WATER OR LACK OF IT

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charliefox

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Hi all me again i saw on the news recently there will be a water shortage this year with hose pipe bans in place how will this affect us as chicken keepers after all the x perts tell us poultry must have fresh clean water every day and yet they drink from an old tyre rather than what ive just refilled .the water companys tell us to conserve water ,does this mean i can give them rain water? when i stop to think how much water is lost when a narrow boat goes through a lock,also what about farmers on unmetered supplys,thats without all the leaks,on the lighter side there was a cartoon in the paper where police water cannon ran out of water at a crucial point which was quite ammusing what are your thoughts on this subject all the best uncle fox
 
I don't think watering livestock is considered wasteful and I don't know of any business premises, farming or otherwise, who are not metered.

I think it all boils down to a bit of, not so common, common sense, don't leave a tap running, put a brick in the toilet system, wash up the old fashioned way (if anyone remembers how, lol) only half fill your bath the list is endless.

I'm not going to wash my car until the crisis is over :lol:
 
ccm said:
wash up the old fashioned way (if anyone remembers how, lol)


I'm obviously far too young!! What's 'washing up the old fashioned way'? No water? No washing up liquid? No washing up bowl??????? :-)19 :-)19 :-)19



(I'm going wrong somewhere with these 'quotes'! Can someone put me right)
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I don't think the average 4 to 6 litre water container will make too much difference when you consider that a hosepipe will use 1000 litres per hour but I understand what you're saying. When changing water, you could use the left over on the garden to help recycle it in some way.

Besides, a farm supplying eggs would still need to provide fresh drinking water to their chickens if you bought eggs instead.

I use rain tubs for my ducks wheat buckets but that doesn't last long but at least makes a bit of a difference. For their bath water, I have to use the hose to refil them which isn't ideal although it's onbly filling shallow trays, 4 inches deep and it all gets used within a couple of days. They also said last year was the driest since 1921.. which is worrying.

As for the leaks, I was reading recently that our local water company has been in drought, officially since July 2011 and they have invested £6 Million in employing 130 technicials to find and fix leaks.

The local farm has a 10'000 litre tank that they top up at night and use to fill the sprayers with the various products they spray on the fields during the day... I suppose this wouldn't happen if they were Organic?
 
Sue said:
ccm said:
wash up the old fashioned way (if anyone remembers how, lol)


I'm obviously far too young!! What's 'washing up the old fashioned way'? No water? No washing up liquid? No washing up bowl??????? :-)19 :-)19 :-)19

/quote]
I think what's meant is washing up in a bowl or sinkful of water rather than in a dishwasher, although modern dishwashers, carefully stacked, are more economic of water than running taps to do it 'the oldfashioned way.'
I'm more worried about our quite large pond - I have a complicated system of hoses and water butts all round the house to catch all the rainwater, which then is run off into the pond, and usually this is sufficient to keep it topped up, especially in winter. But this year it's about 6 ins lower than it should be, and I don't want to fill it with tap water, but there are frogs and newts and fish in there so I suppose I shall have to before very long, (when nobody is looking.)
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Click to expand...
 
Sue said:
ccm said:
(I'm going wrong somewhere with these 'quotes'! Can someone put me right)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Sue when you use the 'quotes' you need to make sure that any deletions you make don't include the [/ quote ] at the begining and the end of the quote - then it will work properly. Also make sure that you put your cursor at the end of the word 'quote' (the end one ) and hit return to give you a bit of space before you start typing your reply. Hope this helps. :)
 
We have no intention of carrying water 100 yards to top up drinkers and so will continue to fill the 4 water butts with a hosepipe. We are not metered. so cannot leave the hosepipe unattended anyway. There won't be any wastage. What we can't do is use that water to do the plants, so this year we are planning on planting nothing at all at the moment. Potatoes need a lot of water, might get away with some carrots and might do some tomato plants because the chickens eat them more than us. So perhaps we'll grow cabbage and things on the basis that they are livestock food. I'm not sure what the situation is when your garden is 100 yards from your house and you want to grow food for yourself. I know the grass can't be watered or flowers -but the chickens eat the grass and the flowers!
 
Thank you Marigold! What's a dishwasher anyway? As far as I'm concerned that's me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've only just managed to get a tumble drier so a dishwasher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol:
 
I have lots of drinkers and have already stared filling them only 3/4 full and will go down to half if I can. The are well scattered so I will have to try to continue with the hose pipe. I too won't START washing the car !
How to use what's left over is not the answer, we need to cut down on usage and all try to do our bit.. Seeing the state of some of the reservoirs in the south east is alarming.
 
i am down in the south east and its been pretty dry here for so long now , i only use the bucket to fill the girls water but i wont be hosing down the run which i only do in the summer as it gets time to dry overnight .
but as for wasting water we have someone on the allotment site that leaves the hose running on weedy rubbish ground for up to 9 hrs a day now thats wasting there have been times when i cant even give the girls water as the pressure then drops to nothing as she is using it to much so far it looks like we are banned from using them on the site { last year banned from sprinklers } and i hope so cause it would make me so happy to see her stopped from wasting so much water { dont get on with her but i know they will go out in the middle of the night and water they are stupid enough to do that } i agree we all need to do our bit and i have done mine by making my plots into smaller beds were as 1 watercan per bed is plenty every other day or so but good thing is the swimming pool wont be going up yiipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee bumer job rebuilding it each year let alone the stress that goes with it .
 
Your chickens have a swimming pool Karminski! I thought ours were spoiled with shelters over their soil baths.
 
:lol: i dont love them that much unless you can class the puddle as thier pool . dad decided to buy one for my mum for her 50th we have changed the design of them twice in 13 yeras and it barely gets used to me its a waste but they want one :-)05
 
To conserve water-All you need to do is get a water meter and then you try to save as much of the stuff as you possibly can.

I am also a keen gardener and grow some veg. I also have 12 water butts to catch rain water but with all the Veg to water- I can use 4 of them in one week.
We also have an above ground swimming pool that occasionally has to be drained of some water due to the "Sudden" storms that will prevail. This water has chemicals in it- (Chlorine) so the draining of the pool will go into butts for the flower beds but is not used for a couple of weeks to decontaminate the water.
In the day time we have a bowl in the sink (Also have a dishwasher) and it is surprising how much water is wasted in the course of a day and we will use this water on the Flowers again.
With a bit of thought you can --I won't say "Save" water--but you can use all the wter possible where it is going to be useful and not pour it down the sink.

But the best aid is the water meter.
 
Just been to Aldi. 210 Litre Ward water butts with diverter kit, stand and a FULL FLOW tap -£ 29.95.

This is a bargain and we've bought two, as that's all we could get in the car. We already have one of these and they are a good quality item. The full flow tap is a real bonus and I have been unable to buy them separately. If anyone has a supplier please let me know ! For extra stability you can fill the three base sections with concrete, which stops the plastic stand softening in the heat (that it looks like we will be getting).
 
How many chickens can we get in a 210 litre barrel do you think Marigold?

24 degrees over there at the moment. Lake is 13 degrees. Tomatoes in already! Have room for an allotment area for us as well which we can clear over Winter, plant in Spring and harvest in August -fantastic!
 
That does sound like a good buy. Good tip about the concrete too.
 
Heard today that water butt prices have risen. Seems the demand is there so prices go up.

Just retired but I was in the Truck trade. Several of the Chemicals for trucks are delivered in 205 litre plastic Barrels. One of those Chemicals is something called "Add Blue" Won't tell you what it is but it is a completely inert liquid after you have rinsed the barrel. Modern trucks use a lot of this and the barrels are non- returnable. If you know of a transport company with modern vehicles they will have plenty of these barrels just waiting for someone to take them away. Cut the top off and use it as the lid and instant water butt for a shed. Downside is the barrels are Blue in color.
 
To late for water buts-the rain has gone now and it won't rain for a while,so how do you want to fill this with water?I have around 1000l saved from winter months but in dry whether this will go in a week.I had made inquiry to fit huge water tank under the ground(driveway) for 5000l but this cost at least £5000+maitnance-but you can use this water for flushing toilets and washing machine.A well drilled will set you back around £8000.This are prices from last year.They are smart version of water buts to fit in to the narrowest places or under the decking but this has its own price tag.Check this out I would love to have a row of this on the side of my house. http://rainwaterhog.com/case-studies/01-glenmore-rd-ps/
 
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