Water nipples

[Toastyone]

Has anyone ever used the water nipples in a bucket to water their birds? I haven't ever seen them before but they look like a brilliant way to keep their water clean. My worry is the birds won't know how to get the water, do you have to train them to use them? And if so how do I go about setting it up for my birds once they're old enough to move out of the brooder.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

They are brilliant. There are both vertical (underside of bucket) and horizontal (side of bucket).
If the nipple is at eye level, they can't help but pick at them so they'll quickly train themselves and others.
You need to remove other water sources to force them to use them.

After a day or 2, put a fount in there to see if they seem dying of thirst.

 

[Toastyone]

That is awesome! Chickens and water just seem to always be a big dirty mess. The last chickens I had I scrubbed their waterer everyday and by the next day they had it full of mud again. I'm pretty excited about having a closed container with nipples keeping their water fresh and clean

 

[Mommahiggy]

We switched to nipples when the birds were still small, to keep the water cleaner.

We also have adapted it with a warming system that works well enough. We bring it in on super cold nights.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

That is awesome! Chickens and water just seem to always be a big dirty mess. The last chickens I had I scrubbed their waterer everyday and by the next day they had it full of mud again. I'm pretty excited about having a closed container with nipples keeping their water fresh and clean

The key to keeping water founts cleaner is to elevate them so the rim is at the level of the birds' backs. That way they can't easily scratch stuff into the water. I like hanging water founts or otherwise put them up on bricks/blocks.
For chicks, I put several bricks into the brooder, then a piece of plywood on that so they have to jump up onto the wood to get to the water, that makes it much less likely they'll scratch bedding into it.

 

[Toastyone]

My girls were always exceptional diggers, their waterer was elevated but it didn't make a difference lol. I'm excited about the water nipples though, then they can have a closed unit waterer

 

[digbychris]

I could never get my girls to use them. I had 2 buckets with the nipples underneath, suspended at what I thought would be a good height, but after a couple days of the water level never changing I gave up and put their water pans back in as well as the buckets with nipples. took the pans away and still no drinking. What makes it worse is that I have a duck that likes to sit/swim in one of the water pans. gross. I'll try again and perhaps this time do them horizontally.

 

[45pro]

Do they catch ALL the water coming out of the nipples? I just recently created a waterer for my brooder with cups to start training them on that. Then I can add a tube on top when it' time to transfer to the coop. I would have liked the nipples but I didn' want a waterer inside the coop in winter that is going to drip on the ground and freeze and create moisture in the coop. So do they catch 100%?

This is what I came up with for now. It will hold 1 gallon of water.