The Chicken Fountain can be installed easily and will provide continuous, clean water for poultry.
Farmer Veteran Coalition is excited to announce a partnership with The Chicken Fountain, an online retailer that sells automatic waterers for poultry.
This is the second go-round for the North Carolina company, said Laura Cardaropoli, who started the business with her husband Frank in 2012.
“We were in business until early 2018, when we sold our farm and closed the business,” she said. “It was a situation where Frank went back into consulting and was traveling a ton. I made the decision to teach so I could be more involved in our boys’ lives, be on their schedule, and I wouldn’t change a thing. We reopened in late 2023.”
The device connects to a standard garden hose to provide a constant source of cool, clean water anytime for chickens. It comes in Original, Mini or Mega sizes depending on the number of chickens or other poultry.
Laura added that they are thrilled to be back in operation and will unveil an upgraded model soon.
“We’re so excited to be back!” she said. “We saw the impact that The Chicken Fountain had in our community back in 2012. We’ve seen others try to do what we do. Our product has outlasted the followers, and we can’t wait for everyone to see our new model!”
The idea for The Chicken Fountain came about as a better and easier way to care for their backyard chickens. As noted on the company website (mychickenfountain.com), they hated having to clean and refill water bowls, especially in summer when the bowls would become contaminated with feathers, droppings and bugs.
They looked into how to automate that chore.
“It was a pretty solid seven, eight months of testing different setups and valves,” she said, “and also getting the dripper rate to that which would be sufficient for the birds without making a huge mess.”
Overcoming Obstacles
The biggest challenge, she said, was “finding the right setup for all of the things we were trying to target: the autofill; finding the right valve; keeping the birds’ line of sight open for lower stress levels; arm diameter; flow rate for the drippers; length and width of the (PVC) parts of the Fountain.”
Making it durable and able to work in various weather conditions was important as well, she said.
“The durability was a huge concern,” she said. “We knew we couldn’t keep the water from freezing, but we wanted a product that could be winterized in a pretty easy and accessible way.”
Response to The Chicken Fountain has been great, she added.
“We’re working on awareness, but once they find us, they love the product,” Laura said. “We have a less than 1% return rate. Awareness is a long road, but we’re making progress!”
Chickens drink from the drip nozzles on The Chicken Fountain, which comes in three sizes to accommodate the number of birds a farmer has.
New Model Coming
Soon she and Lyndsey, their first full-time employee and social media director, will be promoting their upgraded model.
“We’re excited!” Laura said. “It will be our first manufactured model. Molds are almost ready, and they will be made in the USA.
“Our new valve is patent-pending and will work with lower pressure (such as a rain barrel) or higher-pressure water sources (a home garden hose), from about 2 to 150 PSI. The Fountain itself is also totally redesigned.”
Among the changes is a wall clip instead of hooks and a flat back to make it easier to install. Current models require PVC glue for the arms; the new model’s arms will snap on and off for easy cleaning.
“They will also come standard with our copper inserts, which will help with dripper freezing and will add some antibacterial properties,” Laura said. “We invented and patented those back in the beginning of The Chicken Fountain.”
The Chicken Fountain is offering a 25% discount on its products to FVC members. To receive this code, reach out to support@farmvetco.org.
To learn more, visit https://mychickenfountain.com/
