Well...I did some research...I know, the story of my life. Everything starts with research, and when I tell P I'm doing or have done research, she slaps her hand to her forehead.
I've mentioned to quite a few friends about my grand plan for the chicken roof and the rain barrels. One of them mentioned concern about the galvanized roof releasing zinc into the water I intend for the chicken's to drink.
So I spent a whole day looking up the safety of drinking water from rain barrels. Who thought drinking rain water could be dangerous? Isn't all water really rain water? Here is what I found... Drinking rain water from any roof surface is not recommended. The whole water conservation rain barrel thing is for the intent of watering your garden or your lawn...not yourself or animals. There were tons of conflicting articles about water off of galvanized roofs also. I know you are all just thinking that it's water for chickens....what's the big deal? Well, I am selling their eggs...and I don't want to be responsible for deformed future generations!
So I contacted the local water department, and they directed me toward the local lab to discuss my situation and what exactly I should test for. She cautioned me that if I test for water drinkability, (like a well test) that it costs quite a lot of money and if there is any chlorophorm in the water at all, (which there probably would be in rain water,) the test would fail. Now if all I tested for was zinc and copper to assure all the chickens were getting just rain water, then it would only be a small amount of money. So that's my plan...the chickens haven't been able to drink any of the rain water, and we are still hauling it in buckets. When I can verify they would be getting no zinc or copper contamination from the roof, then I will continue with the rain barrels. For now we are just throwing the buckets of water off into the woods. :(
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment