MacPara
In the Brooder
- Apr 21, 2017
- 12
- 1
- 24
As so many I was trying to find a better and cleaner way of providing water to my 1-2 week olds. I was using an inverted water bottle with a nipple in the cap of the water bottle (I tried the horizontal nipple first but the little ones did have enough force to overcome the spring load on the metal piece in the nipple), so it's a vertical nipple needing very little force to release a drop of water.
I noticed though that the day old chicks were pecking a lot on the nipple as if they were not getting out much or any water. What I found was that the nipple works good when you just inverted the bottle but as the water level gets a bit lower the vacuum in the bottle will restrain the flow and a brief, weak peck from the day old chicks was not enough to allow air to get into the bottle to break the vacuum.
So I decided to poke a small hole in the bottom of the bottle to allow air to come in. Well, that did resolve the issue with the vacuum but also created another one. The chisk are still pecking a lot on the nipple but they should get enough water out of it as now I am seeing wet spots under each bottle and the bedding is soaked. Is this because they are just playing with the nipple and they might eventually lose interest in pecking it for fun or do I need to come up with a better solution to avoid the bedding getting soaked (and having to refill the bottles every day)?
I noticed though that the day old chicks were pecking a lot on the nipple as if they were not getting out much or any water. What I found was that the nipple works good when you just inverted the bottle but as the water level gets a bit lower the vacuum in the bottle will restrain the flow and a brief, weak peck from the day old chicks was not enough to allow air to get into the bottle to break the vacuum.
So I decided to poke a small hole in the bottom of the bottle to allow air to come in. Well, that did resolve the issue with the vacuum but also created another one. The chisk are still pecking a lot on the nipple but they should get enough water out of it as now I am seeing wet spots under each bottle and the bedding is soaked. Is this because they are just playing with the nipple and they might eventually lose interest in pecking it for fun or do I need to come up with a better solution to avoid the bedding getting soaked (and having to refill the bottles every day)?