AgLA06 said:

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Why'd you go to a bigger drink tank? Seems you'd lose more water to evaporation the bigger surface area you have.

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The small pan was getting dirty too quick and it was hard to keep the goats from f-ing up the rocks that were in it to make shallow spots for birds to use it. Also, I think the shallow pan heated up more easily in the hot part of the summer and evaporated almost as fast. The deeper tub takes advantage of the cooler temps of the deeper soil to keep some of the water cooler. We have only seen a small difference in how fast the water in the tote is getting used. I think we added a total of about 150 gallons to the tote in 2025 despite mostly hot and dry conditions for most of the summer.

We have goats using it nearly every day, deer using it at dusk, dawn, and overnight, foxes, armadillos, and racoons at night. We have turkeys there from time to time and other birds quite often, but the camera is not sensitive enough to capture the birds for the most part unless it is something large like a WWDO. I have been relatively surprised how efficient it is at capturing water and self sustaining.

I expect the moving water on the one we are planning to put in later this spring will evaporate a lot faster, so we are going to build a larger rain catching roof and use a 1000 gallon tank to feed it. It will have a tub with a lid sunk into the ground with a float valve feeding it from the tank, and then a solar pump moving water over some rocks and down into a couple of shallow pools on top of the tub lid. We will put a few holes in the tub lid to allow the water to recirculate back into the tub under the lid. Havent decided on the size or pump selection yet, but that is the basic idea I have in mind.