Randy, I had the same problem with the well at my farm.

The house had been my Grandmother's and she used very little water in the many years she lived there.

When I talked to the local well driller about drilling a new well he told me to try pumping it first. He went on to explain that it takes a while for the water flowing to clear passges through the ground to allow better flow rates, and that pumping water at the maximum the well can supply it for a short while would improve the flow rates by flushing the aquifer and creating those passages.

Taking his advise I made up a pump rig consisting of a submersible utility pump with a float switch top and bottom, when the water level reached the top switch the pump when on, and when the water got down to the bottom switch it went back off. I ran the pump that way for two or three days. After that the well driller brought his service rig in and test pumped it, it was by then flowing above 10 gpm.

Sometimes wells that aren't used much can silt up, rocking them often helps with this. Basically it stirs up the sediment so it can be pumped out. They put a plunger in the well, usually a device called a bailer, it is a pipe with a one way valve in the bottom, as they lower it into the well it fills with water, this creates a small amount of back pressure causing a bit of water to flow out of the well, then as they rapidly lift it back out the well a suction develops beyond the normal flow rate, this causes the sediment to flow into the well to be pulled out on the next run of the bailer.

I've also heard of people just using an ir compressor to put a small head of air on the well to cause the water to flow back out, then release it and repeat. A lot of farmers around here do this to re-activate slow wells.

Best of luck.

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