Chicken Waterer - Issues again

Michael and I made a homemade waterer a few weeks ago when we first got the chicks. It works perfectly when sitting on the ground as it is now {crowbar uses it}, but when we sit it in our coop it would leak all the water out because the coop is not level. We made another to hang, but evidently our screw wasn't in the exact center and it didn't work out either. So finally, Daddy loaned us one he had years ago when he was raising chickens and we are still having issues.

Our first issue: the chickens had been getting the wood chips into the waterer and they were soaking up what water that was in the reservoir. The second issue: once the reservoir is below where the hole is, it is suppose to let more water out. It didn't.

Michael said the water wasn't filling the reservoir was because I had the whole turned too far one direction. So last night I turned it the total opposite direction and when I came out the whole waterer was bone dry. All the water ran out.

Today I tried to put it in between where I had it at first and where I had it last night. Hopefully it works.

Michael and I found some sort of step made out of wood under the storage building. I have no idea what my brother used it for, but I put it in with the chickens and sat the water on top. So far it keeping the wood chips out of the reservoir. That is one battle down.. now to figure out how to put the waterer so water comes out when it should and stops when it should.

Here is the step and the waterer. You can see it is wet where all the water ran out.

A couple of the girls wanted to know what I was doing.

Then foghorn joined in.

Eventually they were all trying to figure it out. Thankfully, didn't seem to mind the step up.

While I was out there trying to sort out the issues with the chicks, I stopped by to see how Crowbar was. His personality is so different from the others. He is WILD and jumpy. He does appear to be a little healthier.

I think we will figure this all out eventually, right?