to sell my pigs to afford them!!
Guess I will just keep refilling!
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we have taken an old oil barrel (205 litre i think) and cut it in half with the angle grinder and crimped the edges over with pliers then screwed this to two posts knocked deep into the ground and for the wallow whenever we fill the trough we just spray a load of water into a big soggy mud pit
Cheers Ed
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If you have a sturdy enough post and can link into a hose pipe then a galvanised half-bowl drinker can be fitted. Our sties have commercial type Suevia drinkers, where the pigs have to push the end with their noses to make the water flow. Piglets learn this very quickly and the water is always fresh, not sitting around getting green and full of mosquito larvae. They last just about for ever but if they're outsisde in a run you have to remember to turn off the water if really cold temperatures are expected, as the plastic nut in the drinker is forced out by the ice and when it thaws you have a small fountain!
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We tried everything. Our OSB sow pulled the small auto drinker off the post, flung the plastic mole valley drinker out the pen and anything else we put it. Only the sombrero hefty old fashioned type drinkers/ feeders worked. I have found as long as they have a muddy spot they are contented now. Last week they were up to old tricks again and emptied the water trough and had flung it about. :rant:
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We tried tyre buckets: they were OK for weaners but older pigs just tipped them over. Now we use old Belfast-type sinks with the plugholes blocked up with cement for the young pigs, and big plastic sheep troughs for the older ones (see pic). If you half-sink the troughs in the ground or wire them to wooden posts, they don't tip them over. Some pigs learn how to take out the rubber bungs, though, so we now use ones without bungs.
The pigs do still bath in them sometimes, even with a lovely big wallow right next to it. Well, they do say that pigs are very clean animals ;D