I LOVE horizontal nipples, but I give up.

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weirdlywired

weirdlywired

In the Brooder
May 10, 2016
45
9
39
Bellevue NE
My Coop
My Coop
In our multiple attempts to get our girls set up with a non-frozen food and water for the winter, I found horizontal nipples on a thread here, and they work great! The only problem is the chickens WILL NOT drink from them! They had been using vertical ones, but they leaked.
For several days they were getting their water from the fermented feed I was giving them twice a day (in a heated dog bowl with extra moisture to keep it from drying out). Once we realized they weren't drinking from the new water bucket, I tried numerous times to show them how to use it, even getting them to peck on them, but they just wouldn't drink from it!
idunno.gif


So there hangs the bucket they won't use and I went and bought another heated bowl so they have one for food and one for water...

Has anyone else had problems getting their girls to use the horizontal after using the vertical? So frustrating!!! Is there any point to leaving it in there, hoping they'll come around?
 
I don't have an answer for you but I'm also keenly interested in this-

My adult hens use the horizontal nipples. I also switched them from vertical as they were leaking. They had no issues at all, made the switch without any issues.

That said, I have 4 new baby chicks about 3 weeks old and they WILL NOT use them. I set them up with nice little waterer in their brooder and they're having no part of it. If I peck it with my finger they'll come over and drink the water but nobody will peck it for themselves. So irritating. The other waterer is constantly full of pine shavings.

Interested to see what advice you get.
 
Ugh!!! Why do they have to be so difficult???!!?? I can't believe the lengths I go to just to get my girls water. My 2 bantams switched to the horizontal nipples no problem but the biggies are making me nuts. Heated dog bowl for backup.
 
Ern... I don't have freezing water problem since I only have 2 seasons here, dry and wet.

I'll try to give my opinion regarding those horizontal nipples, I believe it's only habit problem, they haven't get used to it.

How long have you tried using those horizontal nipples?

If it's just few days, it may not work, they're not extremely smart fellow right?

May I suggest you a tougher way? Try to avoid juicy/wet food or just give them dry food. If they feel thirsty, they'll try hard to find out where the water is and here you can teach them by dipping their beak to the nipples and they could learn from it. I used to teach my flocks where to eat/drink this way. I hope it work.
 
I put a grain of corn in the trough of the nipple. When they grabbed the grain, water came out and, voila! they were drinking. All it takes is one, the rest will copy. If they let you handle them, you could pick one up and peck her beak into the nipple and that would also work.
 
mulia24 said:
May I suggest you a tougher way? Try to avoid juicy/wet food or just give them dry food. If they feel thirsty, they'll try hard to find out where the water is and here you can teach them by dipping their beak to the nipples and they could learn from it. I used to teach my flocks where to eat/drink this way. I hope it work.
Click to expand...
This went on close to a week and I did start making their FF drier hoping to force them to the water but then they started being aggressive to one another and our eggs completely stopped. It was keeping me up at night and I was terrified to go out and find one had died due to dehydration.
 
trudyg said:
I put a grain of corn in the trough of the nipple. When they grabbed the grain, water came out and, voila! they were drinking. All it takes is one, the rest will copy. If they let you handle them, you could pick one up and peck her beak into the nipple and that would also work.
Click to expand...
I tried this with some scratch several times - a few would do it and one would then stand and take a few drinks but as soon as I stopped, they were looking at me, waiting for more scratch!
Essentially, they trained me for a couple of days to hand feed them scratch from the nipples!
lol.png
 
weirdlywired said:
In our multiple attempts to get our girls set up with a non-frozen food and water for the winter, I found horizontal nipples on a thread here, and they work great! The only problem is the chickens WILL NOT drink from them! They had been using vertical ones, but they leaked.
For several days they were getting their water from the fermented feed I was giving them twice a day (in a heated dog bowl with extra moisture to keep it from drying out). Once we realized they weren't drinking from the new water bucket, I tried numerous times to show them how to use it, even getting them to peck on them, but they just wouldn't drink from it!
idunno.gif


So there hangs the bucket they won't use and I went and bought another heated bowl so they have one for food and one for water...

Has anyone else had problems getting their girls to use the horizontal after using the vertical? So frustrating!!! Is there any point to leaving it in there, hoping they'll come around?
Click to expand...
Yes......I had two nipple water Buckets.......I was so excited to hang them up and have the Birds using them.....No way.....They would peck if I touched the thing....No go! Silly Birds........I gave up and they still drink from the regular water bowls.........

I gave them to a friend and their Birds use them......
idunno.gif




Cheers!
 
chickens really said:
Yes......I had two nipple water Buckets.......I was so excited to hang them up and have the Birds using them.....No way.....They would peck if I touched the thing....No go! Silly Birds........I gave up and they still drink from the regular water bowls.........

I gave them to a friend and their Birds use them......
idunno.gif




Cheers!
Click to expand...
We must have ruined at least three other buckets (and TONS of caulking - the hubby kept forgetting about the need for a vacuum and would try to fix it LOL) and tried ten other vertical styles, hoping it was an individual nipple problem... Nope, just a stubborn chicken problem!
 

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