Chicken Coop Rainwater Harvesting System - How to 

8 years later...I run across this!!! ANOTHER SWEET setup!11

Thank you for sharing. My husband and I love your videos and ideas. Chicken coop, water harvesting, and greenhouse envy here. Hope to have these incorporated over next couple of years. Great job!!!

I feel good knowing the good people like you, Wranglerstar, Doug & Stacy... will survive and repopulate the earth after 'we' kill it off. Godspeed.

Not sure if I'd've ever thought to use the roofing flashing, that's pretty ingenious! Great system, looks like you'll get some great use out of that. Now I'm thinking of adding some rainwater collection to my coop which isn't quite finished yet.

Wow that is a great idea to use the flashing as the gutter. Thanks for the great idea!

This gave me so many good ideas! I'm trying to set up a similar system on our new coop but we bought a commercial gutter. I could see the pipe being a better option for keeping debris out. Thank you for the ideas!

duuuuuude sick coop setup. I love it. everything's so clean

This is genius! Right down to the coop sized gutter system! Totally awesome.

Fantastic system. Would have liked to see how it gets to the chickens. 😄💯👍🐞🌹🦂🌵

This is great!! I have been trying to think of a way I could catch the water without having to put in spouting. This is perfect... thanks so much for sharing 😊

Great setup! Only thing I would suggest is adding screen to where the water enters the piping. Adding screening there could keep out debris but more importantly maybe mice or small critters that could get stuck in pipes and ruin water. Just a thought. 2 more cups like you have going int main barrel would be perfect. Love what you have done, Good Luck, Vinny

Great work Joe, you take homesteading to a whole new level. Keep up the good work.

My coop is about 10 feet wide and has a metal roof like yours. This is the best video I have seen for my setup. I didn’t want a huge vinyl gutter or pvc. It would look goof on my coop.

Very nice!..Knew it would be. I love that you repurpose materials. I think about that when I go to the hardware store, or thrift shop. I don't care what it is, but what can I do with it...that's the question! I like whatever is under my control to be happy. I am obligated to anything I take on. My chickens make happy sounds, that makes me happy. I was thinking about making my chickens their own garden. Let them into small sections at a time, as it matures. I know they'd decimate it, but that is the point.

Rubberband and a piece of screen over your intakes. You probably have already done it. Very nice and attractive looking system. Smart set up. I am working on one and will upload eventually. Thanks for sharing.

Awesome, just what I needed right now! Thank you!

Never thought about doing that. Thanks for the info from Lockhart TEXAS

Great system collecting water.

Nice project, very simple

I'm totally doing this setup ! I'll just need to ensure the rain barrel is high enough to be ABOVE where I'll mount the waterers, but concerned about the height of my roofline where the "flashing" gutters will be. Hoping the the hight differential will be correct for downhill flow from gutters to collection. Freakin' sweet Bro!

Nice and simple, looks great. Thanks for sharing.

We had a similar system on our house when i was growing up, but we had a 4' pipe with a sock on the end of it to catch most of the debris.

You should cover every opening to prevent mosquitoes out. You might want to consider making the catch larger so when it rains hard the water doesn't shoot past the drain opening.

Good stuff, I'd put screens on the water inlets that receive the water also. Nice job brother

You are brilliant mate!

Smart alternative material for gutters.

Great system and so simple.

Excellent design well executed In E TN I'd need an overflow and a finer top screen to prevent mosquitoes from laying in it Can you give us a 3-yr report on how well you like it now?

Great idea.. putting some mesh on the inlet of collection point might save u from cleaning clog pipe. Great idea anyway 👍🏻

Wonderful n brilliant idea

Looks good!

Great System!

simple system - I like it

Great job thanks for sharing God bless buddy

Ugh finally ;-). Glad to see this up and functioning properly.

So cool ☺️

Channel is better than Living Traditions Homestead by a long shot!!!!

I like that!!!!!

Brilliant Idea.

I’ve been wanting to do this setup for a year and finally going to do it this weekend. Boss gave me a barrel so I just need a few things like PVC and the cup drinkers. But I have a few ducks that keep fucking up my water. May need to adapt another mod for them as they are more trouble than they are worth 😒 thinking an automatic dog bowl with a float and some drainage below with stone and a pipe as they are some nasty mess making critters. Well done

Verry good ...

Buen sistema saludos desde Dallas Texas !)

Just catching your design now 2018 - how has your system held up over the past couple of years and how does it handle BIG rains...the 1-1/2" gutter seems small. Otherwise, you've given me an easy workable idea for my chickens that I can do...Thanks!

Great idea, we learn from you thank you .

That is definitely a badass design, but what drives me crazy about it is I'd have to put up some sort of a gutter guard ,& a dirt trap on both pipes where the water drop off the gutters, & screen on both of them, but otherwise, hats a badass system, it's the bro.💣👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Nice work. Got a lot of ideas for our coop build this spring.

Looks good and perfect timing. Hope it worked, I know we got his with some heavy storms the last few days. At lease, in Northern AZ did.

good idea

Wow...I didn't even get started yet but I know I HAVE to have one of those!!! Great work...Continued Blessings....Just subscribed and off to watch more of ur vids...Me and the hubby (well just me really) are "handy" challenged but you explain it well!...soooo now I just have to get him to watch a video (or 10) so he knows what I want when I'm ready; I won't even attempt to tell him what you just did!!

Neat job...

Its nice clean water from the hose but with trees over it you are going to want to set in layer of garden cover inside the cup. The screen will stop big stuff, but a lot will get through those large gaps. I known from experience.

awesome!

Good job water drums

This is the same thing my dad had growing up in Puerto Rico. The gutters around his house all funneled into some barrels with a fine cloth over each one.

Pure Genius!

Excellent work! I honestly thought the water would be dirty and brown from the dust that naturally collects on roofs. Your water was very clear and clean. I will definitely do this, although, I think my 55 gallon drum will freeze solid in the winter.

well done...

Is the roof flashing available at home depot? I have a 22' metal roof awning off of my garage that I am wanting to set up for rain collection for my garden. Any links would be appreciated. Thanks and awesome video.

Thumbs up 👍

Hay quá cảm ơn bạn

nice system. how does that gutter hold up to heavy rain? do you see a lot of loss over the edges with it being so small? or with the smaller roof, does it seem adequate?

thank u

Do you ever need to fill up the tank or do just let it fill up and not have to worry about changing water? I'd love to have a system where I never needed to worry about my chooks water. You've really inspired me

Sweet!

One thing that NO-ONE ever addresses about water collection - and that is the development of Legionnaire's Disease which happens in water collection vessels. My husband worked as a Facilities Manager for various buildings and this was a continual issue. You MUST pay attention to this. The only way to safeguard against this is to have two tanks, which you can fill up and/or use, alternating between them. This way you can empty one and clean it property and at regular intervals, and use the other while you are doing it, or just use one and clean it regularly. Another thing I would do here is to put some plants around the tank to provide shade and reduce evaporation.

How to prevent litter choking the two gutter inlets...thanks for the great video

good idea the only problem I see is if you get very heavy rain that piece of flashing isn't going to expel the water fast enough and you're probably end up getting water up under your Roofing backing up just letting you know other than that good job

Great Video. Did you add an incline to the flashing so that it would run to the back of the coop? Also, is see in the video that there is an end cap on the other side of the flashing. Did you make that? is it caulked? How is it attached? thank you for all of your great content. Uriel from Houston Texas.

Great

Brilliant! I am just waiting on my coop and I will have my very own backyard chickens! I am definitely going to do this! Great video. 👍

Could you attach gutter screens to roof & then attach roof flashing? That way screens would keep flashing from dipping in heavy rain. Weight of screens would be supporte by the roof.

This is really great! But I do have some thoughts... first, how would you ever clean the pvc out? Plastic always gets stinky, slimy, and green or brown over a short time. My plastic waterers have to be cleaned with soap every 2 days. Also, collecting rain water also means collecting all the air-borne particles in the sky (i.e. chemtrails, pollutants, etc).. is it even really safe to drink it without filtering it? Otherwise, awesome design!!

What is the reason for the gap between the gutter and the downpipe, with a good down pour most of the water would over shoot the downpipe.

Nice job. Where did you get the cover for the drum?

Is this chicken coop roof made of Galvanized sheets? If yes, will the zinc be leaching into the water, immediately or over a period of time? I mean will that water be fit for human & livestock consumption, besides agricultural in long run. Thank you for your time and consideration. You guys are going a wonderful job. Thanks from INDIA🙏

nice system. have you had a change to see its performance under a heavy rain fall yet? Just wondering if it overshoots the pipe with more water flow.

Excellent, Joe. Have you considered also adding steel mesh to the tops of the PVC openings to capture debris that is coming off the roof and getting clogged in the pipe? Or, is it easy enough to flush out?

Looks awesome. Are the gutters and piping large enough to handle all of the water in a rain storm?

Best small less expensive n convenient...

Where did you get the 55 gallon drum from? How much did you pay for it? Thanks!

Nice! Most systems I have seen have a very fine mesh on the opening to keep the mosquitoes out as well. Think your mesh is small enough for that? Hard to tell from the video. Cheers!

How do you deal with the water freezing during the winter months?

New sub! You have great solutions. very nice video.. thanks for posting :)

Question for the water barrel. Is this system safe for the chickens ?How often do you have to clean barrel from algae build up ? Or does it not have time to build up. I am from florida and use 5 gallon water buckets with chicken nipples. So I feel my buckets once a week. Would love to have this system but was just curious about how safe it is for the birds. Thanks

nice

Nice. Did you decide against a first flush diverter? I know chickens prefer to drink the dirtiest water they can find but I wonder if the dirt and wild bird poop coming off the roof and sitting in the tank is a potential problem.

it's good so piers don't rot out. wet forest. chickens walking in muck

I'm assuming the solar panel runs the lights and possibly a fan inside??

Do you have any kind of overflow for when the barrel is full, or do you just let it run over the top of the barrel onto the ground?

I'm guessing you were a rather big fan of Habitrail environments for your little critters as a kid. 🐹🐭

try adding a y strainer.it collects the unwanted material and can b easily cleaned once a week.

Can you give me a link to the roof flashing used? I'm having a really difficult time finding exactly what you used

looks good but what about an overflow for the barrel and how does the barrel supply water to the chickens?

after two years of having them would you stay with the 1 inch? or go bigger? we get alot of rain and part of me is worried that it won't move the water quick enough.

Could it overflow?

you should put some activated carbon in the yellow mesh so it can act as a water filter

Very nice. Every little bit helps. Did you think about using a flush or not enough rain? Some of those Baja hurricanes will help fill the barrel. Bear Down!

Would this system still be functional with a 125 gallon ibc tank instead of the blue barrel? I was just gifted one and now I am looking for something to do with it

How did the flashing holdup in some of your heavy downpours?

Hello and nice video.. I was wonder what kind of netting is that over your chicken coop?