The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: WoodlandsDevon on June 30, 2015, 06:32:24 pm
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I'm getting two weaners in a couple of weeks and want to put in a mains fed drinker. Has anyone got any advice about to how deep to bury the water pipe to stop it getting frozen in the winter?
Thanks
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You will need to bury it at least 2 feet deep to protect it from freezing.
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Make sure anything above ground is metal or the pigs will chew through it in minutes. Hanco stock an excellent system by Suevia and Richard is very helpful. Ordinary galv. bowl drinkers will work but the float valve can get stuck quite easily if the pigs are playing and knocking it around.
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We have plastic pipes and an automatic drinker fed with water from a tank. The pipes were boxed in with some very sturdy wood and 2 sets of weaners later haven't been touched.
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We've also buried at least 600mm down and have run the pipe up a post and then boxed-in between the post and the drinker.
We've put twin drinkers straddling the line between pens and have run the electric wire up and over the drinker using the aforementioned post, to another post the other side.
(i'll try to get a pic up soon)
we'll see how it fairs...
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We have weaners but only over the summer, they are gone by the time its freezing. We have plastic pipe just run down the fence line on the surface, connected to drinker with a normal hosepipe protected by electric fence also run round the base of the pen.
As we are on our own water supply I don’t leave it on, we have a big drinker and just turn it on once a day to fill it up. It never gets less than half full.