At our bee meeting last Monday I saw an example of a waterer. The fellow drilled 4 evenly spaced 1/2" holes near the top of a 5 gallon bucket. He then inserted two pieces of 1/2" nylon rope through the holes and left about 6" stick out. He said nylon worked well because it didn't decompose. The rope went to the bottom of the bucket to get all of the water out. He said you did get drips at the end of each piece. He said he liked to keep a top on to keep birds from using it as a bath. I thought that would work well in the desert.