My Kennels....

[KevinO.]

Still a work in progress.  I have 7 kennels that are 5ft x 12ft.  Each kennel has its own automatic waterer in it.  I have three kennels that are totally enclosed for the climbers and the other side is only 5ft high.  Full roof over head but should have extended it out over the pad about 4 foot on each side.  I plan on extending the concrete pad out 4 more feet all the way around and then I plan on putting each barrel on the outside of the kennel to give them a little more room and make it easier to wash down.  I have a washout drain on each side which falls into a 4 inch PVC pipe that runs about 50 yards out behind the kennel into a ditch.

Anyway, just some ideas for those that are in the process of building kennels.  If I had it to do over I would have put curbs between each kennel to make it easier to wash down....other than that they work good for me.

[Cristina]

Thats exactly the way I want to build our new kennels. They look good.

[matt_aggie04]

Looks gret Kevin, that design is what I wanted to do but it just want going to work for me where I built mine. I think you will be pleased and the dogs I'll enjoy it espcially in a blowing rain. Nice having a dry place to get when you want to feed em to.

[Bryant]

Looks good.  Do you have a master valve somewhere that will shut off the water supply to all the pipes that come up from the slab?  I would be concerned about those busting whenever it freezes.  How long have you been using the lickers?  I thought real hard about using those in my pens, but was concerned about leaks.

[HIGHWATER KENNELS]

Good set up man, a good hog dog is worth it though...

[GOODEN]

That's a nice setup. I hope to start on mine soon.

[KevinO.]

Thanks everyone. 

Bryant, yes I have a master shutoff.  I can drain the water out of the pipes coming out of the slab in the winter but still have my hydrant to wash the kennels down.  I live in Oklahoma so I shut them off "hopefully" before the first hard freeze and leave them off all winter.  I sloped all the PVC under my slab toward the shutoff so that all the water can drain.  I still buried the PVC 18 inches under the slab just in case.  I've been using this for a year now and it seems to be working fine. 

I do worry about it freezing and/or leaking but the convenience of not having to water every day or clean out green water bowls outweighs my worries.  IF one bust or starts leaking I'll just unscrew the metal pipe coming out of the slab and pour some quick create down the hole and move on down the road. 

[Bryant]

Sounds like you thought it through.  In reference to the leaks, I was talking about the lickers you have on the ends.  Have those worked pretty well?  Did the dogs figure out quickly how to get water from them?

[KevinO.]

They figure it out real quick when it's 100 degrees outside.    In all seriousness yes they do figure it out pretty quick.  When I first put the dogs in the kennels I left the lickers "loose" so they would drip about every 3 or 4 seconds.  I removed all water bowls from the kennels and they eventually got thirsty and started licking the drip.  In turn they would touch the nozzle and get a mouth full of cool fresh water.    Once they got it I tightened them up.  I have teflon tape (more than I needed) around each one and haven't had a problem with leaks.....yet.

I really wanted to attach a cast iron water bowl to each kennel similar to the one in this link...
 https://www.teksupply.com/farm/supplies/prod;11054;ts1_farming_industry-ts1_livestock_watering_equipment_1-ts1_watering_bowls_4;pgwd1090_WD1110.html

I think if you wanted to incorporate an automatic water system after the fact in your kennels you could run metal pipe somewhere along the top of the kennels or along the back, stub it up and attach the cast iron bowl (just do a search for auto waterer or horse waterer). 

I figured some dog, either now or in the future would figure out a way to tear up the float so I decided to go the cheap rout.  Or they would dig in it and splash water all day.

KO 

[Bryant]

I did mine similar to what your talking about...running water pipe above the framework with a stub down for each pen that basically sprays into a bucket.  The whole system is run by an irrigation system timer and comes on automatically for one minute each day.  I still have to rinse and wash the buckets out about once a week.  I figured I might have problems, but suprisingly no dogs have chewed any of the pipe or buckets to speak of.  I've just had issues with some male dogs who like to tinkle in their bucket.

I really like the lickers and still might consider those in the future.