Talk:Tutorial/Automatic Chicken Egg Farm/@comment-70.24.207.206-20121127002934/@comment-5794899-20121127064644

The water is completely unnecessary with an obsidian pipe. If you go to the page you can see that the pipe has a decent pull range.

A third option is rather expensive but it works the best. Make a normal chicken pen and leave an alchemical chest in the center or as part of the fence (be sure to put a block above it as it doesn't keep chickens in on its own) with a black-hole band in it.